When every sign seems to be screaming something at you in Chinese, vying for your attention and a few dollars from your precious college-student wallet, it can be an intimidating task to find a place to eat in Chinatown. Here are five places that offer some of the cheapest and most satisfying Chinese food in lower Manhattan.
Prosperity Dumpling | 46 Eldridge St.
Prosperity Dumpling is a reliable place to start. An order of five chive and pork fried dumplings costs a meager $1, eight cabbage and pork dumplings suspended in a perfectly seasoned broth cost $2.50, and a hot, fresh wedge of sesame pancake costs $1. The most expensive item on the menu for eating in is a large soup at $4, and you can buy fifty frozen dumplings to take home for $9. Value wise, it’s the smartest decision a college student craving Chinese can make.
Sun Sai Gai Restaurant | 220 Canal St.
If you happen to be craving Chinese carbohydrates, this restaurant features a small baked goods counter with a constant rotation of freshly baked Chinese goodies, none of which cost more than $1.10. Although the restaurant itself may not be considered the most high-quality establishment, it’s worth going to for the 90¢ coconut bun, which is a meal in itself.
Dragon Land Bakery | 125 Walker St.
If you’re looking to wash down your ridiculously affordable meal with some bubble tea, you can find Dragon Land Bakery right across the street from Sun Sai Gai. The bubble tea here goes for $3.75, which may seem pricey, but considering the perfect ratio of cooked bubbles to rich and creamy tea, which comes in all sorts of delicious varieties, it’s one of the best deals you’ll find in the city for bubble tea. It also comes in only one size: large enough to count as lunch.
Joe’s Shanghai | 9 Pell St.
A rung higher in the price and value ladder, Joe’s Shanghai is the ideal place to gather a large group of dumpling enthusiasts to bond over some of the best soup dumplings in Chinatown. For $42 ($7 each if you get a group of six together, for example) you can feast upon two orders of pork soup dumplings, two orders of crab soup dumplings, an order of fried pork dumplings and an order of scallion pancakes.
Big Wong King | 67 Mott St.
This is at the tip-top of the price and value ladder. A plate of some of the best roast pork or duck over a mountain of white rice doused with a delicious magical sauce costs a meager $5.25. Notable also are the shrimp and pork dumplings, which may be the third most delectable thing Big Wong has to offer, for an all-time high of $7.25. It’s worth the splurge if you want to impress a date with your extensive, seemingly insider knowledge of the best eats in Chinatown.
Katya Simkovich is a contributing writer. Email her at [email protected].
