Chickpea Restaurant
Chickpea
23 Third Ave
(btw St Mark’s Pl & E 9th)
New York, NY
For delivery: (212) 254-9500
Chickpea is, really a place to get a quick bite at relatively inexpensive prices. It’s a Fast food joint like Chipotle. Serving mainly middle-eastern food, Chickpea is known for its falafels, humus, and pita breads. It’s funny how I haven’t noticed this sooner seeing how I pass this place a trillion times. At first I thought that this place was too foreign for me, but I figured, why the heck not? Well, it was really softrice that nagged me to death to go, so I figured, why not? I like middle-eastern foods like Gyros, so I thought I’d give it a try.
As you can see, this chickpea restaurant isn’t that big, but it can get really packed at times. Luckily when I was there, it wasn’t as packed as usual so that worked in my favor. People usually do not stay here to eat as you can see with its limited seating arrangements, and they do come in by the bunch to order out for dinner. I must say, food here seems much healthier than your McDonalds, Wendys, etc. Of course there was middle-eastern music that played in the background, which I thought was much too loud, but I guess it adds that to needed ambience.
To start things off, I ordered a falefel combo w/hummus and pickles that came with a choice of lentil or chicken soup, which I chose the lentil, and a soft drink for $7.30 including tax. This is cheaper than Chipotle, but the gigantic burrito makes up for it’s price. Also you can add in your own toppings like pickles, cucumbers, etc, like how it is when you’re at a Subways.
(sorry for the blurriness)
When you eat there, you’ll see two bottles on the table: white and hot sauce. Being how I’m not a fan of hotness, I drenched my falafel with the white sauce. Mm…you’ll need it otherwise it’ll taste kind of bland.
The rest of the group, softrice, miss eggrolls, kimberly, and a new guy Francis, ordered pretty much the same thing except that Kim didn’t order the Falefel and just had the chicken soup that came with a warm pita bread for $2.25.
First: The Lentil soup.
I’ve never had lentil soup before, but I liked this one. It’s creamy and has a tastes of green peas, since it also comes from the legumes group. It can come as a little bland, but I like it that way because it’s soothing and creamy to me. This tastes especially good when you’re coming out from the icy cold weather. I would recommend this.
Second: The Falafel.
I enjoyed having the falafel which is composed of fried ball of chickpeas/other spiced beans served with a pita bread. Great thing about this is that it’s vegetarian and it tastes good. Softrice did not like it one bit, but he needs to understand that for a fast food restaurant, this is not bad. Really having a falafel can be counted as having a snack, you know a comfort food. I enjoyed it, but you really need to add toppings like pickles or onions to make the falafel tastes good otherwise it’ll taste dry and bland. And also don’t forget to use your choice of white or hot sauce.
Overall: It was an interesting trip coming there. Softrice didn’t like the food at all and would give it a D-, but I think this place is better than that.
Rating: 3.5/5
1 – Unsatisfactory
2 – Subpar, it’s edible and lacking taste
3 – Good, the taste is OK but nothing too special
4 – Very good
5 – Excellent
Health Inspection Results
23 3 AVENUE, MANHATTAN 10003
212-228-3445
Current violation points: 14 – PASSED
Inspection Date: 12/20/2006
Violations were cited in the following area(s) and those requiring immediate action were addressed.
1.) “Choking first aid” poster not posted.”Alcohol and Pregnancy” Warning sign not posted. “Wash hands” sign not posted at hand wash facility. Resuscitation equipment: exhaled air resuscitation masks(adult & pediatric), latex gloves, sign not posted. Inspection report sign not posted.
2.) Toilet facility not maintained and provided with toilet paper, waste receptacle and self-closing door.
3.) Sanitized equipment or utensil, including in-use food dispensing utensil, improperly used or stored.
4.) Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service.
Ten Ren’s Tea Time
79 Mott St
(near Canal St)
New York, NY
I like to point how difficult it is to take pictures in Chinatown without someone walking into your shot. It took me several shots because I can get the above picture. My before picture looked like this:
You see this priceless face? Yeah he hates tourists like me who flashes around their cameras like nothing. Don’t worry, just know that you need to take a least a couple of shots to get a clear one.
Anyways to continue, Ten Ren, I can say makes one of the best Bubble Teas in chinatown because it has this richness, in terms of taste and color, and can almost be compared to the ones on the west coast. I have tried bubble tea in Toronto, San Francisco, and Los Angeles and they all vary slightly, but will never let you down. If you try the bubble tea at Green Tea or Tea-riffic, also down on Mott St, you’ll taste how diluted their drink is and how bland it is, compared to Ten Ren. Let me tell you, bubble tea is definitely not made like that in NJ, Canada, or the west coast. Ten Ren here won’t disappoint, since Ten Ren is also located around the world.
I will rate bubble tea in terms of:
Appearance
Richness in taste
Texture of tapioca (boba or pearls in the west coast)
Price
Portion
This is exactly how big Ten Ren is. There are limited seating in the back and there is no bathroom at all. Repeat there are no bathrooms for customers so you should either take your drink to go or wait until you go to a restaurant or go back home.
By the way, this place also serves food as well:
Though I’ve never eaten there before.
There are only two guys who works here as you can see, and on the counter you’ll usually see a ten ren cup with tapioca filled inside and then they fill up your drink. You can tell if they leave it out for too long because then it becomes hard. But most of the time it’s soft and chewy, very chewy, just the way it should be.
A small drink is $4.00 and a large one is $6.oo.
I ordered a passion fruit tea w/tapioca from the ice slushy category:
My friend ordered the mango flavored one which looks exactly like this one. I had no idea that passion fruit would turn out to be orange, but it did and it tasted like it.
Let me tell you, at Green Tea and Teariffic, they can’t make a bubble tea like this maybe because they have a different way of making the tea. This drink is sweet til perfection and the tapioca is exactly how I remembered it — soft and chewy.
I highly recommend this place if you’re in chinatown or wanting to sport a good bubble tea.
And if you’re a heavy bubble tea drinker, I’d recommend you to ask for this card from the cashier:
Sorry if it’s a bit blurry, but basically it says what it says: Buy 10 get 1 free.
I will give it a 4.5 out of 5.
Well time for the health inspection verdict. Are you ready?
TEN REN’S TEA TIME
79 MOTT STREET, MANHATTAN 10013
212-732-7178
Current violation points: 27- PASSED
Inspection Date: 02/21/2006
Violations were cited in the following area(s) and those requiring immediate action were addressed.
1.) Sanitized equipment or utensil, including in-use food dispensing utensil, improperly used or stored.
2.) Food contact surface not properly washed, rinsed and sanitized after each use and following any activity when contamination may have occurred.
3.) Personal cleanliness inadequate. Clean outer garments, effective hair restraint not worn.
4.) Hand washing facility not provided in or near food preparation area and toilet room. Hot and cold running water at adequate pressure not provided at facility. Soap and an acceptable hand-drying device not provided.
May Wah Fast Food Restaurant (Chinese)
May Wah Restaurant
190 Hester St
(btw Baxter & Mulberry St)
New York, NY
OPEN THROUGH FEB 18, 2007
ACT NOW!!
Sometimes I forget to do reviews for the little ma & pa restaurants because I take it for granted. Like how fast food restaurants are, I go in, get my food, get out and eat as fast as I can that I forget to take time to reflect on it. It’s really metaphoric of what life really is — a quick way to satisfied your insatisable life. Like, you go to the place you want because you desire it, and when that feeling of desire and want is gone you leave. To me, May Wah is hedonistic food, that’s what it is. And knowing that it’s going to close down soon, it really breaks a nerve and all I can do is immortalize it forever on wordpress.
After a zillion times eating from this place, I finally had the chance to take a picture of the restaurant and of the food. If it wasn’t for the rumor that softrice told me about this place closing down, I wouldn’t even had done this review.
I grew up knowing the original staff in May Wah and my parent’s even had a good relationship with the owners. This restaurant was a place to share love, good times, and happiness and you can literally taste it in their food. Their food I believe is primarily, Tawainese and they have a few signature dishes. The one I love the most is:
Chicken leg over May Wah’s specialty rice
Price: $4.75
I usually don’t have the time to stay and eat, so I order out.
Sigh, this will be the last time I’ll see all of this:
This also comes with pork chop and spare ribs. I prefer the chicken the most. I have no idea what’s the brown/meaty sauce, but it tastes so heavenly. Without this sly sauce, it would not be a party in my mouth. The rest are nappa (the green veggies) and this sour vegetable that I don’t know in English. But yes, you are definitely not going to find anything remotely like this. Mix the rice together to get the sauce flowing through the white rice to get extra flavor of course. The fried chicken, that’s not beer battered, is very very delicious. It’s salty and even saltier when you eat it with the rice. Believe it or not, it’s a great combination!
I regret not to take pictures of all the other dishes I had in the past. I have had their pork chop and spare ribs over rice, shanghainese fried rice, shanghai stir-fried rice cakes, and several of their other rice dishes that I eaten before. Of everything, their signature chicken leg over rice is the best. THE BEST.
So I will have to urge you all to try because this place shuts down forever. This place really meant a lot to me. Ever sinced I moved away from there, things drastically change. Their staff, containers, price and methods of making the food slightly changed. Sigh…I will definitely miss this place a lot more. I am not really looking forward to its vegetarian counter part.
Cleanliness
MAY WAH FAST FOODS
190 HESTER STREET, MANHATTAN 10013
212-925-6428
Current violation points: 9
PASSED
Inspection Date: 01/04/2007
Violations were cited in the following area(s) and those requiring immediate action were addressed.
1.) Plumbing not properly installed or maintained; anti-siphonage or backflow prevention device not provided where required; equipment or floor not properly drained; sewage disposal system in disrepair or not functioning properly.
2.) Facility not vermin proof. Harborage or conditions conducive to vermin exist.
3.) Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas.
Yeah Shanghai Deluxe Restaurant
New Yeah Shanghai Deluxe Restaurant
65 Bayard St
(btw Elizabeth & Mott St)
New York, NY
Check the restaurant inspection information on the last paragraph of this post to see how clean it is.
Reservations: For large groups, yes otherwise no.
Instead of going to Vegetarian Dim Sum as recommended by softrice, I was craving for shanghai and I didn’t know why. All I know was that I was in a meaty mood and vegetarian was unappealing to me. Btw I just checked out the website for Vegetarian Dim Sum, and now I’m craving for it. If you guys are interested, there’s a coupon that you can download and print out. Good thing I now checked, if I went that night without knowing about this I would have been real pissed. How on let me check again, ah, it’s not much 5% discount, but that’s still better than nothing. I guess it really goes back towards their tips anyways.
Anyways I was drawn between two Shanghainese restaurant even though there was one more across the street, which is New Green Bo. I had a bad experience at that place when I was a teen, ::whispers:: horrible service, I hope that bitch was fired cause I could have swore that she spat in my food, so that restaurant was out of the question.
Yeah I take ghetto pictures when I’m hungry and it never occurs to me to take pictures after I eat. I guess the food coma takes a toll on me.
Back to what I was saying, of course you know what I chose. See, Moon House was completely desolated so I thought that was a bad sign. I saw some people in Yeah Shanghai, but I didn’t realize that people weren’t on line waiting for a table, they were merely ordering out. Inside with Kimberly, the restaurant was completely desolate and I mean desolate with just 5 waiters waiting on our commands. I felt like a queen? Btw did I mention about the cool bridge that you have to cross over to get to the tables in the back of the restaurant? I thought it was cute. Cuter than the bridge at Xe Lua.
Well, I can say this restaurant looks 10x better than the one next store and the one across so I gave it points for that. Also it received extra points for these pictures:
Especially this one.
As softrice would say, “Whoa, there are chinese porno pictures?”
No no, they’re just mere pieces of beautiful artwork. I like it. I guess these pictures motivate the waiters to work harder? I don’t know. Anyways, time to sit down and eat.
When I come to a shanghai restaurant, I like to order their signature steamed pork buns because everything else is just like a regular chinese retaurant. Alright, time to order.
I’ve got to take better pictures than this.
While Kim was reading through the menu, 
I helped myself to a few photos:
To sum this article: This place is the bomb. Yeah, well I’ll see about that.
The good luck cat is so cute. I just wanted to put it in my bag and take it home, just like with my other kittens.
At this time, more people were coming in which made me feel sort of better. There was a couple who sat on the opposite side of us, and then later on there was a celebration with an older crowd, I guess a bunch of shanghainese people with some that can’t even speak the language, who sat literally right next to us. What the fuck, I felt so cramped, even more cramped since me and kim were sitting on the corner of this wall, wtf. Of all the places in the world, the waiters gotta set this restaurant so close next to us. Minus points.
Let’s get back to the food.
Appetizers
Steamed Pork Bun
$3.95
Verdict: This tastes like the frozen pork buns that you steam at home that you can find in an asian supermarket next to the frozen dumplings. I was very disappointed because I have tasted better before. What a let down.
Recommended: No unless you’ve never had these before.
Fried Dumplings
$3.95
Verdict: Well at least the frozen dumplings that you buy can’t taste like this dumpling here even if you fry it. This dumpling is very doughy and crisp on the outside, and the meat is sort of dried on the inside. There’s a vinegar-soy sauce dipping that you can use to enhance the flavor. It’s not bad, but it’s not the best.
Recommended: Sure, why not? You can always get a kick out of this.
Shanghai Rice Cake w/stir fried shrimp, vegetables, and pork
Price: $11.50
Verdict: I used to come here for their rice cake dish and it usually tastes so good, but that night there was something off about it. The pieces are even smaller and thiner, I guess to absorb the sauce but it really didn’t, and the sauce wasn’t thick enough. It’s still good to eat, just that my expectation went down just a little.
Recommended: I still would recommend it.
Flounder w/stir fried snowpeas, bamboos, and mushroom
$9.95
Verdict: Kim had this dish and she said it was really good. I am not a fan of seafood so I wouldn’t know. When you come to a shanghainese restaurant, seafood is not their signature dish.
Recommended: No
The Dining Experience:
It was terrible. There were flies flying all over the place and I felt like I swallowed a couple. I didn’t, but I feel like somehow I did. Me and Kim were shooing away the flies, and the loving couple on the opposite side did the same thing. I wonder just how clean this place is. It’s just disgusting, I don’t know if I’m ever going to come back to this place because of this experience.
Report Card for Cleanliness
According to health inspector of NYC:
YEAH SHANGHAI DELUXE RESTAURANT
65 BAYARD STREET, MANHATTAN 10013
Current violation points: 12
Inspection Date: 05/31/2006
Violations were cited in the following area(s) and those requiring immediate action were addressed.
1.) Toilet facility not maintained and provided with toilet paper, waste receptacle and self-closing door.
2.) Food contact surface not properly maintained.
3.) Cold food held above 41°F (smoked fish above 38°F) except during necessary preparation.
Hm… I guess the health inspector didn’t see no flies. Interesting, but it was conducted last summer, so it might be better.
Let’s check the restaurant across the street:
GREEN BO RESTAURANT
66 BAYARD STREET, MANHATTAN 10013
Current violation points: 17
Inspection Date: 03/07/2006
Violations were cited in the following area(s) and those requiring immediate action were addressed.
1.) Immersion basket not provided, used or of incorrect size. Incorrect manual technique. Test kit and thermometer not provided or used. Improper drying practices.
2.) Non-food contact surface improperly constructed. Unacceptable material used. Non-food contact surface or equipment improperly maintained.
3.) Plumbing not properly installed or maintained; anti-siphonage or backflow prevention device not provided where required; equipment or floor not properly drained; sewage disposal system in disrepair or not functioning properly.
4.) Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service.
5.) Evidence of roaches or live roaches present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas.
Yeah when I went there back 5 or 6 years ago, they still had a roach problem. Yuck.
