No 1 Chinese Restaurant

CUISINE: Chinese (Americanized)
TYPE: CASUAL/​FAST
I moved to New York about a year and a half ago, and this little cash-​only spot was one of the first I ate at. Since then, I’ve made many a stop here, whether for a quick meal or to grab take-​out on the way home to my apartment.
Pros:
–Great portions and bang for your buck, especially on combos and noodle dishes.
–Surprisingly good spare ribs and rib tips compared to other spots I’ve frequented in New York City. Juicy and cheap.
–Braised Beef Noodles are extremely tasty and always packed with veggies too.
–Quality is decent, especially for what amounts to a hole in the wall. Stay away from seafood and you should be ok, although the shrimp is still pretty good.
–SPEED. The food comes out quick and hot within 15 minutes of ordering around 90% of the time.
Cons:
–Tiny dining/​waiting area
–Dumplings are expensive compared to other options in the area like Vanessa’s
–BBQ Pork and boneless spareribs are WAYYYYYYY too sweet, to the point of inedible.
–Constantly running out of brown rice
— Fried Chicken is cheap but also consistently overfried and dry.
In conclusion-​good spot for a quick bite and good value, but don’t expect to be blown away by anything. Northern Chinese should also find good nostalgic flavors from their noodles.
–Jin

This is one of the closest Chinese food restaurants to my job, so I decided to give them a couple of tries, hoping the second visit would erase the misrepresentation of the first. The first time I ordered lobster lo mein, which to my dismay had no lobster in it, but chewy crawfish tails. My wife is from Louisiana so I’m well versed in all things crawfish. Strike one! Today I ordered crab sticks with fried rice, which I figured was simple and quick. I waited over 15 minutes for my order, where even people who came in and ordered after me got their food before me. Strike two! There was nothing fresh about the beer battered crab sticks (foul tip), and what made it strike three was the piece of pork in the plain fried rice. I will never give this dump another penny. Good luck if you do!!!

Calling this No.1 is a stretch, maybe No. 356 — in NYC — would be more accurate. In any case, this hole the in the wall Chinese joint on 1^st ave has all your standard issue take out staples, plus what seems to be an extended menu of fried items. What they lack in atmosphere they certainly make up for in speed. They CRANK the food out (for better or worse), especially during lunch hours. Lunch specials give you a lot of bang for the buck, but again, it’s a standard Chinese take out spot, so plan on eating 75% rice. Should you live in the area it’s a good spot for some quick Chinese favorites via takeout or delivery.

There are very few Chinese restaurants left in my neighborhood. I will support this one. Is it the best? Probably not. But for what you pay for people should not complain. Most of the sour reviews come from people who want to pay $ 5.00 for a meal and expect Waldorf food and service.

was fine until recently —- now portions are much smaller and no taste. bland, nothing has any taste. i’m done here.

Not sure why they aren’t rated higher but their chicken with broccoli is amazing. The service is quick and prices are great.

Where to begin. This «B» rating chinese food is soggy, watery, and overall just gross. I ordered broccoli and bean sauce and the first thing i saw when i opened the container was a long dark thick hair follicle (I’m blonde!). If you want great tasting chinese food, head over just a few more blocks to Mee Noodle.

No 1 Chinese Restaurant has some enemies. I’m not sure why. I got the pleasantly spicy cold sesame noodles, and the very fresh Chinese broccoli with oyster sauce.
I like the fact that the food photos on the left wall are realistic depictions. There are a few in the front that stick to the exaggerated shrimp glamour shots often found in the genre.

There is nothing I could write about this place that would be extraordinary. It’s just a basic Chinese place. Very average.
Their General Tso’s chicken was too sweet.
Very nice quantities though.
I don’t think I will be eating from here again though.

I don’t know who in their right mind would give this place anything more than 3 star. User must be fake or paid to write them
I really wanted this place to be good it’s 5 minutes away from work. I’ve ordered four times tricking myself into believing it’ll be better next time. But no more! every dish I ordered was below standard that I wouldn’t even feed it to my dog!
Order the lunch special MOGO Gai pan (chicken mushroom and veggie over rice). Thing was bad, the mushroom wasn’t even cut thin enough to be cooked through. I had to sent it back and when return a few mushrooms were still uncooked. The rice was horrible, it had a hard center which means they didn’t put enough water. Then I lie to myself thinking they had a off day and order three more times. Chicken wings with beef rice was avg at best. The spare ribs over rice wasn’t anything special, they only give you three ribs unlike other Americanized chinese spots that give out 4! Every order the rice is always uncooked. It’s like chewing on bird seed. Yes they charge 6 – 7 dollars per order but why wouldn’t you spend an extra .50-.75 cent for food that’s actually tasty somewhere else?
I’ll rather walk an extra few blocks for better food. I don’t deserve the crap they serve here.

They serve the best food around this area! All the price are acceptable, cheaper around this area, too! The people who works there are very friendly, they work very hard to give the best food to customers. Also every time you come only need to wait for few minutes can get the food!
I like the heath food over there, totally steam food with brown rice, no oil sauces on the side. Every dish I can ask for chef stem, since I eat by this way, I lost 30 pounds!!! For 3 months !
Sincerely recommends this Rest. go try find out, U will love them BEST！！！

I love their chicken wings! I order 20 of them last time and they are good! Forget about the Chinese food there and go for the «American food»! Chicken wing, fried shrimp and fried chickens are great! Or the best among all chicken wings. Try their wings! It’s a new flavor you’ll never had in other American restaurants!

The funny thing about this name is that when I was little I really thought it was called no 1 taste … And I couldn’t understand for the life of me why someone would name their restaurant no 1 taste since I assumed they wanted people to taste their food lol #dontjudgeme I was 7 and hadn’t learned abbreviations yet… ok on too the review I wasn’t expecting much and to be honest it’s not that bad ! I mean it is only 6.00 and but includes a drink or soup if your looking for inexpensive lunch that will fill you up than go for it if you want your taste buds to be taken on a magical journey of wonderfullness (I know that’s not a word lol) … than I would pass :)

They cook with leftover vegetables like from the garbage. Definitely not fresh stuff. If you want to enjoy your food, avoid.

This place is just ok. Decent general tso chicken but flavorless fried rice and greasy noodles. Really fast but delivery guys are pushy for a tip.

This was bad, even for Americanized Chinese.
Several dishes were sub-​par, and believe you me, I tried a bunch: their vegetarian fried rice was frightening — how on earth do you screw that up? — and the moo goo gai pan was similarly bad (though you shouldn’t really get this anywhere), while their dumplings weren’t anything to write home about. On the bright side, the shrimp lo mein was passable, and the beef and broccoli the only redeeming dish.
If you’re desperate and order from here, take comfort in the fact that they’ve got some patient, hardworking staff[1].
[1] Long story, but if you ever meet me, ask me about it.

The food was ok. Nothing special. They do have an a rating for cleanliness.

My friend divides Chinese restaurants into two categories; those with the pictures of the food and those without. This falls into the first category. To be honest, I’ve never ordered anything more than fried rice here, so I can’t speak to the overall quality. I’d imagine it’s not spectacular. If you want a sophisticated sit-​down sort of restaurant, this isn’t your joint. The fried rice is decent, and you can see right into the kitchen, but I can’t decide whether or not that’s a good thing. It seems relatively clean for a this sort of Chinese place, and I give it three stars for the fried rice. From a service standpoint, I wouldn’t exactly call the staff their warm and fuzzy; gruff and disconnected is more like it, but I suppose that’s probably cultural.
Stop in for the fried rice. Everything else is a crap shoot according to this cowpoke.

I have never wanted to give a place 0 stars as much as this joint, and unfortunately I have to give it at least 1 star. This is by far the WORST CHINESE FOOD I HAVE EVER EATEN IN MY LIFE!!! My bf and I live in stuytown and we had never ordered takeout from here, and I’m surprised a place so awful can still be in business. We ordered a few different things because we were starving and every single freaking thing tasted absolutely disgusting. I only tasted the pineapple chicken which was bland and overly fried, the orange chicken which was so overcooked and overdone it was barely chewable and some noodle dish that was so gross I didn’t even want to feed it to my dog.
Avoid this like the bubonic plague! Your health depends on it.

One of the worst chinese place i have ever order from. Delivery was fast but who cares if their food takes like sh**!!!
Argh. Such a waste of money!