Chinatown *thumbs down* .... East Village *thumbs up*

Despite having a reputation for having unfriendly folk, Smee and I had yet to encounter any form of rudeness in NYC or the US for that matter.  London by far shits all over NYC in that department.  I guess if we were ever to experience such behaviour, it would naturally occur in the enclave universally acknowledged as the Epicentre of No Manners a.k.a Chinatown.  No matter which city you reside, there is a global rule that "you don't go to Chinatown for service".

Smee and I are used to being barked at, urged to order, told to sit - you know it comes part and parcel with the usually quick service.  I don't really care if you abruptly scream dim sum dishes at me, just bring the food quicksmart.  We  learnt from a very young age that you don't need to fawned over in a Chinese restaurant.  However, a bit of fawning wouldn't frigging hurt at Jing Fong restaurant in NYC's Chinatown.  I don't usually print the exact location of my eating venues, but I have a personal vendetta with Jing Fong and I am out to DESTROY this restaurant even if it is just in the cyberworld.

DO NOT EAT AT THIS RESTAURANT - Jing Fong, 20 Elizabeth St, 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10013. Otherwise, abusive snail mail, prank calls to + 1 (212) 964-5256 and bad internet reviews are strongly encouraged. 

There is only one exception to this rule.  You can eat there if you are of non-Asian descent because if you weren't born with almond eyes and black hair, you have it lucky at Jing Fong.  Never in my life have I experienced such discrepancy in service levels based on racial appearance.  I mean, wtf is up with that? 

NYC is the home to one of the largest Chinatowns in the world.  We were a bit disappointed at our previous eating experience and wanted to give it another go.  Smee and I chose to eat here based on the positive reviews and to suss out yum cha in NYC. 

 The restaurant was massive.  Here is Smee getting excited at prospect of eating before our experience soured. 

It about 2pm by the time we were seated and okay fair enough, that is technically past the core yum cha time.  However, the restaurant wasn't empty and we could see they were still pushing carts around.  More pointedly, if you are not going to serve food, then you should not seat patrons down.  It took about 10 minutes for the first trolley come by which was a bit longer than usual but not unexpected because of the time of the day.  Smee and I settled on a few bamboo steamers to get us started.  

 The dumplings were bigger than any other restaurant I've been but this is typical of the 'bigger is better' culture that is the USA.  

It was after the first serving and single trolley that Smee and I started to get tetchy.  No more trolleys were making their way to us despite being in full view around parts of the restaurant.  The trolleys weren't moving because the waitress-pushers were standing around, trolleys in hand, chatting to each other.  If they weren't doing that, then they were pushing the trolleys to the few tables near the kitchen and then pushing them back inside.

Smee flagged down a waiter who was just standing around doing nothing and asked if anymore trolleys were coming.  He just nodded, brushing us off with a "Yeah, yeah"... not bothering to actually DO anything about it.  It wasn't like he was soooo busy that he couldn't walk over to re-direct the trolley ladies.

Ten minutes later, we asked another waiter and again no trolleys came near.  The waiter should have offered to take an a la carte order, but that didn't happen either.  We felt sorry for the table next to us.  It took them about 15 minutes to have tea served and NO trolleys reached them in the time we were there.  By now it was about 30 minutes since we arrived and in most yum cha restaurants you would be close, if not already finishing your meal. 

Then it so happened that a table of eight came in and were seated, oh I dunno, about five metres away.  I don't like highlighting this but in order to make my point clear, I have to state that they were Caucasian.  Lo and behold, miraculously all the trolley ladies decided to do their job and converged on the table like how seagulls would attack fried chips.  Five trolleys to that one table and many food offerings abound.

Smee and I (and the other table of two Asians) waited - surely they would now bring their trolleys to us.  No, they didn't.  They just continued to stand at that one table chatting to each other and then offering more dumplings to those patrons.  Did they look our way?  No.  The only way we would get food was if we walked over there and took it.  Were we going to do that?  No f**king way.  I was seething, SEETHING with anger at the blatant difference in service levels.  Could you be more obvious? 

We took our bill to the counter and paid.  We actually thought of walking out without paying but neither of us wanted a US criminal record.  Giving bad feedback to the cashier/'manager' made no difference.  To our comment that the service was bad, she just said 'Ok'.  DO NOT EAT AT THIS EFFED UP RESTAURANT!

Still hungry, Smee and I went to a nearby xiao long bao place.  Service was better but our day was ruined by the horrible Jing Fong. 

The restaurant was oddly decorated in a rustic Italian style complete with red and white tablecloths.  They served 'Fried Tiny Buns' but Smee wouldn't let me order them. 

Who knows what we did inbetween lunch and dinner.  I would have to assume it was shopping.  We were now staying at the Wingate by Wyndham which was around the corner from Macys.  You couldn't compare it to the W, but the location was about as good as it gets.

Me so happy outside Macys.

I mentioned that ramen was the theme on this trip and here were about to have our third sampling.  I was recommend by AW to check out Ippudo in East Village. Smee had also read some glowing reviews and was keen to check it out.  This ramen restaurant is one of several around the world and how I wish they would open several more. 

It was a little funky joint, dimly lit with a bar at the front waiting area.  It bordered on being cool in a wanky way with the upmarket, clubby decor but hey it is in a student area and you gotta make cool so the students will wanna hang out there.  With a no reservations policy in place, they had a doorbitch manning the guest list and a queue at 10pm.  We waited about 40 minutes for our table and yep, it was sure worth the wait.

 Smee with all the bowls in Ippudo's front bar.

For starters we ordered the Hirata Buns.  Belly pork in Ippudo's spicy sauce with lettuce and mayo encased in a light, puffy steamed bun.  At $4 a bun, they weren't cheap by NYC standards, but so so so delicious! 

 So yummy, so tasty.  I want MORE!  I read someone else's review who likened the buns to Crack.  Yeah, I totally get that.

 
Up until now, we didn't have a clear winner in the Ramen Race but Ippudo's specialty tonkotsu base clearly has the heads up.  Smee liked it so much he nearly slurped the entire bowl!  I can't remember the exact ramens which we ordered (one of them was a special) but regardless, they were both so yummy!  You can check out part of the menu here. 

The broth was so tasty, so 'clean' and my egg was just how I expected it, marinated in soy sauce and mirin.  Yum yum.  The pork just melted in your mouth and it had obviously been nurtured through the cooking process *happy sniff*

 Smee I don't wanna pose, just lemme eat already!

Smee liked his ramen so much, he wants us to return for another bowl!  I don't think I can promise him that, there are too many other places to try but it would definitely be on my Hit List for anyone visiting NYC.

To summarise our day: East Village - uber cool, uber yummy places to eat.  Chinatown - meh.