Pricing: Not Cheap
Venue: Sit Down
Cuisine: Chinese, BBQ
Favorite Dish(es): BBQ Ribs, Crystal Shrimp Dumplings

Nancy’s Pig Heaven gets its name from specializing in pork dishes, and their menu is even broken down by whether the dishes have pork or not (Hot Pig, Hot No Pig). Their trademark pig dish is their BBQ Ribs. These aren’t American style ribs by any means (see Dinosaur BBQ), but rather a Chinese version marinated in various Asian spices and slow-cooked with a super sticky and sweet deep red glaze. You might see these on the menu at a typical Chinese takeout place, but it’s highly unlikely that theirs will be nearly as moist or flavorful as these. If you fancy sweet meats, this is the spot for sweet, sticky, and succulent ribs. Beyond the ribs, the menu is fairly comprehensive with a good variety of familiar Chinese restaurant dishes (mostly sauteed and not deep-fried), including an assortment of dim sum favorites. The interior is very clean and more upscale than your average sit-down Chinese restaurant, with a funky little pig shrine area and a Chinatown-style decorated open kitchen with BBQ’d meats hanging in the window. They’ve got great service, with attentive and friendly waitstaff (instead of the usual grumbly downtown attitude). Nancy’s truly is a little slice of Chinatown on the Upper East Side, the only drawback being the Upper East Side prices. If this is where pigs go to heaven, make sure they stop by your stomach on the way.

Sorry, no pics this time…!

Online Menu

Pricing:Cheap
Venue: Sit Down
Cuisine: Chinese, Dim Sum
Favorite Dish(es): Steamed shrimp rolls, Crystal Shrimp Dumplings, BBQ Pork Buns

Lately we’ve been on a dim sum streak. It’s the ultimate recession meal plan.  As mentioned in our previous dim sum posts, we’re usually too lazy (and hungry) to get up and make it all the way down to Chinatown before the big rush on the weekends. However, this one time we had early afternoon plans in the area and Dim Sum fit perfectly into the schedule, so we set out to check out Chatham Sq Restaurant, at the corner of Mott and Chatham Square (across from Dim Sum Go Go).  It’s a much smaller place than the main Dim Sum bastions (Jing Fong and Golden Unicorn), but is just as busy as the larger restaurants with equally high turnover, making it good for small groups and impatient (redundant) New Yorkers.

THE GOOD

The star of the show. Steamed shrimp rice crepe/rolls. Nothing fancy here, just a great crepe skin and fresh shrimp.

Fresh, perfectly steamed crystal shrimp dumplings. Some of the best we've had in Chinatown.

Steamed Char Siu Bao, or BBQ Pork Buns. Sure, you can get these almost anywhere in Chinatown, but these were served fresh and hot, with a very tasty BBQ pork filling. We saved one for the road as dessert.

THE NOT SO GOOD

We were in a rush and didn’t feel very adventurous, so we made a few bad judgment calls trying to play it safe.  Next time, we’re just going to order what the old grannies at the other tables are ordering.

Here are some of the other less notable dishes we encountered:

These are supposed to be Shao Long Bao, but were small, wrinkled, and overcooked with no soup.

Some sort of firm, flavorless fishcake. Not horrible, but a waste of space.

They looked nice, but were super doughey on the inside, like they were filled with extra dumpling skin. All dump, no ling.

All in all, the bill for two (very stuffed) people came out to less than $22.  Well worth waking up a little early on the weekend to do brunch the Chinatown way.

Pricing: Cheap
Venue: Sit Down
Cuisine: Chinese, Dim Sum
Favorite Dish(es): Steamed Rice Rolls w/ Shrimp $4.95, Steamed Chive & Shrimp Dumplings $4.95, Turnip Cakes $4.95

Jing Fong is a huge restaurant with a flagship restaurant in China, with a full course menu catering to large groups and wedding banquets. This is one of the biggest and most well-known dim sum establishments in Chinatown that pretty much defines the weekend dim sum experience. But we’re too lazy to get downtown on the weekend before noon, so we opted to check out their “Dim Sum On-Demand” during the week after work. It may sound like a new service from your local cable tv provider, but it’s basically just a few of their favorite most popular dim sum dishes available any time. It’s definitely worth your while to wake up early one weekend to sample their entire selection at their peak freshness, and experience NYC Chinatown dim sum at its best. For convenience, you definitely sacrifice freshness, but it’s still good enough for those midweek cravings of shrimp rice rolls. Worth a visit.

Dim Sum On-Demand, order by picture.

Classy banquet style decor, karaoke performers during special events.

Dim Sum Go Go
5 E Broadway, between Catherine St and Chatham Sq
(212) 732-0797

Pricing: Not Cheap
Venue: Sit Down
Cuisine: Chinese, Dim Sum
Favorite Dish(es): Steamed Rice Rolls w/ Shrimp $4.95, Steamed Chive & Shrimp Dumplings $4.95, Turnip Cakes $4.95

No, this isn’t a place for takeout dim sum, which would probably be a bad idea anyway. It is, however, a cool little spot at the edge of Chinatown where you can get dim sum whenever you want it, if you wake up late on the weekends (like we do) and miss the early morning brouhaha at the larger dim sum establishments such as Jing Fong or Golden Unicorn. You’ll find some of the more popular dim sum dishes including an assortment of steamed dumplings, turnip cakes, sticky rice, fried dough balls, and steamed rice crepe rolls, but they also have a full dinner menu as well. The dim sum is still the main attraction here. The dishes are prepared fresh and come out steaming hot, unlike most other places, and you pencil in your own order on a little crib sheet as soon as you sit down. The only drawback is that their dim sum is a bit more expensive than other traditional dim sum places, but if quality and convenience matter to you, then you get what you pay for. Make sure to get there before 4 PM if you’re going to order the Steamed Shrimp Rice Rolls, the crepe-like dish with sweetened soy sauce on top. As you can see from the pics below, we missed them this round.

Soybean snacks, pungent sweet and sour sauces, spicy dried pork sauce

Turnip Cakes

Chive & Shrimp Dumplings

Crab Dumplings

Online Menu

100 Mott Street, between Canal and Hester Sts
(212) 966-3988‎

Pricing: Cheap
Venue: Sit Down
Cuisine: Chinese
Favorite Dish(es): Crab and Pork Soup Dumplings ($8.95), Spicy Beef Stew Noodle Soup ($8.95)

This is a pretty cheap and clean place on the Soho side of Canal that has pretty much everything Chinatown has to offer, from really good fresh soup dumplings to noodle soups and roast meats over rice. Everything we’ve ever ordered has been pretty good here, even the Kung Pao Chicken for more common tastes. We’re no experts on Shanghai cuisine, but this place seems to do it just fine.

Crab and Pork Soup Dumplings

Crab and Pork Soup Dumpling

Beef Noodle Soup

Pricing: Cheap
Venue: Sit Down or Take Out
Cuisine: Chinese
Favorite Dish(es): Sesame pancake sandwich w/ Roast Pork ($2.99), Chives and Pork Dumplings Boiled (8 pcs $3.49)

It’s one huge room- packed w/ people standing in a semi-line waiting to order. Others crowded around the cooking station waiting for their order. Others standing around w/ trays waiting to snatch a table when someone leaves. It’s chaotic- but when you’ve finally ordered, picked up your food, and found a seat- you’ll enjoy a piping hot, delicious meal. The dumplings are tasty and obviously handmade w/ its thick wrap and seasoned meat inside. We thought the real winner of this place, despite the name, was their sesame pancake sandwich. The sesame pancake “bread wrap” thing was so good, we’d eat anything in there just to eat that pancake. It’s slightly seasoned, slightly salty, slightly crunchy, slightly chewy, and very oily.
You have to try one.
They also have soups, congee, noodles, teriyaki, and rolls.