Best Chinese in Sunset Park?

[acrossthepark]

In honor of the lunar new year we'd like to check out Sunset Park. Been there once and stumbled into an excellent Malaysian place, but I don't think I could find it again. In fact, I don't think I could find the block again.

Where does one head to find the good places in SP?

Thanks.

[Gary Soup]

Bumping this up, because I'd like to know, too. Surely, SOMEBODY knows SOMETHING about Chinese eats in Sunset Park. I'll be headed there to check it out on my imminent NYC trip, but it would be nice to have some pointers to start with.

[squid kun]

Here's a fairly recent Chow Digest update ... http://www.chow.com/digest/2511

[Chandavkl]

Hi Gary. This thread from last year might be useful. I believe Ocean Palace became Pacificana.

http://www.chowhound.com/topics/329833

[Woodside Al]

And don't forget Ba Xuyen on 8th Ave. near 41st St. for the best banh mi in NYC.

[Peter Cherches]

Nyonya (8th & 54th St.) is my favorite restaurant overall out there. For Chinese, I haven't yet tried Pacificana for dinner, but I've had dim sum there as well as 8th Avenue Seafood Restaurant (between 44th & 45th), and I found the latter better, cheaper, and much easier to get into (It hasn't really been "discovered" yet, except by locals). I plan to try dinner at 8th Avenue Seafood Restaurant soon. Gary, you might be interested in the place on a side street off 8th (maybe 49th? going toward 7th), a hole in the wall with a couple of stools called Yun Nan Snacks that serves Yunan noodle soups. I wasn't thrilled with the one I tried, but it seems worth a visit for its culinary uniqueness. The couple who run it don't speak English. There's also a bakery around there that serves these wonderful sweet, chewy potato pancakes that I've never seen anywhere else.

http://petercherches.blogspot.com

[Peter Cherches]

That should read "sweet potato pancakes".

[Peter Cherches]

An update on Yun Nan Flavour Snacks. The first time I had noodle soup with hot meat sauce. I found it too spicy, and couldn't really appreciate the flavors. Yesterday I tried the dumplings in hot & sour soup. This time the guy asked me if I wanted it very hot, and I said medium. Much better. The broth had a tom-yum kind of sour, and the dumplings were sui kow style, with chopped pork. Really excellent. It was part 2 of lunch, which started with a grilled pork banh mi at Ba Xuyen. As I was walking around I also noticed a chiu chao noodle soup & rice shop, I think it's Tan Ky, with menu in Chinese, Vietnamese, & English, and a similar mix of items as Bo Ky in Chinatown. I'm off to Sunset Park now--maybe I'll give it a try.

[missmasala]

was just there today, and thinking that 60th street was one of my fav blocks in brooklyn.

not sure any of this is something you can't get in san fran, but here goes:

had banh mi and spring rolls from thanh da (7th ave btw 60 & 61st) both good--they also have rice noodle bowls and pho

and then had bubble tea and cream cakes from Quickly, on 60th btw 7th and 8th. Good, fresh bubble teas and smoothies, etc.

also, next door to Quickly is a good hand-pulled noodle place, the name escapes me at the moment.

on 60th, the other side of 8th is a middle eastern grocery and turkish restaurant. this is one of the things i love about sunset park--you can have vietnamese, chinese, turkish, and mexican all within a couple of blocks.

Have enjoyed the dim sum at pacificana--haven't eaten dinner there yet, but imagine it's good if you know how to order in those large cantonese places.

tried the new malaysian on 7th and 61st (belachan?). it was okay, but i actually have preferred nonya in the past. however, haven't been to nonya in a couple of years, so who knows?

[PAL]

There's this other Malaysian place up the street near Gia Lam (which I now hate--best pho honors in NYC currently go to Pho Bang on Pike St. by a landslide) that makes incredible shaved ice beverages. There are two to choose from--I had the one with the red syrup. Mmm...Sunset Park in the summertime.

I agree the neighborhood is hard to get ahold of, and the most fun I have is just trying places since there seems to be no consensus, and hardly anyone (including myself) can ever remember the names and intersections of the places they visit. I had lunch at this dinner-style banquet hall on 7th Avenue and, oh, somewhere b/w 51st and 54th with no English sign. I think it was a Fuchou (sp?) place, but very upscale...all I had was a plate of fried rice noodles with preserved cabbage, but it was like no other rice noodle dish I've had. Thick, round, al dente noodles, sauteed in an oily, cilantro/cabbagy mess that I would have devoured but for my mostly healthy diet.

[Peter Cherches]

The one with the red syrup would probably be abc.

[Peter Cherches]

Gary, have you been to Brooklyn yet? Looking forward to your Sunset Park report.

[Gary Soup]

I cruised 8th Avenue on my last trip but time of day and the heat (it was that end of June heat wave) left me with little appetite, so I mostly made mental notes for next time (the hand-pulled noodles place and Nyonya or Redang Island for Malaysian are at the top of my to-do list). Overall, the Chinese food seemed to tend towrd Cantonese, which I don't really look for because it's so well covered in San Francisco.

I did graze at some of the food carts, and I can report that the best skewers have to be from the cart on the West side of 8th Avenue at the very south end of the strip (just north of the subway station). Plump, juicy and savory and cooked to order, unlike the dried out ones served at other carts. I just wish they would season them with that harissa-like powder they use in Shanghai, though, rather than Sriracha sauce.

[Peter Cherches]

Gary, Nyonya is much better than Redang Island. There are at least 3 or 4 Fujianese places too, but I either don't like the cuisine or don't know what to order.

[jen kalb]

forget about redang island - its just nothing special.

[Peter Cherches]

I had a good nasi lemak at Belachan today. I give them the edge over Nyonya in the curry & rendang department.

[jen kalb]

I agree on those dishes - Belachan seems to get the curries ok ditto their water spinach and I seem to remember a good otak-otak (if thats the fish paste wrapped in a leaf?) but they havent done as well with noodles..

[Peter Cherches]

Yeah, the first time I went the chow kueh teow was pretty bad.

[PAL]

re: Redang Island--Have you tried the beef sate? The peanut sauce is great, and the meat has a nice char-grilled taste. I think Rendang must be good at certain things and not others...I LOVE the Malaysian Rojak appetizer, the ABC drink...OTOH, I was disappointed in the shrimp noodle soup and this horrible (I mean, yuck) pork with yam dish.

Sunset Park has many new restaurants specializing in upscale Foo Chou cuisine (I'm not a student of regional Chinese cooking--that's just a phrase I see all over the menu.) In Manhattan, seems like most of the places serving food from this part of China are inexpensive, snacky places. Perhaps this is Sunset Park's specialty (aside from Vietnamese Sandwiches.)

[Larry Brooks]

The Malaysian place you refer to is likely Nyonya on 8th Ave at like....50th St?
Gia Lam 2 is my favorite Viet though there are others.
For Chinese the big palace destination is Pacificana, which has varying opinions on CH. I have had nothing but great chow here. The NYT agrees. If you are going for dim sum, go early. After 11, it gets less fresh.

Pacificana:
http://www.sunset-park.com/mall/PACIFICANA/
http://events.nytimes.com/2007/03/21/...

For less known, smaller shops, I like Chinese Ocean, also on 8th Ave.

[Gary Soup]

The Malaysian place could also have been Redang Island (see pic) which was further south on 8th, on the west side of the street. Nyona, IIRC, was a cutesy-looking place with a yellow storefront on a corner.

[famdoc]

across the park...looks like a review of recent posts on this subject is in order.
I'm going to add to the list: we had an excellent recent experience at Pacificana, which I wrote about:

http://www.chowhound.com/topics/405361

enjoy. be sure to leave room for some desserts...two bakeries right across Eighth Ave. from Pacificana.

[gangly handful]

I recently had really good fried dumplings (pork & chive) at Rai Feng Du on the south side of 48th street, just east of 8th avenue. Across from a construction site on the corner of 48th and 8th. They have a rather large menu posted above the ordering counter. I thought they were quite good.

[bolletje]

Those are really good dumplings--very delicate skins, but the brown soy-ish dipping sauce on the tables sucks. It's almost unbearable salty. Either bring your own sauce or just use the hot sauce.