Favorite Regional Chinese Food in Flushing?

[Mr Porkchop]

A few friends and I are heading out to Flushing tonight for dinner and beers. I know places like Hunan House and M&T have lots of admirers on this board but I'm kind of curious who loves what when push comes to shoving food in your mouth. We'll have one Mandarin speaker who lived in Beijing for a few years but always wants to eat hot pot (not sure how much he can read menus), one Chinese newbie, and one sino-food-phile who lived in Suzhou for a summer and has eaten in Beijing, Qingdao, etc. Where would you go out of the following, and what are your absolute must-orders? Thanks!

Hunan House
M&T
Golden Palace
Little Pepper (I went here with someone from Chengdu, but we ordered hot pot)

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Little Pepper
133-43 Roosevelt Ave, Queens, NY 11354

Golden Palace
14009 Cherry Ave, Queens, NY 11355

SN New Restaurant
44-09 Kissena Blvd, Queens, NY 11355

[amberpepper]

Hi All,
I would like to go to an authentic Chinese restaurant with a group of friends. Last summer I was in Beijing and enjoyed Northern style cooking, Harbin area, very much.

Of the four resturants mentioned,
Hunan House
M&T
Golden Palace
Little Pepper

Which has the best ambiance? I am looking to spend a nice dinner in a place with nice lighting, etc.?

Thank you!!!
A

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Little Pepper
133-43 Roosevelt Ave, Queens, NY 11354

Hunan House
137-40 Northern Blvd, Queens, NY 11354

Golden Palace
14009 Cherry Ave, Queens, NY 11355

SN New Restaurant
44-09 Kissena Blvd, Queens, NY 11355

[Mr Porkchop]

Okay, went to Hunan House and had a nice, fun meal. We started off with a round of Tsingtaos, which were only $2.50! The service was nice, but improved significantly once some Mandarin was spoken, and once we passed the white boy test and ordered the fish head. The atmosphere was jovial, and it seemed we were having a bit of a contest with the table next to us of who could linger around and drink longer. That otehr table had gotten a spicy red vat of lobster which both they and waitress suggested to us, but we had fish head stuck in our head.

The three of us got:

-The dried beef with white chiles. I feel like someone mentioned on here that the "chiles" might be something other than spicy little capsicums. Not true in our experience. They were obviously little diced up peppers, and were delicious with the mouth-workout beef. We all reminisced about childhood road trips with beef jerky. I think this was our favorite dish, bringing something unique and spicy to the table. It was really the only remotely spicy dish of the evening, despite our request that everything be made extra-spicy.

-Next up was the red braised "Mao" pork. Less Mao, more meh. It was okay, but didn't blow us away. Despite the purported skin care benefits, it turns out no one at the table was one of those people happy to eat an entire plate of pork fat. It's a quarter of a plate for me, tops.

-Stir Fried Cauliflower. We really enjoyed it, and would find ourselves returning and returning to the pop-able little cauliflower pieces as the meal went on.

-Fish head with chilis. I don't think we were expecting something so large and prehistoric looking. Removing the armored plates from out decapitated fish friend launched a discussion of coelacanths and how they might taste. We performed a thorough cheek and neck reduction on the guy, cleaning him of meat. Then we fought over the sourish chili relish that was the fish's face make-up. Pretty tasty.

The hours rolled on, and the entire restaurant loosened up. By the time we left there was a whole gang of Chinese men smoking outside (some inside, actually) and hiking up their shirts and rubbing their bellies in the summer heat. We paid the bill which was about $90 all together, which was in large part $2.50 beers. We grabbed a few more drinks at the Mingle Beer House and watched KTV projected into a waterfall. Anyone ever eaten there? People seem to enjoy the table-top hot pot there. All around a great night. Thanks again for all the recs!

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Hunan House Restaurant
29-30 Union St, Queens, NY 11354

Mingle Beer House
37-04 Prince St, Queens, NY 11354

[Pookipichu]

The Mao pork is not as good as when they first opened and there are some who cannot eat fatty meat (I love it). Next time you should try the fu zhi pork and hunan duck or hui xiang lamb.

[buttertart]

How is the Hunan duck done, Pookipichu?

[Pookipichu]

It is lightly smoked and the meat is moist while the skin is rendered crisp. It is really delicious and always a crowd pleaser. It is not hot either so can accommodate those who are more sensitive capsaicin.

[buttertart]

Sounds great, must get next time.

[buttertart]

The men rubbing their bellies makes me homesick for my time in China. Glad you liked it - when we had the redcooked pork it really wasn"t all that fatty.

[Lau]

haha thats really funny....when i was just in shanghai all these guys do that b/c its really hot out, i find it really odd, but its pretty typical

[buttertart]

Emblematic of a summer night in the lanes, isn't it? White Tshirts and pajamaish pants.

[scoopG]

Can't go wrong with GP, LP or HH!

Sichuan in Flushing:
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/651819

Golden Palace - Dongbei
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/640895
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/10/din...

[buttertart]

I expected you to weigh in, Mister G!!!

[scoopG]

Surprised you said GP/Dongbei is an acquired taste! (Too much time in Suzhou?)

Didn't we meet on a summer cruise?

[buttertart]

The food is very very good and I love both GP and M&T but yes my taste skews a bit more southern/western Chinese (except for some Beijing and west items). (Exposure may be a big part of it, having spent most time in Jiangnan of anywhere in China). I think HH would be more immediately "impressive". But the others would be more interesting if someone knew the southwestern cuisines and wanted to branch out.
Were you the one on the deck chair reading the Hong Lou Meng???

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SN New Restaurant
44-09 Kissena Blvd, Queens, NY 11355

[scoopG]

And HH is certainly very comfortable and well appointed. LP, despite the great food is in a basement after all.

[buttertart]

HH reminds me in décor very much of the medium-range Taipei restaurants of the early '80s - Guo Ding, Chu Feng Yuan, and so forth. Comfy but not too elaborate, just right for concentrating on the food (buzhi shi bu neng chi de, after all).

[FrankieLymon]

I would go to Imperial Palace for Cantonese but thats just me

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Imperial Palace
136-13 37th Ave, Queens, NY 11354

[Mr Porkchop]

Cantonese is my least favorite type of Chinese food, and we like the extra service we get when we chat in Mandarin. I've been meaning to try that place sometime soon though.

Hunan is in the lead! Seems appropriate with the muggy weather.

[Lau]

Hi My Porkchop - what's your experience eating cantonese food? I'm making a bit of a presumption here, but it sounds like you're reasonably new to chinese food? (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong). I find alot of people's ideas of what cantonese food is tends to be incorrect as they've either had americanized chinese food which is labeled as cantonese food or they've had gloppy messes that some places in chinatown serve and call cantonese food. Having just come back from Hong Kong and Shanghai, I fully remembered why I think that cantonese food is the best chinese food. I highly suggest trying imperial palace and canton gourmet, which I think are the best cantonese in Flushing / NY. If you ever have a chance to go to hong kong to eat you should go, I think it will totally change your view on cantonese food which is very broad in terms of its offering (seafood, noodles, dumplings, bbq, desserts etc etc) b/c as an area it has everything (good conditions for farming, great access to seafood etc)

here's some posts which will help you to order:
- Imperial Palace: definitely get the crab rice, chicken
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/543625
- Canton Gourmet: garlic crab
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/454983

Full disclosure: cantonese is my favorite chinese food and I'm generally biased towards more southern chinese (cantonese, chiu chow, taiwanese, singapore, shanghai etc).

As far as other places:
Sichuan: as everyone else said Little Pepper and Spicy & Tasty; I think LP is the best sichuan restaurant in NY, very authentic...speaking chinese is pretty helpful there as they do not really speak english

Hunan: hunan food is quite good and it's hard to find in the US, so Hunan House is a good idea

Taiwanese:
- Flushing Mall: I'd go to the flushing mall to try the gua bao at temple snacks, some of the breakfast dishes at Yong He (only written in chinese) are quite good particularly their dan bing (egg pancake) or cong dan bing (scallion egg pancake). Ah Zhong Mian Xian (I don't know their english name), which you will notice towards the right side next to the sichuan place, has some decent dishes like their salt battered squid and some of their soup noodle type dishes...very taiwanese.
- Gu Xiang: some people have had mixed experiences here (some of their taiwanese street food is less than stellar), but I find if you stick to the dishes I ordered you'll find it to be quite good, reminds my of small restaurants in taiwan
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/678071
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/525099
- Main Street Imperial: I've only been here once, but they have a dish called Cong Ying Tou that is amazing; ScoopG had a great experience here. The one catch is part of the menu is only in chinese and you absolutely need to speak chinese, i'm almost 100% sure they do not speak english
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/601902

Xian Famous Foods: the thing about this place is that you can get this in the city now (chinatown and st marks), but this is one of my favorite places in Flushing. It's well documented, but the originals are my favorite (lamb burger, liang pi

)

Shanghainese:
- Taste of Shanghai: some of the famous shanghainese dishes like xiao long bao (soup dumplings) are mediocre here, but their ti pang (pork shoulder) and spicy blue crab is quite good.
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/647259
- Nan Xiang: best xiao long bao in NYC by a long shot (in fact only good version
)http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/689006

I'm less of a fan of dongbei cuisine, so I'll leave it up to ScoopG who is the main discoverer of all the dong bei places

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Imperial Palace
136-13 37th Ave, Queens, NY 11354

Little Pepper
133-43 Roosevelt Ave, Queens, NY 11354

Canton Gourmet
38-08 Prince St, Queens, NY 11354

Spicy & Tasty
39-07 Prince St, Queens, NY 11354

Hunan House Restaurant
29-30 Union St, Queens, NY 11354

[Mr Porkchop]

In addition to having spent a summer in mainland China, and at other times visiting friends in Shanghai and Beijing, I've been to Hong Kong on 3 or 4 seperate occasions where I've been taken out by Hong Kong natives. I enjoy my time there, especially the dim sum, but compared to other regional Chinese cuisines I find Cantonese alternatively bland, sweet, and greasy (same with my two close friends who lived in China for 3 years). I think we're seperated by a difference in tastes rather than experience. I appreciate you trying to convert me though.

We ended up going to Hunan House the other night, and uniformly enjoyed it. Then there was Green Tea and Whisky at Mingle Beer House. I'll try and expound tomorrow on what we had, but all parties involved were pleased. I'm glad I've started a discussion though.

To my taste, I agree, LP is much better than Spicy and Tasty. I actually visited the former with a Chinese political dissident.

I've somehow not tried any of the Xian Famous locations yet other than a taste of their cold noodles, but I've been meaning to try one. I was surprised to hear a friend from Anhui say he thought their lamb sandwich was bad though. I'll try and approach with an open mind and stomach.

I'm pretty clueless in regard to Taiwanese food , so I really appreciate those recs. Thanks!

I'm a little surprised people haven't expressed stronger opinions on this topic. I was expecting a knock down drag out. The numerous qualified and measured opinions have been great though. I appreciate your opinions and politeness! Thanks!

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Hunan House Restaurant
29-30 Union St, Queens, NY 11354

Mingle Beer House
37-04 Prince St, Queens, NY 11354

[Lau]

it is a matter of taste and it sounds like you've had ample experience, i always try to convert people b/c i think there are alot of misconceptions about cantonese food generally. Although sweet and greasy don't really sound like cantonese food at all, especially sweet, there aren't that many sweet cantonese dishes

LP is very good, I think very highly of that place, i really hope they don't end up moving to college point

I like the original location of Xian Foods at the Golden Mall the best....actually speaking of that, that is where you should go soon. The golden mall is an awesome place that has tons and tons of regional food although there is no AC in that place, so it gets pretty hot in there...might want to wait until it gets a little cooler. Also bring someone who speaks chinese and if possible someone who reads chinese, with the exception of Xian foods its not very english friendly

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Golden Shopping Mall
41-28 Main St, Queens, NY 11355

[scoopG]

I'd agree that done well, it is very difficult to top Cantonese - particularly the fresh seafood dishes, cured meats and of course dim sum!

Other Regional Chinese Cuisines found in Flushing:

Dongbei:

Fu Run
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/572882

Golden Palace
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/640895
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/10/dining/10chine.html?scp=2&sq=julia%20moskin%20in%20flushing&st=cse

Northeast Taste Chinese Food
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/640895

Rural:
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/711399?tag=search_results;results_list

Northern Chinese – Dongbei+Shandong:
Jiang Li
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/714292?tag=search_results;results_list

Sichuan:
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/391630?tag=search_results;results_list
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/651819
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/702673?tag=search_results;results_list

Shangdong/Qingdao:
M&T:
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/640474
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/10/dining/10chine.html?scp=2&sq=julia%20moskin%20in%20flushing&st=cse

Fragrant Shandong Garden:
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/709290?tag=search_results;results_list

Wenzhou:
Chung Hua
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/638289

[Mr Porkchop]

Thanks for the suggestions so far! I think we might be down to Golden Palace or Hunan House.

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Hunan House Restaurant
29-30 Union St, Queens, NY 11354

Golden Palace
14009 Cherry Ave, Queens, NY 11355

[buttertart]

Golden Palace is a bit more of an acquired taste in my opinion. If your Beijing buddy wants the spicy kind of hot pot, I would think one of the Sichuans or possibly Hunan House is a better bet (not sure if HH has hot pot).

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Hunan House Restaurant
29-30 Union St, Queens, NY 11354

Golden Palace
14009 Cherry Ave, Queens, NY 11355

[Pookipichu]

Make sure the Hunan House you go to is on Northern Boulevard and not Union St. There is a huge difference.

I think you should add Spicy Tasty to the mix. Also, I just posted a thread about Hunan Kitchen, which opened last month. It's headed by the former chef of Hunan House.

At Hunan House, the Fu zhi pork, and Hunan Duck are wonderful as is the Hui xiang lamb. I like M&T but I think Hunan house is more impressive. The ambiance at Little Pepper is not the greatest either. Have not been to Golden Palace.

Spicy Tasty, I would order the San jiou chicken, ma la fire pot.

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Little Pepper
133-43 Roosevelt Ave, Queens, NY 11354

Golden Palace
14009 Cherry Ave, Queens, NY 11355

SN New Restaurant
44-09 Kissena Blvd, Queens, NY 11355

[Polecat]

The crispy lamb with peppers at Golden Palace is one of the best dishes I've had all year - moist lamb with crunchy peppers, chopped celery and garlic. Little Pepper also does good lamb dishes, but I prefer GP's take on this, which is very different and has a unique texture. I've also enjoyed the boiled sour cabbage dumplings and the crispy squid w/ peppers. Back to Little Pepper, hard to go wrong. Their ma-po tofu lit me up and hung me out to dry. LP's is the hottest and least compromised version of this dish I've tried in these parts. The twice-cooked pork is also excellent. A search will yield much in the way of more suggestions. I just hit Hunan House for the first time on Sunday, and really dug the minced pork w/ sour string beans and the cold Hunan-style tofu. Again, do a search on this board, and you will read much mention of the special Fish Head, which heads up their Hunan Specialties menu, as well as lots of other stuff. M&T has gotten much praise here, but it's my least favorite of your choices. Have been there twice, and have liked the food just fine but nothing really stands out in my memory as something I have to have again. They offer enough unique dishes, however, to stand them apart from Golden Palace, and to warrant your visiting both of them. Hell, they're right around the corner from one another.
Enjoy your evening, and please report back.
P.

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Little Pepper
133-43 Roosevelt Ave, Queens, NY 11354

Hunan House Restaurant
29-30 Union St, Queens, NY 11354

Golden Palace
14009 Cherry Ave, Queens, NY 11355

SN New Restaurant
44-09 Kissena Blvd, Queens, NY 11355