Liang’s Kitchen

Had I realized that Liang’s was on the verge of closing during my last visit, I probably would have ordered 3x and froze the leftovers for later. Instead, I ate happily while being shrouded in my ignorant bliss, feeling like I could come back anytime to enjoy one of Flushing’s better Taiwanese options. But of course, no restaurant is ever safe from the closure gods.
I will forever remember the strange, semi-​hidden basement location at the Best Western Hotel. Awkward placement at best but certainly part of the initial charm. If anything, it was a sell for people staying at the hotel. Who wouldn’t jump at the chance for quality Taiwanese fare for room service? I would.
There were so many highlights from my limited visits: A broth heaven, meat laden, noodle slurping lunch of Beef *Brisket* Noodle Soup (牛腩麵), an evening filled with minced pork over rice (滷肉飯) and their limited special of crab soup dumplings (小籠包), a work lunch consisting of pork chop over rice (排骨飯) and tea, and my baller meal of 10 peeps and numerous dishes, of which we could not stop eating the 3 flavored chicken (三味雞飯), beef pancake wrap (牛肉卷饼), red oil wontons (红油抄手), and virtually all of their cold appetizers.
Who knew I’d love a chain this much? For folks not in the know, Liang’s Kitchen locations are very much alive out west, it’s just a shame it had to close down in Flushing. As always, I hope something better comes along in its place.
R.iP. Flushing 梁媽媽家

Another good Taiwanese restaurant is closed. One of the few authentic beef noodle in nyc. So sad.

Thus far the best Taiwanese restaurant in NYC, period.
Here is the reason why, because NYC is mainly filled with bad chinese restaurants!!!
I used to live in LA for many years, and in LA, nobody would really care much for a place like Liang’s kitchen, it’s all over the place. but here (NYC), you have no choice, you’d be grateful to have a place like Liang’s. Even in Flushing where the chinese foods are supposed to be amazing, the food’s still pretty below average, and that’s how Liang’s really stood out.
Beef noodle soup was amazing, the rolled beef pancake was good, all the small dishes (tofu, pig ears, bamboo, etc) were awesome. Yet the price is only probably ²⁄₃ of Manhattan’s.

Located at the basement of the Best Western Hotel, this «speakeasy» restaurant is never crowded — but do not be deterred. Although the staff boasts a Northern Chinese accent, they serve authentic «juan cun*» items, straight from my childhood just like how my grandmother makes it. They also serve more common Chinese dishes seen in other restaurants (xlb, mapo tofu, etc), so this can also please to non adventurous Chinese food eater.
They have the best beef & tendon noodle soup I’ve ever had in the east coast so far — make sure you order it with the TORN noodles, not regular noodles. Beef noodles soup is the national dish of Taiwan, and this place is on point with the flavors of the rich, hearty beef broth and deft use of star anise. The giant bowl is served with tender pieces of well-​marinated beef, gelatinous slices of tendon, and ample amounts of green onions with some pickled greens for textural contrast. The torn noodles are wide, chewy, and satisfying — just like how juan cun noodles are usually done.
Another worth ordering is the da zui bing — sesame pancakes filled with ground pork and cilantro. If you like cilantro, make sure to get it (also, this is wayyyyy tastier than their beef rolls).
Most of the appetizers I’ve tried are also delicious, authentic in flavor, and more affordable (cold bean curd noodle, seaweed in minced garlic, stewed bamboo shoots, marinated soy gluten, spicy beef tripe). You won’t be disappointed.
— — —
*Short history lesson: «juan cun» cuisine is a subtype of Chinese food that marries traditional Taiwanese flavors and dishes with that of mainland China. This type of cooking developed in the military immigrant villages of Taiwan, where the Chinese nationalists fled to and congregated to during the rise of communism in China.

Despite growing up in Hong Kong, it as never a habit that I imbibed soy milk for breakfast with a side of crullers. However, there are days when the pang of nostalgia hits me hard and I’m wondering where I can get such a treat. When I do get a bowl of soy milk for breakfast, I prefer it salty with hot chili oil and spiked with a bit a vinegar. Liang’s Kitchen provided great variety but only a mediocre salty soy milk. It’s a long trek for me, but I can imagine myself getting the same despite my soy expectations.
Essentially, I would have preferred more vingear and more salt in the soy milk. I like it curdly and tangy. Perhaps this is a Southern Chinese preparation. Liang’s is, afterall, a Taiwanese establishment. Not the biggest disappointment, though. The spread was the real kicker.
Also had a bowl of beef noodles, beef scallion pancake roll, and the classic Taiwanese 3 cup chicken dish. I’ve had better 3 cup chicken, you can skip that. The beef noodle soup was great. It’s soup was perfect with some spice and a hit of sourness. I wish the beef scallion pancake rolls were warm but the filling and flavors were delicious. Sweet, salty, sour.
Most interesting thing is that this place is in the basement of a Best Western. Very strange. Kind of like the Asian version of a speakeasy tucked away behind some restaurant… or something.

The beef tendon noodle soup is still amazing.
This time I ordered the Mapo Tofu was just okay. It could have been a little spicier and just better overall.
This place is still not as frequented which is a good thing for me because I never have to wait to sit down. I guess being hidden in a hotel will do that.
In addition, the cell phone and data reception is NON-​EXISTENCE when you come to eat here.
Don’t sleep on this place. It is a pretty good gem.

I don’t think it’s that authentic esp when all the waiters have a northern accent it made me think I was at a northern Chinese food restaurant… I think the noodles are pretty ok but the dishes are meh… but they have Taiwan beer!!! So will go back for the beer lol

Beat Tawainese food in NYC. Get the spicy won tons and the pancakes stuffed with meat. They do amazing noodles at well.
Best hidden place in flushing since it’s below the Best Western.

The only reason you’ll go to this place is if someone tells you to. I’m telling you. Go!
It’s in the basement of a Best Western hotel (like, wtf, right?). Everyone in their right mind is wary of hotel restaurants.
Anyway a Taiwanese friend told me that Taiwanese food is hard to find and this one happens to Taiwanese AND really good.
She was right.
The walls are covered in a mixture of pictures of tasty food, and smoothies… and then fades into Taiwanese war propaganda and what appears to be very old (very cool) family photos.
Do yourself a favor and order a beef tendon noodle soup. The beef tendons are gelatinous and savory and absolutely perfect. The chunks of beef practically fall apart. It’s really really REALLY REALLY good.
We also had a beef scallion pancake which was great, but the beef tendon noodle soup was the real star.
There are tons of things I wish I could have ordered but the noodle soup was REALLY REALLY FILLING and completely worth every centimeter of stomach space.

Amazing food, cheap price, clean restrooms and average service. Despite the service just being average, I would still give it a five star due to how much I enjoyed the food here.
The noodles we tried were definitely delicious and authentic. We had the beef & tendon noodle soup (牛肉拉片), scallion noodle with egg （油蔥拌麵）and stewed pig feet noodle（豬腳麵）. The tendon in beef noodle soup were cooked perfectly and the thick noodles (拉片) seems to be handmade. Scallion noodle with egg is a simple dish, however this is like the food I would eat at late night and the taste is actually more sophisticated than it appears. The pig feet in stewed pig feet noodle was cut to the right size, and it was also very tenderness and well marinated. I really liked how all the tastes were well balanced in their noodle dishes.
Stinky tofu was also amazing if you can stand the smell and taste. Plus, if you are a fan of blue cheese and Japanese natto, you should give it a try! The tofu was fried very crispy and the taste was right. The taiwanese style kimchi that comes with it also tasted very authentic.
The dinning experience was very good for me and I like the fact that it is located in a hotel basement. Which it kind of separate from the crowds of flushing and give you a relatively peaceful place to dine.

So far I’ve tried the following:
Beef & tendon noodle soup — This might be my favorite taiwanese-​style beef noodle soup in the city so far. Noodles are thin and chewy — not quite hand pulled or homemade, but really good. Broth has a lot of salt, as it should, but it could use more depth to it — it could be improved with more fat and spicing. Yet, still better than many places. Tendon is incredible, cut to the perfect size and cooked to ideal tenderness. Beef was great as well. Despite the room for improvement, there’s no glaring weakness in this fine bowl of beef noodles.
Minced pork on rice — Another review mentioned it was dry. They were right. It needs to be greasier and incorporate fattier cuts. Of course, if a leaner version of this is what you seek, there’s not many places that make the dish with that quality. To me, it’s a hint below average.
Oyster pancake — Fresher oysters than most places. I prefer the batter to be more chewy/​glutinous, but it was good anyway.
A word on the location — it was a lot cleaner that I was expecting, with nicer flooring and interior details that come with the fact that it sits in a hotel. They do manage to dress it down with some random Chinese Nationalist war propaganda, though — that was funny.

Amazing food for dirt cheap prices.
I had worker earlier today. My shift started at 9pm, and I walked in to Mama Liangs at 8:04. Took 5 minutes to look at the menu, another 2 minutes to order, then waited 10 minutes for the food to come out. By 8:50pm, I was a satisfied customer with my full belly and went to work happy.
The bill was $ 34 for pork chop over rice, beef fried rice, tofu medallions (SO SOO DELICIOUS), hot oil wontons, and pan fried soup buns. A bit on the oily side, but other than that, everything else was fantastic.

Or as my gf and I like to say, «Mama Liang.» Come on, there’s a Mama picture as a logo. You’d never guess where its at– right underneath the Best Western Hotel. Literally, downstairs.
Here’s the deal– order the beef noodle (I get dry, but you can opt for soup) with shaved noodle. Chunky beef, thick hand pulled noodles – enough said. Eat in, slurp, get out. Scallion pancake is better elsewhere.
It’s cheap and simple. Don’t expect a fancy gourmet meal. Expect deliciousness without breaking your wallet.

Tasty Taiwanese fare that tastes like it was imported straight from the Motherland. I’ve been to this restaurant in LA as well, and was happy to see that there was also a location in NYC.
My group ordered the pickled cucumber, the jiao huo jiao huo (not sure what the English translation is!), the cold noodles, pork chop over rice, stinky tofu, and beef noodle soup. We were also given a complimentary order of beef w/​peppers wrap (tasty but way too many peppers!).
Everything was so tasty, comforting, and delicious and it just felt really homey to be sitting at a round table eating all of that food together.
Come with a large group so you can sample more things!

Liang’s Kitchen is one of the overlooked Taiwanese restaurants in Flushing. Originating in California and having a previous branch in Forest Hills, Liang’s is an example of a successful journey from west to east. The focus here is not your traditional Taiwanese dishes but rather the cuisine the Kuomintang army brought over from China.
The restaurant itself is located in the basement of the Best Western Hotel near Flushing Mall. The dining area is spacious and even has a bar at the entrance.
Minced Pork Over Rice 肉燥飯 ($ 5.95) — Instead of the «Lu Rou Fan» we are so accustomed to ordering at Taiwanese restaurants, Liang’s version is the «Rou Zao Fan» which has a more finely grounded pork. The meat is leaner and dryer than the pork belly variety of minced pork rice. I personally felt the dish needed a little bit more moisture. (⁶⁄₁₀)
Stewed Bamboo Shoots 油燜筍 ($ 4.95) — The bamboo is a refreshing chilled appetizer in a light soy sauce. This is a dish that is better slowly enjoyed throughout the meal. (⁷⁄₁₀)
Oyster Pancake 蚵仔煎 ($ 6.95) — Lacking in quality compared to the ones around the area. The egg and oyster are alright but it had a powdery texture to it. An extra scoop of sauce would have helped as parts of the omelette were bland and almost bitter. (⁶⁄₁₀)
Da Zui Bing 大嘴餅 ($ 6.95) — Literally called «big lips bun», these buns are stuffed with a cilantro, scallion, and pork mix to the point of explosion. You will need to open your mouth wide to get a bite of the extra crispy crust and filling. This dish is a must order. (⁹⁄₁₀)
Stewed Oxtail ($ 8.95) — I kind of had high hopes for the oxtails. While it is delicious, not to mention meaty and fatty, there is just not enough pieces to make this dish worth ordering again. Maybe the lunch special version has a better value. (810)
Three Cup Chicken 三杯雞 ($ 9.95) — Listed as Garlic Chicken with Basil in Casserole and also the most disappointing dish of the meal. I don’t know if we got a bad bunch out of the pot because the chicken in this dish was very dry. The larger pieces were overcooked and tough and I couldn’t finish the dish. It doesn’t help that half the contents of the casserole consisted of ginger, garlic and basil so there was barely any chicken to begin with. (⁵⁄₁₀)
Apparently if your order is over $ 30-​something, you get a choice of free Soup Dumplings ($ 5.50) or beef pancakes ($ 6.95). We chose the Xiao Long Bao and for a free dish, it was surprising good. Each bun was filled with flavorful meat and soup. The dough is very delicate as most of the dumplings popped when lifted off the steamer.

This hidden Taiwanese restaurant is my #1 to-​go spot for noodles (located in the Best Western hotel). My favorite noodle dishes are the Beef & Tendon Noodle Soup and Scallion Noodle with egg (dry). I love the broths and how chewy the noodles are. Just makes you want to slurp the whole bowl.
Another one of my favorite dish is the pork wontons. I don’t know what it is, but the broths are just so delicious. And the best part of it all is that the prices are cheap! Most items are under $ 10. I love love love this restaurant.

So I said to my GF that I wanted Asian but not the usual Cantonese joints we’ve been visiting and she recommended Liang’s. What great recommendation! Liang’s is a Taiwanese place that serves to what an unsuspecting Occidental would think was Schezuan style food. I can’t tell the difference between the two «very» different cuisines but I absolutely love both. I had the shredded beef with long spicy chili peppers. The dish was very good. The staff was attentive and friendly and they even found one person that spoke English! I’m hooked on Liang’s. Its worth traveling to from elsewhere. Just one word of advice, if you happen to visit bring a can of Raid in the event you seated in the back wall area.

Unilocal’s Chinese + Taiwanese categorization is right: Liang’s Kitchen focuses on the «juan cun» cuisine that Chinese Nationalist soldiers brought with them to Taiwan post-​1949 when they were pushed out of newly-​Communist China. (The founders of Liang’s, now a restaurant chain in California, are themselves waishengren — Chinese immigrants to Taiwan around that time.)
In other words, this is not old-​school Taiwanese (oyster pancakes, stinky tofu), or Japanese-​inflected Taiwanese (wheel cakes, oden). It’s ultra-​recent dishes that have a much closer relationship with regional Chinese food, but have since become known in their Taiwanese reincarnations (beef noodle soup, beef scallion pancake rolls).
Actually, Liang’s (in Chinese, «Liang Mama») is most known for those two items. We tried the beef scallion pancake roll — fresh, not too oily or salty, with a crisp, thin pancake. But the sliced beef shank was dry and the hoisin sauce could’ve been more than a minimal smear. It wasn’t bad, but I don’t see how this could be a destination dish. On the other hand, the beef noodle soup was great! I got mine with soft, slippery tendon. Their broth is on the clearer side, not spicy, and hits the anise note just right. The portion is gigantic, and definitely some of the better beef noodle soup in the area.
We also ordered red oil wontons, an originally Szechuan dish now popular in Taiwan. They were delicious: tiny, thin-​skinned wontons in a bright red bath of chili oil had just the right level of gentle heat. It comes in a tiny bowl, which is disappointing until you realize that the bowl actually fits 8 wontons.
Finally, we tried another Szechuan-​influenced item: liang mian (cold noodles). Here they were fresh and cooling, with great noodle consistency and a perfect balance of sesame and soy sauces. I’ve actually only ever had Taiwanese liang mian, and have no idea what the Szechuan version tastes like… Liang Mama’s is not spicy, and has hints of rice wine vinegar to complement the sesame.
Liang Mama’s location is definitely a little weird — one flight of stairs down the lobby of Best Western hotel. While food presentation is better than most other places in Flushing (never have I seen Taiwanese bento plated so nicely!), the décor isn’t notably better, especially since Flushing businesses in general have been stepping it up in terms of brightness and cleanliness.
Last note: Of course we should leave politics out of food… but the posters ALL OVER the walls depicting Chinese fighter planes (or, I guess, American ones with Chinese Nationalist insignia) shooting Japanese planes out of the air? UNCOMFORTABLE. What exactly is the message here? It just feels tacky to stick Chinese military propaganda on the walls of a Taiwanese restaurant.

3.5 stars
We wanted dim sum but after seeing the long wait at Asian Jewels Seafood, I thought I’d try the beef roll here since it’s gotten good reviews. We got:
Scallion Pancake with Beef: 2.5÷5
To be brutally honest, I think the folks saying that the LK’s scallion pancake w/​beef roll is good hasn’t had the real deal. The pancake was on the thicker side and the beef was dry and lacking flavor. Diverse Dim Sum in Flushing Mall has better Taiwanese style beef roll than LK (at least the last time I tried). The only thing that made the beef roll good here was my generous pour of chili oil, which had a dried oregano like herb in it.
Dry Noodles with Beef: 3.5÷5
The noodles were hand pulled, thick and wide. A bit too thick and wide to be used in this sautéed version of the beef noodle soup. I don’t know if this is their style or they just didn’t pull the noodles enough but a little less thickness and width would’ve been better. The little bit of broth we got with this actually packed a lot of flavor and there were some substantial pieces of tendon. I think the soup version of this dish would be really good — not just for the flavor but also to help balance the noodle.
Oxtail with rice: ⁴⁄₅
I usually get pork chop with rice or minced pork over rice at Taiwanese joints but oxtail and I… well, we have a history. I love oxtail and oxtail loves me, so I decided to give it a try. The oxtail was falling off the bone — which is the way I like it. The flavor was pretty decent too, and the dish came with an egg and pickled veggies, all of which I cleaned out.
I’d come back here. I’m curious about the beef tendon noodle soup and I also want to try their pork chop or minced pork over rice. Just have to force myself to stay away from the beef roll.

Food here is OK. I would still opt for other places when craving Taiwanese food. We had the fried dumplings + I had the fried pork chop in soup noodles. Both of the dishes were kinda eh. Not super flavorful, but good enough to eat. If I want dumplings, I’d head to King 5 Noodle House, and to Lu’s Seafood for the fried pork chops. I also had a taste of my friend’s oxtail dish… same thing — kinda bland, but he liked it.
There is a huge language barrier here. I don’t speak Mandarin, but most waiters in other establishments understand me when I speak in Cantonese. When I ordered the fried pork chops in soup noodles, they misunderstood me for «fried red bean cake». Not sure how that flies, but when I addressed it, they gave the red bean cake to us for free and put in the correct order.
The restaurant is in an odd place. It’s in the basement area of the Best Western… and the restrooms are right across from some hotel rooms. I feel bad for any guests that end up on this floor!