A Very Mellow (Mild) Christmas!

The other day, we posted our Top 5 Szechuan / Dongbei, i.e VERY spicy Chinese restaurant recommendations for you (Jews) to enjoy on Christmas Day.  By the way, of course, you can enjoy any of these Chinese restaurants ANY day of the year.  But, for those (Jews) who don’t have anything else to do on Christmas Day but go to the movies and eat Chinese food, these posts are for you!

And for those of you that spice isn’t nice to your stomach, we present to you our…

Top 5 Cantonese Style Chinese Restaurants!

You can click on our complete review of each restaurant by clicking on the name of the Chinese restaurant.

#5 – Lake Pavilion in Flushing

On most nights the restaurant is totally packed, and the line to get in for Dim Sum on weekends is out the door.  What more can one say about this bastion to Chinese food at the intersection of the Long Island Expressway and Main Street.   And you can’t miss their sign even if your speeding (like that will ever happen!) past the exit on the Expressway.

Some of the dishes we highly recommend:

• Peking Duck – PERFECT!  What more can I say?  The duck skins, served in the buns, with scallions and hoisin sauce.  Perfect!  (The rest of the duck was served in a separate platter.  I didn’t try the remainder as duck tends to be fatty and I have a sensitive stomach.  The other Mee’s liked it)
• Sauteed Lobster with ginger and scallions (Two lobsters) – OMG, this could have been the best lobster I have ever had.  I couldn’t get enough.  It melted in your mouth.
• Sauteed Scallops In Black Pepper Sauce  – Scrumdelicious!  I don’t know if that’s a word, but I don’t know how else to describe it.  The sauce was beyond belief.  I couldn’t get enough.  The broccoli with the sauce.  Kudos to the Chef!

#4 – Pearl East in Manhasset

Catering to the well-heeled clientele of the Gold Coast of Long Island, Pearl East never disappoints. Though not visually appealing from the outside, it presented quite a different ambiance on the inside.  Pure opulence, class, quality, gilt, and more.  Please note that since our initial review, Pearl East has changed its signage on the restaurant and by the entrance on Northern Boulevard.  The new signage is much more in line with their upscale style.

Pearl East features Cantonese cuisine served in a manner most fitting a royal banquet.

#3 – LN 1380 in Little Neck

The days of having to travel into Chinatown for a great meal are long gone. As the Asian population migrates east, they are bringing with them the many cuisines of China.  Long Islanders will only benefit from this great culinary migration.  LN 1380 was one of the early examples of that migration, and it has sure stood the test of time as the restaurant has been packed every time I passed it.

You will most definitely want to read our entire review of LN 1380 to know why we highly recommend it!

#2 – Asian Jewels Seafood Restaurant in Flushing

From the moment that you see Asian Jewels Seafood Restaurant, you feel like you’re walking into someplace special.  The place was immaculate.  The service was meticulous.  The waiters were attentive.  And, the bathrooms were the best I have ever seen.  We highly recommend for appetizers, Salt & Pepper Fried Squid (This dish, in my humble opinion, made the night.  The Squid wasn’t what you’d find in a fried calamari, but tasted more like shrimp.  It was a huge winner and got our meal off to a galloping start), Vietnamese Shredded Chicken, Crispy Spare Ribs.  

After completely whetting our appetite for our entrees, we recommend Lobster w/Black Bean Sauce  (most excellent! The lobsters were 1 1/4lbs.  We had two.  The lobster was already cut up into pieces and was relatively easy to get out of the shell.  Which we greedily picked up to get each piece of succulent lobster meat into our appreciative bellies), Duck w/Taro, Sea Bass w/Vegetables, Crystal Crab Meat Fried Rice, and, House Special Fried Rice.

Drum roll, please…

#1 – You Garden Xiao Long Bao in Bayside

This still relatively new Bayside location is owned by the same people who own Shanghai You Garden Dumpling House in Flushing, NY. 

People have claimed that Shanghai You Garden Dumpling House has the best soup dumplings in New York.

What’s different?  It’s larger.  The restaurant’s capacity is 50% larger than in Flushing.  What hasn’t changed?  The food.  No, wait.  That’s changed too.  Change is the wrong word.  It hasn’t changed.  It has everything that Flushing has and more!  More? 

The menu is like 30 pages long.  They added a whole page of Cold Dishes.  Cold Appetizers.  You could dine here 100 times and never eat the same dish twice.

And for those of you who keep Kosher, we offer you this bonus selection:

Cho-Sen Island in Lawrence

Cho-Sen Island is Glatt Kosher. Some of the dishes are extremely expensive (yet paradoxically, when we ate there, our bill was way lower than we expected.  Mee’s do love getting a bargain.  And, good food!)

And the food WAS good.  Surprisingly good.  A LOT better than some of the other Chinese restaurants we’ve been to.

A few complaints… the sauces tasted exactly the same on a few of our dishes.  And, our taste buds detected a lot of sodium.

We left full, bloated in fact (none of us were hungry an hour later… I purposely waited not to post this review for 24 hours just to see when we’d get hungry again).  There were leftovers as the food was very filling.  But, we didn’t fight over who was NOT going to take it.  It was taken home gleefully.

And if none of these tickle your fancy, or aren’t geographically desirable, please check our Ranking of the Best Chinese Restaurants on Long Island and New York City.  You can click on “Cuisine” on the menu, and it will sort all the restaurants by the Chinese cuisine of your choice!

‘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;

We wish everyone a very Merry Christmas, a Happy Chanukah, and best wishes for a Happy, Healthy, Prosperous, and Safe New year!

Humbly submitted for your consumption,

—Mee Magnum (“Chop!  Chop!”)

P.S.  Please note, we have not verified that all of these Chinese restaurants are in fact open on Christmas Day, so please call now to confirm, and to make a reservation!  If not, you can always try them another day.

Please share this article so others can enjoy it!