Midtown Lunch

Most of the Chinese food options in the Financial District average about $7 or $8 for a lunch special. China 59 on Nassau St. (btw Maiden Lane & John St.) pegs theirs at $9 which gets you something from a list of mostly Americanized Chinese food, pork fried rice, and an egg roll. I wondered if it was worth walking down the wide staircase to the basement restaurant for lunch. To my surprise, little touches made the couple of extra dollars spent seem worth it. 

Most of the standards are on the combo menu here: General Tso’s chicken, sesame beef, and the one I ended up ordering, kung pao chicken. My $9 also got me a large amount of pork fried rice (although you can get white rice instead) and a fat egg roll.

The dark meat chunks of chicken were flavorful, although not particularly spicy and were sautéed with celery, carrots and peanuts. The surprise highlight of the meal was that egg roll that was greasy in a good way and not all dried out, as is usually the case, and was mostly full of sautéed cabbage with little pork. The fried rice, on the other hand, was peppered with chunks of roast pork that were delicious.

It’s hard to tell from a single dish but I felt like the quality of my food was good enough at China 59 to justify the $1 or $2 extra I paid for lunch.

China 59, 59 Nassau St. (btw Maiden Lane & John St.), (212) 732-9250