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Lexington-3rd Aves-51st St (6, E, V)
"I think this place is still very much in its prime. A wide variety of dishes, great dumpling offerings, superb service. If you need a…" read more »
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You generally have to go to the bowels of Chinatown to experience a Chinese restaurant with food this good and so lacking in charm. Those two things always seem to go hand-in-hand, don't they?
Mee is definitely an institution in the Midtown East neighborhood and I know it's a favorite of lots of people around there. Their food is excellent with a relatively traditional (I would say "typical," but that makes it sound so boring!) American Chinese menu, and that does entail a pretty extensive offering of very good dishes. I highly recommend the General Tso's Chicken which is supremely spicy and in my experience, always fresh. Their noodle dishes are also excellent and I really like the beef Chow Fun. The portions are enormous and the price is just right, especially considering that you're in Midtown.
Lots of people here order food to take-out, but you can also dine-in in their fluorescent-lit, cafeteria-like dining room, which is generally fairly crowded. You can observe businessmen and tourists alike enjoying their meals here. Service is pretty abrupt and not all that friendly, but certainly efficient. Overall, probably among the best in the area and highly recommended if you're nearby.
There used to be a Mee Noodle location in the East Village, but the building it was in became structurally unsound and the entire thing was condemned and demolished.
Hate it when that happens to a restaurant I like.
I knew that they had another location somewhere, but never got around to going until this weekend, when I was in the neighborhood with a couple friends.
It's the mirror image of the old EV location! Same long, horizontal kitchen arranged along the right side as you walk in; same small dining room on the right, same chairs and tables.
Same food. Same old faves: Crunchy, not-too-greasy scallion pancakes; cold (but not distant) sesame noodles...
Definitely not the worst moo shu pork I've had, and probably better than many you'll find. VERY likable sesame beef, which is (I guess) deep fried, and crunchy-skinned, salty and sweety, with some sesames sprinkled on top. Pretty addictive.
Oddly, they gave our party of three only two pancakes with our moo shu pork (and charged .50 cents extra for additional ones). Grumble grumble grumble grumble....
When they brought the check they gave us the usual fortune cookies. But they only gave us two.
Two (fortunes) divided by three (people) equals .66/fortune each...
How unfortunate.
so earlier i reviewed bar tabac in brooklyn writing that it was the only place in the universe that accepted amex... i was wrong, so so wrong.
apparently this is spreading.. (or i'm going to lesser known and even lesser liked restaurants) because ladies n gentlemen, mee noodle shop is yet another such joint that accepts cash and amex! (both of which i rarely have on me)
anywho, was there earlier in the evening looking for some chinese vegetarian dishes (a phenomenon my friends claim does not exist.. chinese and vegetarian - what?!)
i used to come here back in the day (2004) for my chinese noodle fix while i worked for unicef.. the food is the same, the people the same andddd the fortune cookie the most edible i have seen in a long time!
i like mee's... i like their 30something situation as well... i don't know if they're the same.. hmm... i wonder.. is mee's like hunan ... like one of those restaurants that have the same name but are completely unrelated... hmmmmm this will make interesting googling for the next half hour..!
I give this place four stars for its location and quality, given its location. For a chinese restaurant in midtown, this place can satisfy. The wonton soup comes with a hearty serving of wontons in a flavorful broth. The pan fried dumplings are also decent. The mapo tofu leaves something to be desired, so I have generally stuck with the soups. Its cheap and tasty. Those two things always get stars in my book.
chinese food to the right when i used to work in the east side midtown manhattan. similar to the restaurant in the west side.
Lunch hour is one of the most stressful times at the office. Why, well you have one hour to find a place, get to it, decide what to eat, order, eat and pay. That sounds quite trivial, but when you are pressed for time every minute counts and that hour flies by.
I got to Mee looking for something inexpensive as i normally do. I had seen their menu online and it was well recommended. They were quite busy as i walked in but they had a table, It was about 1:40pm, i have seen the place at noon and its a madhouse! At this time, it was more manageable and they had a table for me. I glanced at the menu and ordered from their lunch specials. Pork in garlic sauce. It was quite flavorful and the special includes soup and rice. You can select the type of rice as well as the soup or egg roll, i didn't look at the other options. The soup came in pretty quick and while eating it, the food came out. Not disappointing at all but for the fact that they are 5 blocks away from my office. Thankfully they made up for it by being quick. I hadn't finished my food when they bring in the tab. Call that efficient? I definitely think so. for $6.20 you cant go wrong here.
When you mention that you ordered the Kung Pao /General Tso/ Sesamee Chicken or an egg roll as the basis of your chinese restaurant review, you have no business writing that review. I mean what rock in Iowa did you crawl out from under to eat in NYC?!?! That aside, this place has decent chinese noodle soup and the non-egg roll variety chinese food is acceptable ... but the service sucks A$$. I mean, the C-peeps are rude in general but damn... the service here is a new low. Get it as take out, eat it at home, office, on the street corner... For the $ it's decent.
Quick and Tasty.
Favorite is shredded beef with string beans!
Amazing cheap Chinese food. Get there by noon if you don't want to wait on a long line outside. Go for the quick service, great food and not for the ambience or patient, friendly wait staff.
Oh, noodles and spicey dishes are a must try but stay away from the doughy flavorless dumplings.
hits the noodle soup craving every time
The amt of msg in their food isn't overwhelming either.. always nice.
Everything I have had here is delicious and I have noticed it becoming a few times a week staple in my lunch repertoire. Its tiny and the one time I have eaten in the service wasn't great, so now I just do take out which is fast and just as delicious.
The portions are the perfect size and the ingredients all taste fresh. I especially like the chicken noodle soup and the chicken lo mein. I am planning on trying some of the chinese dishes since I have not found any good chinese where I live, but the noodles are so good its hard to resist them when it comes down to actually ordering.
A great lunch place in midtown that won't disappoint! :)
My parents had been raving about Mee Noodle. And so, on my most recent visit home, we went.
The food: pretty standard, although the sesame chicken was particularly tasty. (The waiter warned us that it was spicy. It wasn't.) The vegetable fried rice wasn't particularly nicely textured, the sweet and sour pork was all sweet and no sour. We also had scallion pancakes, which I thought were just meh and a little too dense, and egg rolls, which were not delicate at all (although my dad loved 'em.)
The service, however, was horrendous.
When we first sat down, we were hounded for our order (before even sitting down, really), and then we sat and waited and waited and the waiter took his sweet time and eventually took our order.
The food came pretty quickly, but we had to ask both for chopsticks and for water. (When I asked for water, I was given one glass, and my parents were not automatically also given water.)
What horrified me was at the end, however, after our bill came and we tipped, oh, I think it was something like 13 percent _before_ tax. Yes, that's a little low, but the service, as I mentioned, was not so hot.
Anyhow, the lady taking the money pointed at it, and called the waiter over who, in a really loud voice, said, "Fifteen percent, my friend." He went and got the bill and (figuring tip from a post-tax), declared that we owed him a dollar.
Anyhow, to make a long story short, I am _not_ returning. I have never encountered anything so rude in my life.
I came here for the noodle soup that I would normally have to travel all the way to chinatown. No more. This is the real thing.
You can have all sorts of extra stuff added, like different BBq meats, boiled egg, vegies, etc. The broth is rich, or if you want it dry they cover it in a bit of light soy that wasn't too salty or over bearing.
For the price - a bargain considering the location. My lunch was 6.50 with the extra boiled egg. The service was OK. You have to try to speak as clear as possible though. It gets loud in there.
Can't wait to go back!
Great priced lunch specials. Quick service. The sauces are really tasty and at the right level of spice. Best vegetable spring rolls in the 'hood.
Only thing I dont like is they only accept AMEX and cash. Kinda weird.
Also dont go before 230 or its totally backed....that is if you want to sit down.
The service here sucks sometimes, especially during peak hours. The lunch specials may not have exactly what you are looking for. You can't substitute one thing for another.
But...
Damn... Good... Food.... The portions are perfect for you to not feel like you just clogged yourself up with MSG and trans fat. The food is always fresh. Never soggy.
General Tso's here is FLAWLESS. All for about $8-9 with tax & tip, I may come back tomorrow.
The service here is lacking. They rush you to order, eat, and get out. This could also mean, however, that you will be getting your food in less than ten minutes... In any case, wait staff seems to love screaming at each other, which I don't necessarily appreciate when I'm trying to eat and hang out with my friends. What about the ambiance, you ask? There is no such thing at Mee. You sit, you order, you eat, you leave.
All the negatives aside, this is THE place to go for a large bowl of delicious noodle soup for less than 6 bucks. Roast pork, spinach noodles... Mmmm. Chicken fried rice is good too. I'm also a fan of chicken with mixed vegetables. Health conscious yelpers can order it with brown rice, and steamed chicken (without oil and sauce on the side). They also give you a pot of tea when you sit down, and refill it regularly. A filling dinner for three - $35 with tip.
the prices here are cheap compared to most places in New York, but the portion is a bit small. I wished they gave me a couple more pieces of meat and rice. I got the general tsao chicken lunch special that comes with either soup or egg roll. The flavor of the sauce was good and up to par but the chicken was a little too fried. I got pieces that were hard to eat because it was so fried; regardless, the sauce made up for it. In total, I spent 7-8 bucks for the meal. Not bad, but just wished the portion was bigger...
This place serves the best Chinese food in Midtown East. There.
While it is a "noodle shop," they do serve a WIDE RANGE of dishes at Mee--so some of the comments made here are obviously incorrect.
Also, I have consistently found the service here to be no-frills yet friendly and non-offensive, unlike what many appear to be saying. But I might point out that I do sometimes see people NOT consuming anything and chatting away during peak hours, although there is a line of people waiting to get tables! Clearly, you deserve to be rushed if you are taking up space for no reason...
The price is right, and I have never had a bad dish here.
i'm sorry but you just dont make the cut for me.
how can you serve me overnight roast duck?
i've never seen roast duck that comes piping hot, ever!
piping hot but with skin that's not crispy? get out of here!
looks like the duck's been in the microwave!!!???
and why would you need to microwave your duck???
leftover overnight duck?
sigh.
we should have known better than to order roast duck in a place that doesnt have roast duck hanging in the window!
the broccoli with mushroom was cook just al dente, which i like.
but it tasted the same as the double sauteed pork!
same sauce even though the descriptions are different???
both of which i can cook up at home better than them!
the seafood fried rice was acceptable but the rice was slightly soggy.
please cook plain rice in advance and leave them in the fridge overnight to reduce the moisture before frying it.
the plain rice that you use for frying fried rice is the only thing that should be kept overnight, and for a good reason.
the mixed fried noodles we had also tastes like the broccoli and pork dishes. sigh.
the chinese tea was good and generously, promptly free flowing.
service was efficient and friendly.
maybe it helps when you speak mandarin and sweet talk the waitresses.:)
Crazy busy place at lunchtime. Roast duck noodle soup is hit and miss. ... sometimes too much fatty skin, other times just right. I always seem to be going to this place on really cold days, so the soup and tea warms mee up just right. Shrimp lo mein is pretty decent too.
It feels like you are sharing a table because everything is packed in pretty tight. I was munching on a soup bone one time when I realized it was the elbow of the guy next to me. Needed salt... too much fatty skin too. Sorry dude.
Prices are good for noodle soup. $5 or $6 I recall and very filling. You might have to wait a few mins for a table but the turnaround does not take long.
Thanks Yelpers for helping us figure out what to order for delivery one night. From the time I called to the knock on the door - it took 16 minutes.
16 MINUTES!
The food was hot and fresh and very delicious! We had ordered some beef chow fun, sauteed mixed veggies and general chicken. Each take out container was of a sturdy plastic variety and each layer was buffered by a piece of cardboard. I'm guessing so that it doesn't melt together??
The only problem is that you're not sure if you've called the right place or not. Also, make sure you can understand what they are asking of you over the phone - although I didn't have a problem, my other friend had some issues so the phone was passed.
Fast, hot, fresh and cheap. What's not to love?
This place was great very fast and good. It gets very packed so they will sometimes rush you in and out during lunch but for 6.50 total you get hot tea, soup, an entree and fried rice.
Everytime I call for take-out, I always have to confirm, "Hello, is this Mee?" The DL who always answers the phone talks so fast, I'm never sure if I reached the right restaurant.
At any event, they have the BEST General Tso chicken in Manhattan.
It must be an East Coast thing, but I've noticed that the fried rice here is different from the West Coast version. East Coast fried rice seems to be dark in color using lots of soy sauce, but definitely not salty. They throw in freshly chopped onions that makes the fried rice very tasty and crunchy.
For hearty soups, one can choose 7 types of noodles (Spinach Noodle linguine, Mandarin Noodle linguine, Lo Mein spaghetti, thin Cantonese Noodle angel hair, Mee Fun thin rice noodle, Chow Fun flat soft rice noodle and Cantonese Noodle) paired with different meats or seafood or a combination of both.
Lastly, if you're looking for fried noodles, make sure you specify "lo mein" (East Coast) instead of "chow mein" (West Coast). Classic chow mein in the East Coast is actually a vegetable dish of some sort. What we refer to the West Coast as chow mein is referred there as Cantonese chow mein (Double Fried Noodle).
Great food for excellent prices. I've been to my fair share of noodle shops in the city, but I always go back to Mee. (It doesn't hurt that it's right across the street from where I live.) The service is mediocre, but about what you'd expect from a noodle shop. They have a great selection of dishes, even if you're not a noodle kinda mood.
mmm.
Somewhere between 2- and 3-Stars.
2 - - - - - - - - - - - 2.5 - - - - - - - - - - - 3
Cheap
Soupy
Noodles
Atmosphere*
Fast
Quantity
Taste
Service
Wait
Quality
* Not that Mee Noodle has a great atmosphere - remember, anything below 3 is below-average, anyway - but you do get a sense that you're not in Midtown anymore, which is a very good thing.
99.9% of all the mid-range, Anglo-Saxonized (Hello, Webster's: I'm new) Chinese fast food joints in New York (and L.A., for that matter) will taste the same. That's a guarantee. File it along with death, taxes, and Cingular screwing you over on your unlimited minutes.
Pork fried rice, egg foo yong, cold sesame noodles, yada, yada.
It's both comforting and despairing to know you won't be surprised, excited, or disappointed by the offerings at one of these restaurants - it's kind of uncanny how similar they are in decor, food, servers, and atmosphere.
So it comes down to an issue of reliability. And it's really hard to fuck up an order of orange chicken or beef lo mein. I mean, you have to go to a four-year college to mess this up. Yes, it won't wow you, but sometimes a man don't need to be wowed. You eat, you're full, you drink an effing scotch, you watch a ball game with your feet up on the table and that's life.
And at least these establishments don't showcase delusions of grandeur like this homey P.F. Chang, who charges double or triple the price for the exact same chow mein they serve at your average joe Chinese joint for three or four bucks.
Ordered take-out here. The noodles were really tasty, and cheap I might add. Convenient for grabbing a quick meal and I would definitely order what's good there. Had the steamed meat dumpling soup and dan dan noodle (cchajjungmyun) ang was pleasantly surprised. Will definitely go back for take-out anytime I'm craving either of the two.
It's a regular spot for me and my wife for the tasty noodles. My regular order is the soya sauce chicken with mandarin noodles in soup and a side of vegetable or pork dumplings. It's usually less than $20 including tip and I'm always satisfied.
My rating is only based on trying the soup noodles and dumplings. I have tried one rice dish here before but won't make that mistake again.
They serve noodles here. Lots of different kinds of noodles. Thin noodles, flat noodles, spaghetti noodles. Not enough to fill you up, just enough noodles to fill the small bowls the noodles come in. Noodles, noodles, noodles. You can get them with soup. You can get them fried. You can get them with meat or without meat. You can eat them with chopsticks. You can eat them with a fork. It's cheap. They're noodles.
someone once told me this was their "comfort food" and convinced me to go with him. some choose mac and cheese, others choose noodle soup. i'm one of those others. when i need to satisfy that craving of "homecooking" noodle soup, i go to mee's. granted, it's not as good as what i'm used to eating at home, but it's close enough for the time being. another pro for me is that it's only 2 blocks away from my office...it hits the spot on the cold, wintry days.
Had angel-hair size chow-mein soup noodle with dumplings. Noodles were good, but the soup was less impressive. With tip, came to about $8 bucks. I think fried maybe a better choice. Fried chicken dish (maybe garlic chicken or General Chicken) looked delicious on someone else's plate -- and I may have to check it out. Not a date place, but great for after theater snack. My rating may change after the chicken. Stay tuned.
I have to say nothing compares to Chinese food in San Francisco, and everytime I come to NY I'm disappointed by places even in Chinatown, but i have to give this place props. It's cheap, it's fast and it's not too bad. I guess this is supposed to be more of a "healthy" chinese joint and I didn't feel the msg, heavy oil hangover I usually get at other typical chinese restaurants.
give me a steamin' bowl of wonton soup, a few fried dumplings, and pushy attitude. this classic combo is guaranteed to satisfy your hunger and need to be abused. just a little abuse. there's something about standing outside on the street in front of the little window waiting for your number to be called, maybe because you know yumminess is to follow. an old stand by for lunch.
With the exception of one waitress, service is okay. One of the best noodle shops in the city if you like spicy. Their chicken with garlic sauce is second to none and their fried rice and soups are all great. The noodle soup dishes are usually bland and has no flavor but really a great value for their lunch specials. make sure you get there around noon or be prepared to wait outside.
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