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China Chalet
Category: Restaurants Chinese Chinese [Edit]
90 Broad St(between Stone St & Bridge St)
New York, NY 10004
Neighborhood: Financial District
(212) 747-9099
- Nearest Transit:
-
Whitehall St (N, R)
Bowling Green (4, 5)
South Ferry (1)
- Hours:
Mon-Fri 11 am - 8:30 pm
- Attire:
- Casual
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Street
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Takes Reservations:
- Yes
- Delivery:
- Yes
- Take-out:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Good For:
- Lunch
- Alcohol:
- Full Bar
- Noise Level:
- Average
- Has TV:
- Yes
- Caters:
- Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- No
Jezzie X. said: "What a gastronomic feast! The minute you walk in, your noses are assaulted with that indescribable smell of spice and musk and hot boiling soups that gets you in the mood right away. Thin slices of tender lamb, mushrooms, black fungus…" read more »
6 reviews for China Chalet
6 reviews in English
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Review from Karen F.
10/5/2011
China Chalet is a Wall Street classic.
Been here forever and serves a very good, filling, tasty, classic Chinese-American lunch.
Accommodating to large (we often take groups of 12 - 25) groups and will even do separate checks if you warn them in advance (with a huge group that's the kind thing to do.
The Chicken with Chinese eggplant (ask for light on the sauce to mitigate any potential greasy-gloppiness) is great. I also like the Chicken with string beans (again - I ask for it light on the oil. light on the sauce - and also to sub brown rice).
A decent, moderately priced, BIG, filling lunch.
Now me needs a nippy-nap! -
Review from Steve G.
Union, NJ
12/21/2011
Thirty years ago this type of Sino-American food was typical of Chinese restaurants, and inexpensive. If you seek nostalgia, read no further and enjoy. The food here is greasy (with stale oil), covered in sugary sauces and overloaded with vegetable filler material. This might be tolerable as a novelty-- once-- were it not for the outrageous prices. The dining room is pleasant and the service adequate, but far better Chinese food can be had in this neighborhood at half the price.
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Review from michael p.
PECK SLIP, NY
9/30/2011
Food was good, atmosphere and restaurant needs help. Not the kind of place you would want to take a date. Definitely was not impressed with this part of town.
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Review from Galvin C.
8/5/2010
Needless to say, this review is only in regards to the dim sum, seeing as I haven't ordered anything from the kitchen, because ordering something from the kitchen when you can have dim sum instead is stupid.
China Chalet (are there any chalets in China?) is essentially Bizarro Chinatown dim sum. Same basic food, opposite approach. I mean, right off the bat, instead of riding a long escalator up to the dining room, you descend several short flights of stairs down to the basement. Crazy! And the differences become even more differenty from there. I've been watching waaaaaaay too much Deadliest Warrior lately, so let's break these two down into several different categories and settle once and for all which...one...is...deliciousest!
LOCATION
Chinatown Dim Sum (CDS): Chinatown. A filthy, poor part of town that smells like a giant prison shower that at least two fat convicts just farted in.
China Chalet (CC): A filthy rich part of town that I am only looking for lunch in because I am already there all day sitting in a tiny cubicle that seems specifically engineered to make me wish more and more that I had become an electrician or something instead.
Edge: Uh, tie
SERVICE
CDS: Fleet of carts piloted by jabbering old prunes whose primary job responsibilities seem to be overlooking your table and being committed to never understanding that you don't understand Chinese. Waiters hate you and you only ever get silverware, tea, etc. because they threw it at you from across the room and missed your head, instead landing on the table.
CC: Single cart manned by a friendly, attentive English-speaking lady who actually makes recommendations, assuring you that every other dish is either your or her "favorite." The rest of the wait staff, too, is (relatively speaking) eerily semi-attentive and even friendly, a crime for which I'm sure their people will one day hunt them down.
Edge: China Chalet
PRICING
CDS: All food is literally dirt-cheap, by which I mean, if you really wanted, you could probably pay for your food with a big bag of dirt. Cash and credit accepted as well, possibly also some of your better garbage from home.
CC: This being the Fi'Di', everything is priced at a 25-40% premium over Chinatown pricing. Consider it a cleanliness/friendliness tax.
Edge: Chinatown
CLEANLINESS
CDS: God is dead.
CC: Acceptable.
Edge: China Chalet
FOOD QUALITY
CDS: Goddamn delicious, so long as you don't let yourself think too much about how the food is probably prepared or what the kitchen is like. Also, ordering a shrimp dish is tantamount to ordering an organic marine-burrito filled with poop.
CC: Passable to okay. Shumai is very, very processed; I'm talking one solid lump. But the roast pork buns and red-bean sesame buns are surprisingly good (neither are usually one of my favorite items), and those shrimp-wrapped-in-fat-white-noodles things (I always forget the name) aren't bad either, though obviously inferior to the real thing. On the other hand, again, I feel better about eating shrimp here because it likely only has a tiny smidge of poop in it, rather than overflowing with it.
Edge: Chinatown
Okay, we have our data, which I have input into a sophisticated battle simulator computer program--by which I mean I ate here twice--to determine the winner. In the end, though the score appears to be even, Chinatown wins where it counts: Sheer deliciousness power. Everything else, while still something important to consider, is just a nice bonus/something to put up with.
Winner: Chinatown
That said, I'm sure as long as I'm working here, I'll still be stopping by China Chalet now and again. Overall, the food is mediocre, but it's just good enough to scratch the dim sum itch, and the sheer novelty of friendly/competent Chinese service pushes it over the three-star mark. Truly though, China Chalet is a restaurant of trade-offs.Listed in: Lunchtime in the Financial…
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Review from avi d.
New York, NY
2/16/2010
its a weird space in an odd corner is the city. The food is much better in person than delivered. I used to walk by this place a bunch and thought it eternally closed but its open for dinner. Went the other night and we were the only people in there, it was pretty eerie considering the size of the basement level dining room.
If its breaded and fried its pretty good, else mediocre. I strongly prefer #1 little house 2 blocks away -
Review from Ralph R.
Bronx, NY
Pretty good restaurant , hidden on the side, when you come over try the shredded beef in garlic sauce.
