Cantonese with private room

[Pan]

Hi, everybody. I have friends who are getting married on a Friday in June. They want a Manhattan location with a separate room or area where they could have the ceremony and might hire a keyboard player. They might have around 30 people and might want the room for about 3 hrs. Bonus for a liquor license, though as long as they can have some bubbly poured, they’re cool with bringing it themselves.

 

I should say they’re not definitely set on Cantonese, but they want a cuisine that’s not primarily spicy, so I think Cantonese (or Shanghainese, if there were any really good Shanghainese banquet places in Manhattan, but I don’t know of any) would work well. Italian would undoubtedly please them, too, but I know it’s more expensive. The groom doesn’t love seafood, but he’s not too particular, otherwise, and I believe the bride does like seafood. So I think anyplace that’s primarily non-spicy, serves good food (even if he’s not particular, some of his guests will be) and serves a good variety of items will do nicely, providing their other criteria are met. Unfortunately, they’re not very familiar with private room costs, and I don’t have a clear idea of what their budget is, but money might be somewhat of an object.

[weinoo]

Private rooms downstairs at Congee Village might work.  Though lately I'm partial to Wu's Wonton King (they do whole suckling pigs for $160 and allow you to bring your own wines/liquors but not beer), they don't have a private space that I'm aware of.  

 

We just ate here with a party of 7 last night, and it was a grand total of $26 per person - and was delicious as well.

[Pan]

Unfortunately, they decided they wanted Italian food and wouldn't listen to my suggestions or the suggestions some other folks gave, so I have to go to goddamned Upper West Side Carmine's, a place I had sworn never to return to after the time several years ago when a friend had a birthday party there. Unfortunately, some people just don't have discriminating taste in food.

[Pan]

I would never choose on my own accord to go to Upper West Side Carmine's, but it was actually OK except for the eggplant parmigiana, and even that wasn't awful, like it had been the last time I was there. The ravioli were fairly good and so were the cannoli, the chicken scaloppine was perfectly OK, the stuffed mushrooms were OK - it wasn't awful like I had feared.