• This is upscale dim sum: no carts (order from a menu), cool architecture, linen tablecloths. Food is also upscale: very delicate execution and flavors. Very fresh on a Sunday. Colorful. Not your down home dim sum by a long shot. So it shouldn’t be knocked for what it is not. What it is is very good. The portions are quite adequate and consistent with the tradition of many-small-plates-make-a-meal. Four dishes did me in. I chose the last dish because the meal needed some soul. Turnip cakes did the job. They were creamy, tasty and greaseless. The tab was $13.50 (before 4 pm)

My choices and recommendations:
• Mushroom Dumplings (very nice)
• Rolls with shrimp and mango (original)
• Fresh mango pudding (delicious)
• Turnip cakes (Yes .....definitely.)

A simple chart on the menu includes lunch and dinner prices and translates the Chnese characters stating prices into Arabic numbers. Dim Sum gogo is open from 10 am until 11 pm. Lunch is from 10 am to 4 pm. Dinner is from 4 pm to 11 pm. Give it a gogo. If you don’t like it, don’t go back. But spare us the snobbery.

McSorley's

Le Bernardin.

Lamb chops. Buttered shell steak. Sea scallops.

Hmmm .... hadn't met the curry crowd before.
Onion kulcha with the bottled mango drink is nirvana
at Curry in a Hurry.

Dumbo West
(down under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass on the West Side of the East River
in Chinatown)
East Market Restaurant v/212-732-8886/8889/8885
75-85 East Broadway -- 2nd floor
NY, NY 10012

Huge banquet hall with carts, buffet, good quality, fair prices.

Absolute Bagel 2788 Broadway @ 107 St. If you are going to bother to come to New York at all and drop several hundred dollars a night at some fleabag, you might as well eat The Real Thing. These are among the last true, chewy, tasty bagels, made by a Thai immigrant and his extended family, not the popular, puffy, Gentile bagelcake. Absolute also has a bagel pudding which is not always available, but is the deadliest StarchBomb in New York. After Absolute, for dessert, take the southbound Broadway bus to Ouest, Broadway & W. 84, for the creme fraiche panna cotta with passion fruit syrup. Check out Ouest’s entrees. Then, get back on the Broadway bus,and head south to EuroPan, Lincoln Square, for the chocolate cigar. Then read up on Chinatown dim sum spots and take your pick. I recommend Sun Say Kai at Canal & Baxter. No one should leave NYC without loading up on sportsbar or divebar french fries. The divebar fries I recommend are at Blue Donkey on Amsterdam btw. 83 & 84. The fastest-served fries are at O'Lunney's 145 W. 45 near Times Sq.

Dead heat:
Chicken fat and chopped liver at Sammy's.
Deep-fried onion loaf at Dallas BBQ.
Happy Meal at any McDonald's.

Terrace. Go there. Take a look. Have dinner. Then decide.

There is a delicious coconut gel with peanut stuffing in the front window at sun say kai.

Street vendors on Canal St. between Baxter and Mott in Chinatown.

SSK is very very good, and I have gone there for many years, but it's just not quite as good as MLW.
SSK is: central and convenient location. Spacious. Hot tea in a glass on your table with seconds after you sit down. Excellent shrimp noodle. Delicious. Yummy. Steamed and baked chicken and pork buns. Diligent, dedicated waiters. If your total check breaks $6.00 per person you are a better eater than I. I rarely hit $5.00. There are desserts on trays in the window, including a consciousness-erasing, wipeout coconut gel with a peanut center. And more hot tea. True masochists can also order from the roast pig/roast duck counter, and/or the "main menu." I have not blogged about SSK until now because it has always been 90 percent or more filled up and I was afraid publicity would overwhelm it. Now that the secret is out, let the games begin. The first result is that prices are likely to go up.

I never go to any restaurant without seeing a menu with prices in advance.

P. J. Clarke's - 915 Thrd Ave. 212-317-1616
Delivers to 50th St. to 60th St., Sutton Place to Madison Ave.
They will not tell you the name of the butcher that supplies their ground beef,
even if you get down on your hands and knees and cry.

Curry in a Hurry, Lexington & E. 28 NE corner

Pho Bang, 3 Pike St. & East Broadway
20 or 30 versions of heaven in a bowl.
I think the priciest one is $5.95.
Delicious cafe filtre.

Zabar's is very good

Caridad, Broadway and 78 (SW corner)
http://www.yelp.com/biz/la-caridad-ne...
Asia de Cuba
Masita (deep fried pork cubes)
Yellow rice & black beans
Avocado
& all traditional Cuban dishes ... lechon asado on Sat & Sun is sensational,
with yucca topped with chopped fresh garlic.

• Flame (diner) W. 58 & 9th Ave.
• 9th Ave. from 42 to 57 has many good ethnic holes in the walls
• After work go to Osteria Gelsi 9th & 38th.

Call Hong Kong Market 212-227-3388 and ask if they stock Hunan ingredients.
109 East Broadway at Pike St.

strongly second osteria gelsi.
i reviewed it for this site or a similar one long ago.

please explain how to search the site and how to ask questions.

Reply to Somnifor:
"Annoying" is on target, indeed an understatement.
My last post was deleted because I was apparently perceived as a novice who was overly enthusiastic about the restaurant I reviewed, and thus a shill. I didn't ask why I was deleted because of the longish and somewhat strident website statements about how Chound doesn't have time to explain. At any rate, this posture guarantees a pretty dry editorial result, and the probability that I may read this site but not waste any more time attempting to contribute to it ... I usually don't bother writing negative reviews, only enthusiastic ones.

212-595-1888 Fairway ... ask for meat dept.
When Fairway doesn't have it, they can sometimes give you good tips
on where to get it. If this fails, work your way through the BBQ places
starting with Rub on W. 23 St.

Sun Say Kai Restaurant
212-964-7256
220 Canal, NY, NY 10013

Turn to left side counter when you enter. Right side is entrees.
Pork, chicken, red bean, shrimp dim sum, hot tea in a glass.
Lowest possible prices. The real thing.

Why reach for remote bakeries when you can go to
Zabars...Broadway and W. 80-81
Fairway ... Broadway and W. 74-75
and Eli's, Orwasher's and Moishes
in Manhattan?

As in so many other areas of cuisine, China mastered the knockyoudown comfort breakfast centuries ago. Try almost any unglitzed, minimum neon, probably a little on the dark/gloomy side, place in Chinatown. I would go for the steamed buns --- pork, chicken, seafood --- congee and lots of hot tea. And whatever else turns up.

Absolute Bagels, 2788 Broadway & W. 108 St.
Kossar's Bialys, 367 Grand St. at Norfolk.

RGR's 8/24 Lower East Side tour itinerary has it right ... with a few footnotes:

1) There is no point in coming to New York City for a nonstop 3-day series of $200 meals with unisex cosmopolitan cuisine.

2) What makes NYC unique is not those places but its 150-odd ethnic cuisines. The LES remains a treasure house of these foods and meals.

3) BUT: I would add to the list: Bereket, 187 E. Houston St. at the corner of Orchard. 24/7. Zero atmosphere. Middle Eastern/Turkish. Some of the best values (quality and price) in Manhattan. Do not pass up the soups (among the least salty anywhere), stuffed grape leaves, or the desserts.

4) I would expand the Yonah Schimmel visit to include Apple Strudel and a glass of home-made buttermilk.

5) The sandwiches at Katz's and Russ & Daughters are good, but you can find good deli almost anywhere. Stick to the things you are very unlikely to find anywhere else. Bereket and Yohnah Schimmel have them.

First time out. Great, great site. Very knowledgeable constituency.
Many thanks. But not for the maddening Pop Up.