Mission Chinese Food – 154 Orchard St.

[weinoo]

A two-star review from Wells in the NY Times:

Mr. Bowien does to Chinese food what Led Zeppelin did to the blues. His cooking both pays respectful homage to its inspiration and takes wild, flagrant liberties with it. He grabs hold of tradition and runs at it with abandon, hitting the accents hard, going heavy on the funk and causing all kinds of delicious havoc.

I like the delicious havoc.

[bmdaniel]

I was there weekend before last - dining solo, but ended up sharing with two other solo diners at the bar, which worked great. We split the salt cod fried rice, mapo tofu, thrice cooked bacon, kung pao pastrami, peanuts, peas, and cucumber. Everything was awesome, but the peas in particular were a very pleasant surprise.

I actually thought only the mapo tofu had that high heat/schezuan peppercorn thing going. It was also my least favorite of the dishes, but probably just personal taste. I was surprised in general that heat wasn't much of an issue.

Also the restaurant didn't burn down, which was nice.

Edited July 24, 2012 by bmdaniel (log)

[patrickamory]

Both Mission Chinese and Pok Pok are on my list to try. But BOY do I agree with Adam Platt about the "No Reservation Generation" phenomenon. So incredibly annoying. I put up with anyway at places I love - Diner, Fette Sau, and a few select other places. But I hate it.

[weinoo]

Both Mission Chinese and Pok Pok are on my list to try. But BOY do I agree with Adam Platt about the "No Reservation Generation" phenomenon. So incredibly annoying. I put up with anyway at places I love - Diner, Fette Sau, and a few select other places. But I hate it.

It's fucking annoying, to be sure. You just have to pick your times and things will work out fine - same as they did with Noodle Bar and Ssam Bar, back in the day.

MCFNY is fine at lunch (which I understand is not possible for a lot of people) and they also take some reservations.

Adam Platt, imo, was just looking for stuff to not like about MCFNY.

[patrickamory]

I'm sure you're right about Adam Platt!

[KennethT]

But BOY do I agree with Adam Platt about the "No Reservation Generation" phenomenon. So incredibly annoying. I put up with anyway at places I love - Diner, Fette Sau, and a few select other places. But I hate it.

Amen to that!

[avaserfi]

I believe Mission Chinese does take reservations. At least, Danny Bowien has stated they do on twitter. https://twitter.com/dannybowien/status/227205065608396801

[kathryn]

Since they opened, they have taken a limited number of reservations, only via email. It's been on their Facebook page for a while, and the address is also listed at the end of the NY Times review.

[weinoo]

I happen to have one of those scarce ressies tonight.

[Steve R.]

I happen to have one of those scarce ressies tonight.

And the rest of us were very glad you did. The 6 of us went thru probably 2/3 of the menu and I have to admit, I didn't find just about anything that wasn't very good. Believe it or not, the pastrami was probably my least favorite, but I'd eat it again without hesitation. What I like about this place is that they're churning out inventive, interesting takes that are 10-20degrees off "normal" Chinese food (of any specific region). And they're doing it with a wide variety of styles and tastes. And at a very nice price point. And in a very friendly environment. Genuinely friendly.

It will not replace my trips to Flushing for more traditional excellence at Fu Run, Little Pepper, Xi'an, Imperial Palace or the underground malls. But, for interesting somewhat off the wall stuff that works... this is the place.

Aside... the beer comes in nice big cups while the glasses of wine are very small. Spend your $7/serving wisely.

eta: I can't stop thinking about the brisket w/greens dish. Or the mackerel fried rice. Or even the peanuts.

Edited July 30, 2012 by Steve R. (log)

[Hassouni]

Went on Saturday night following a couple drinks at Pouring Ribbons. Didn't see a single Chinese person working there, but my God. I'm a huge Sichuanese food aficionado, and Mission was like a roller coaster ride plus a punch in the taste buds and kick in the gut.

Ordered the salt-cod fried rice, the Chongqing chicken wings, the thrice-cooked bacon, and the mapo tofu, plus some of the pickles (the weakest part)

The rice was really nice - subtle but very very tasty - also interesting to have a fried rice without soy sauce. The bits of salt cod provided a nice balance to the sweet Chinese sausage, and the entire dish was a good foil to the spicy onslaught which followed.

The wings - holy shit. What are they dusted with, lots of Sichuan pepper for sure, but all I tasted was that, some sugar, and some MSG. Umami-mouth tingling explosion. My lips felt like they were fizzing like a glass of warm soda (I admit to actually spooning up some of the seasoning that was left on the plate and eating it straight). Also, the crispy fried dry chiles they come with are AWESOME, like chips but way way better.

The bacon - Holy shit part two. I have never tasted anything more porky and smoky. The sauce was divine, thick, spicy, smokey, and tingly, and the tteok did a good job absorbing it. My friend and I were rationing it out to have bites throughout the meal.

Mapo tofu - wow, just over the top. If I had this plus a bowl of plain rice, and nothing else, I'd be very happy. With everything else, it was probably overkill. Far more meaty and rich than any mapo I've had (of course, due to the generous use of pork shoulder) - this wasn't the incendiary, numbing dish I expected, but almost like a super heavy Chinese variant on chili. Really ridiculous.

I'm still in awe over this meal - what the hell do they do?

[weinoo]

Oh, they just cook good food.

How long was your wait on Saturday night, or did you have a reservation?

[Hassouni]

The wait at 8:30 was quoted as 2 hours, ended up being about 90ish minutes. Left my number and went to Pouring Ribbons for a couple drinks.