Christmas-6 Days: Best Chinese Restaurants in Queens

‘Twas the week before Christmas, when all through the shul
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mule;
The shmatas were hung by their menorah with care,
In hopes that their Christmas Dinner soon would be there;
The children were nestled all snug in their beds;
While visions of Chinese food danced in their heads;

And for all our brethren in New York City who have suffered as they drooled over our list of best Chinese restaurants on Long Island, now it is your turn.  G-d forbid you have to fight Christmas traffic and sit on the Long Island Expressway for hours on end before you can get your Chinese food, we bring the Chinese food to you.  No, we’re not delivering.  But, we are going to deliver to you the list of our favorite Chinese restaurants in New York City.

Ok New York City, yes, we are going to disappoint you all yet again.  For those of you who think that New York City is just Manhattan, WAKE UP!  

In fact, for your ignorance, we are going to spite you people (very Christmassy of me, isn’t it?), as we have since we started this Quest.  

When are you people going to make it easy to drive into Manhattan for Pete’s sake?  Traffic.  Tolls.  Parking.  Nightmares.  So nu?  For all intents and purposes, we’ve pretty much only ventured as far as Queens.  Queens IS part of New York City though, y’know?!

(Key: = Excellent |  = Very Good|  = Average| = Below Average| = Unrated)

So what are the top three Chinese restaurants in Queens?  WOW, that’s a tough one.  We have come to love so many different Chinese restaurants in Flushing and Little Neck that picking just three is almost as difficult as finding a parking spot in Chinatown!

Here’s our list.  Got a better one?  Let us know your thoughts in the comments below or on our Facebook page.

The 3 Best Chinese Restaurants in Queens

Joe’s Shanghai, Flushing, NY

Joe’s was the first Chinese restaurant we ate at when we first ventured into Queens.  This is a real authentic Chinese restaurant.  The kind we’ve been looking for.  No sugars and sweeteners to go with our tea.  No fried noodles to munch on.  No spareribs on the menu (Heaven forbid!  What were we to do without our staple for comparative purposes??).  Joe’s Shanghai has a few different locations, including one in Chinatown, one in midtown, as well as in China and even Japan.  But, it all started at this very location in Flushing, NY.  

Joe’s Shanghai is famous for Soup Dumplings!  But, that’s not all they should be known for.  We had a veritable feast of Braised Pork Shoulder, Soft Shelled Crabs, Chicken w/Hoisen Sauce, Water Spinach w/White Bean Sauce, Scallops & Prawns w/Garlic Sauce, Scallion Pancakes.  And as if SIX entrees weren’t enough for FIVE hungry Mee’s, we ordered a SEVENTH entree, Lobster w/Fried Rice Cake.  And finally, for dessert, they made us a special dish of Fried & Steamed Mini Buns w/Sweet Sauce.  YUM!

Shanghai Cuisine 33, Flushing, NY

Shanghai Cuisine 33 is situated on Main Street in Flushing, but not near the heart of downtown Flushing, but south of there and just north of the Long Island Expressway.  Other Chinese restaurants that we have reviewed near Shanghai Cuisine 33 are “Lake Pavillion” and “Imperial Taiwanese Gourmet”.  

On the menu they offer three different types of Soup Dumplings.  We opted to try two of them.  Crab and Pork Soup Dumplings, and Black Truffle Soup  Dumpling.  I have to say, these were some of the best soup dumplings I have ever had.  If you closed your eyes (though be careful you don’t burn your mouth and tongue), I’d be hard-pressed to tell these apart from those found at Joe’s Shanghai in the heart of downtown Flushing.  But, hey, that’s just Mee!

Some of our favorite entrees were Chilean Sea Bass – Each piece was served up on a piece of zucchini and topped with scallions.  This was a Quest-worthy dish if ever we had one… and for $16, it’s the Steal of the Century.  Shanghai Noodles with Chinese Leeks, Pork, and Mushrooms.  Fabulous.  Just the right amount of flavor and seasoning.  Snow Peas with Garlic, and Braised Spring Chicken with Spicy House Special Sauce.

Spicy & Tasty, Flushing, NY

This was one restaurant that we wouldn’t have ever stumbled in to even if we were just looking for a pot to pee in and every other store was closed.  This restaurant was situated in the heart of Flushing amidst a thousand other Chinese restaurants.  The menu was filled with such unfamiliar dishes that we relied heavily upon our servers’ recommendations to regale us with an authentic Chinese meal.  Fair warning:  Some of the staff didn’t speak English (in fact, when you call you’re greeted in Chinese).  But this is just the kind of Chinese restaurant that we seek.  

Warning #2:  These dishes are hot, Hot, HOTT!  And Tasty!  For appetizers, we had Seaweed with Fresh Garlic (Very nicely offset the hot spices in all the other dishes we had), Cucumber in Sesame Oil Salad, Chicken Bo-bo (Gosh that was one spicy chicken dish.  Yet, quite tasty!  Hmm… perhaps that’s where the restaurants name came from!), Slicked Pork with Garlic Sauce – (YUMMY!   Almost like undercooked bacon.  Tasty without the salmonella).  Our entrees were: Shrimp with Black Bean Sauce (Out of this world!), Spicy Double Cooked Pork with Black Bean Sauce (A little dryer than the sliced pork in our appetizer, yet had a more distinctive smoked taste and went down just as smoothly.  The dish was served with leeks – perhaps the best vegetable of the many accompanying vegetables), Sliced Beef in Fresh Hot Pepper (Like butter.  My favorite dish!), Dan-Dan Noodle w/Minced Pork (This was a nice surprise.  It’s a good thing our server served up this dish.  I don’t think we would have known to have mixed it all up before doling it out.  I loved the taste of these noodles, and it had a little hidden kick at the end.  We ordered two of these dishes they were so good!)

It was VERY hard to limit this article to just three Chinese restaurants in New York City, err, Queens.  And as you’ll notice, all of our choices were located in Queens in Flushing.  Though, as noted, there is a Joe’s Shanghai in Manhattan that Mee V. Stoogas went to.  

Honorable Mentions:

(click on the name of the restaurant to read our review)

• LN 1380, Little Neck, NY
• The Grain House, Little Neck, NY
• Fu Run, Flushing, NY

And as a reminder, if you live way out east, please check out our article on the best Chinese restaurants in Suffolk County, and if you’re in between, please check out our article on the best Chinese restaurants in Nassau County.

So there you have it.  Our complete guide to dining out Jewish-style on Christmas.  We hope you enjoyed our recommendations, and please feel free to comment on them as well as add to the list of your favorite Chinese restaurants.

Humbly submitted for your consumption,

—Mee Magnum  (“Chop!  Chop!”)

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