Midtown Lunch

When I last ate at Oriental Express on Cedar St. (btw. William & Pearl) I went straight for the buffet rather than dealing with the crowd of people at the back counter where you get things from a steam table or order off the menu and have something cooked to order. There were some hits and misses with the buffet but it became pretty clear that if it’s junky Chinese food you want, it’s probably best to just order from the menu rather than grabbing little bits of things and worrying about how much rice you can afford to pile on. The good thing about the huge mass of people in the back is that even the food on the steam table won’t be sitting around for long.

On the advice of the one of the commentors on my review of the buffet, I went with the chicken and eggplant in garlic sauce over pork fried rice ($6.25) which was a solid choice. Unless you’ve studied the menu beforehand or are a regular, the number of options is overwhelming and smattered all over the wall on several pieces of paper with various sizes of font.

I was impressed with the amount of chicken and eggplant I got, and once I started eating it, was surprised by the quality of the vegetables. There were whole mushrooms going on, and a ton of eggplant. The chicken wasn’t dry and the sauce did a nice job of soaking into the fried rice below. I found it odd that the only two choices were brown rice or fried rice, and in retrospect I should have gone for the plainer option. That being said, this was some really tasty fried rice complete with bright red roast pork chunks which also benefited from a high turnover rate on the steam table.

If you go during prime lunch time beware that the back counter is utter mayhem, but just jump in line and go with it.

Oriental Express, 32 Cedar St. (btw. William & Pearl), (212) 797-9477