Midtown Lunch

I’ve passed by Wong Wong a million times without thinking much about it. I needed a quick lunch in Chinatown and wanted to go somewhere I have never been before. Wong Wong advertised lunch specials, so I went in.

All lunch specials are $5.95 and come with a soup. The 2 wontons in the wonton soup are massive and bland, but I liked the scallion and single piece of green vegetable. The hot and sour soup, though corn starch laden,  was spicy and had a lot of tofu and mushroom in it.

The 2 page list of lunch specials is pretty cool considering many places give you a choice of only a few things. It does make your decision harder. The majority of the menu is served over rice.

Shredded duck in mango was actually served inside a halved mango skin. The duck meat was not bad, but the skin was slimy and had to be picked off.

I was thinking the honey walnut chicken would be crispy pieces of chicken in the same kind of sweet mayo sauce that walnut shrimp usually comes with. It wasn’t. Instead it was chopped up chicken and vegetables in a brown sauce.  The roasted walnuts were the best part. I also liked the water chestnuts, they remind me of Chinese take out from when I was a kid.

I wasn’t dazzled by either dish. And while 2 wongs don’t make a right, I have faith that there are some winners in that 2 page menu.

THE + (What somebody who likes this place would say)

• 2 pages of $6 options

THE – (What somebody who doesn’t like this place would say)

• Some options are flawed: the duck skin gets soggy in sauce and the Honey Walnut chicken comes with negligible chicken bites a regular brown sauce

Wong Wong, 941 Race St (@ 9th St), 215 928-8822