Congee Village

[Pan]

Congee Village has been one of my favorite Chinese restaurants for some time, especially because it's the great Chinese restaurant that's closest to me.

I took 4 friends there last night. I've never seen such crowds there (overwhelmingly Chinese). We waited a long time for a table, and were ultimately given one on an elevated platform, with a lazy Susan.

Everyone enjoyed the food. Two of the party were vegetarians, and three were more or less omnivorous.

We got beef/fish congee and healthy vegetarian congee. 4 of 5 people enjoyed the congee.

We got 2 orders of flaky, light tasting scallion pancakes, which were a little light on the scallions.

For main dishes, we got one of my favorites - lotus root with red bean sauce - which was much appreciated; beef with nicely crunchy and pleasantly bitter Chinese broccoli; a real delicacy - pan fried flounder, complete with lots of roe, which was expertly fileted at the table by our waitress, who had suggested the dish; and green vegetable, which consisted of boiled broccoli rabe with cloves of garlic.

This place is obviously no secret, but you owe it to yourself to go there, and the renovations are truly something to behold.

[yvonne johnson]

Is this restaurant at 100 Allen (at Broome) 212/941-1818? It's not in Zagat which I use as a telephone directory.

[Pan]

Courtesy of SuperPages.com:

Congee Village

100 Allen Street, New York, NY 10002

(212) 925-6395

I have no idea what the other entry, Congee Village, Inc. on 101 Orchard St. (which you provided the phone number for) is.

The nearest cross street is Delancey.

Congee Village has a sister restaurant, Congee House, on 2nd Av. near 96 St. I would be very interested to hear from anyone who's been to that location - especially if s/he's also been to the Allen St. location and can compare the food quality between them.

[Fat Guy]

Congee Village is almost directly across the street from my favorite cheap lunch spot: Fried Dumpling. Five fried dumplings for a dollar, excellent.

Congee House serves congee that to me is indistinguishable from that served at Congee Village. Not that I love congee in either instance. The big difference is that at Congee House you have fewer congee permutations to choose from (though all the important ones are available) and the place doubles as a standard Chinese-American restaurant with mediocre food.

[Pan]

Steven: Have you tried any of the dishes other than Congee at Congee Village? It would seem from your description that the food at Congee House is quite inferior because I couldn't imagine someone calling Congee Village a "standard Chinese-American restaurant with mediocre food," unless they were particularly unlucky to choose dishes they weren't thrilled with. For example, I don't love their sizzling barbecued beef. As for congee itself, it's not for everyone. I find it very soothing and pleasant, but my mother associates it with cream of wheat, and cream of wheat with being sick because that's the only time she was fed that as a child.

[Fat Guy]

Pan, Congee House has closed. It seems the neighborhood didn't embrace congee, and also the owners clearly didn't give the place their all.

I've visited Congee Village a few times in the past month. Just one of those bizarre sets of circumstances that has repeatedly had me right near there and hungry. I've been pretty impressed with the offerings overall. On one visit I had a group with me so was able to try six variants of congee. I'm still not a congee convert, but I did like the pork and preserved egg combination. Another time I tried a selection of dim sum, mostly excellent, particularly the pan fried shrimp rice roll. The only dim sum selection that was crummy was the three wilted vegetable dumplings (the vegetarian congee was also kind of lame; I wouldn't recommend the place to vegetarians, though the steamed Chinese greens were respectable). And I guess I wasn't exactly impressed with the scallion pancakes. The really good stuff is to be found in the casserole section and the baked-in-bamboo section of the menu. It only took me several visits to observe that this is what all the serious fressers seemed to be ordering. I didn't get too adventurous -- I was limited by the preferences of my companions -- but I look forward to trying some of the more interesting combinations.

By the way, the Orchard/Allen confusion is I think on account of the restaurant owning space at both addresses, connected via the courtyard. If I'm not mistaken Orchard and Allen are parallel streets and the restaurant runs from one to the other. The entrance, though, is on Allen. The Orchard side is just a service entrance in the building that the Tenement Museum tried to take by eminent domain.

[raith]

This evening we'll have a banquet for 13 in Congee Village's VIP Room #3 downstairs--that's the one on the far right, opposite the bog door--complete with karaoke and only 10,000 songs to choose from! Had to take a lot of scary stuff of the menu to appease some of the invitees (no fish maw, for example), but we'll get by. Food is average but interesting, but it's the experience that counts.

[foodboy]

Just got back from Congee Village with three companions. The best thing about this place is that it's across the street from Fried Dumpling (that's more a compliment to Fried Dumpling than an insult to Congee Village). We went there first and had some fried dumplings as an appetizer. Our one vegetarian friend had vegetable egg rolls and said they were good.

As for Congee Village, I don't think I've ever complained about bad service on this board before tonight. We showed up around 8:00 and were told it would be about 45 minutes for a table. We were seated around 9:10. OK, maybe it's not always easy to predict wait times, so I can accept that.

When it was time to order, one of my friends asked for duck lo mein with Chinese broccoli. Now, the kicker is that I specifically called in advance to ask if they serve this. Not only was I told yes, but I was told the price ($7.95) and was told that it was sliced duck (as opposed to duck pieces, I guess). The waitress explained that they don't serve this dish. I recounted my phone conversation, but she didn't seem interested, nor did she suggest an alternative dish. What makes this especially frustrating is that noodles, duck and Chinese broccoli all appear on their menu. They could have made a similar dish if they wanted to.

Also adding to the bad service is the fact that our soup came after the congee (although that might be the intended sequence) and we had to ask several times before receiving water and rice. There was no effort to refill our water or tea, and we had to remind our waiter about a dish that was ordered but had not arrived. When I went to the men's room, one of the waiters beat me severly and took my wallet (OK, I made that part up). Finally, on our way out, someone stopped us at the door and said she needed our check. We explained that it was on our table, where we left it, upon which she looked on our table, then gave us an "OK, I have it" gesture.

The food was good. We had the following:

Turtle Soup (for one) - I had always wanted to try this, since reading about it in a Dickens novel. It had an earthy flavor, but wasn't really what I'd hoped for. For this, I fault the nature of turtle soup, not the execution.

West Lake Beef Soup - This was good and was served for 4. It had chopped bits of beef, cilantro and egg drop.

Scallion Pancake - I didn't try this, but our vegetarian friend said it was good.

2 orders of Congee (one with pork, duck and chicken, one with duck and meat balls) - I had the first one and enjoyed it very much. This was the first time I've ever had congee, so I can't compare it to anything, but it was very enjoyable. My companions agreed.

Deep Fried Bean Curd Casserole with Black Mushrooms - This was very good.

Sauteed Beef with Bitter Melon - This was excellent. The beef was very tender, with garlic and black beans in the mix.

Despite the service, I would give this place another try because:

A) I would like to start my meal at Fried Dumpling again.

B) There are many dishes on the menu that I would still like to try.

C) I'm not convinced the bad service we received is represntative of the whole staff. The table next to us had a different waiter, and he actually seemed friendly.

[La Niña]

We had an egullet banquet at Congee Village a couple of months ago - there's a long thread about it.

I've been several times since then - I really think it's not as good as it used to be (not that it was ever *that* good, mind you).

[Pan]

Foodboy:

Sorry about the service. I'm sure it was mobbed tonight, as it always is on Saturday nights - not that that's an excuse at all.

I, too, love the beef with bitter melon.

As for turtle soup, I prefer mock-turtle.

[Blondie]

(not that it was ever *that* good, mind you).

If that's the case, why did you choose Congee Village for the eGullet banquet?

[ranitidine]

(not that it was ever *that* good, mind you).

If that's the case, why did you choose Congee Village for the eGullet banquet?

Obviously because she wanted to hear Wilfred sing.

[La Niña]

(not that it was ever *that* good, mind you).

If that's the case, why did you choose Congee Village for the eGullet banquet?

Because it's fun, accomodates a big group, has private rooms, is reasonably priced, and the food was decent, and they serve some unusual things. I never claimed that the food was spectacular, or the best of its category.

But some of the highlights of the comments after that banquet:

"The food: I enjoyed both the congees, the squid being perhaps slightly more flavorful. The duck tongues were extremely well-flavored but had a high proportion of gristle to meat and were therefore hard word...

A couple of cold dishes were actually very interesting. Jellyfish salad, with the flesh cut much more thickly than I've seen before - like really fat noodles - and served slightly spicy; the boned chicken feet, like little three-fingered rubber gloves, were good too.

I thought the whole fish was a little overcooked and bland. The squab, when we got to them, were great: crisply cooked to a deep mahogany color, and served...with the head. I particularly liked the tender flesh around the neck.

There were about a dozen more dishes. It was an exceptionally large quantity of food for $40, and mostly of a very satisfactory standard."

"The food was excellent, especially the duck tongues, the chicken feet, the jellyfish and the goose intestine."

"The food was good to excellent. I particularly liked the ducks tongue, the McChicken feet and the shrimp with mayo."

Edited January 26, 2003 by La Niña (log)

[tommy]

some people see good in everything. others, of course, don't.

[Pan]

Which Chinese places do you like better, Nina? I'd love a list, and feel free to include Flushing. In Flushing, on balance, I probably prefer Laifood because it's got some interesting Taiwanese dishes I haven't gotten elsewhere, but it's really a different kind of place, as Congee Village is Hong Kong style. There's a Hong Kong style place called Wonderful Chef on Kissena near the library where I had a good dinner, but I haven't been back since, as of yet.

[La Niña]

I don't purport to be some kind of Chinese food maven. I'm not, not by a long shot. But I've had good meals in the recent past at Congee (on the Bowery), Yeah Shanghai Deluxe, Spicy & Tasty, New Green Bo, Joe's Shanghai, David's Taiwanese, Tangra Masala...and a lousy meal at Ping's on Mott St.

[Pan]

You don't have to be a Chinese food maven for me to love ya, Nina. You're a person of good taste.

I also like Yeah Shanghai, New Green Bo, and Joe's Shanghai. Where are Spicy & Tasty and David's Taiwanese?

[La Niña]

You don't have to be a Chinese food maven for me to love ya, Nina.    You're a person of good taste.

I also like Yeah Shanghai, New Green Bo, and Joe's Shanghai. Where are Spicy & Tasty and David's Taiwanese?

Flushing, baby, Flushing!

[Pan]

Oh yeah. The review of Spicy & Tasty is coming back to me. I'll have to check those places out.

[Pan]

I went with 5 other people to Congee Village for dinner on July 5. Because I remembered that Fat Guy suggested asking for the menu with the lamb chops, I did so. They asked how I wanted the lamb chops made, and I said I didn't know what the choices were and would like to see what's on that menu. They brought it. It was all in Chinese because, they said, it was so new (which is probably a white lie), but they were happy to tell me what all the dishes on the two-sided, 1-page list were. As the waiter explained what was available, I asked the rest of the group whether they approved. This wasn't a group of really adventurous eaters, as the "Ewww!" at the mention of tripe showed (I told the waiter that I like tripe and will order the tripe dish some other time), but they were reasonably flexible and willing to take recommendations from the waiter, from both the special menu and the regular one. I think that's why we were served banquet-style, one dish at a time, and I also noted that we received the special treatment of being individually served each dish by the waitstaff.

We started with Hot and Sour Soup, not my suggestion nor the waiter's, but what a majority of the table wanted. It was slightly sweet for me, but otherwise an excellent rendition: truly sour and with a nice bite and very good ingredients. A very large bowl of soup was brought and it was divided among the diners by a waitress.

The lamb chops followed. We had ordered the breaded/fried ones (black bean sauce was the other choice). There were 7 small lamb chops, fried in a considerable amount of oil with leek tops, some kind of hot pepper (diced jalapenos, I think), and I think garlic. They were very tasty and the whole table seemed to express its approval.

The next course was a fantastic Tofu and Mixed Vegetables dish, also from the special menu. The tofu was delicately fried and perfectly spongy inside, and there were various types of mushrooms in the dish. The white sauce was subtle and flavorful. I'm sorry I can't describe it better at this point, but when the waiter asked me how it was, I said "Wonderful!" (The waiter asked me what I thought after every course.)

Following that was a wonderful roasted half of a chicken, also from the special menu. It had loads of sliced garlic and was deliciously garlicky, with a lovely, oily sauce. (My pronouncement to the waiter before being asked: "This is great!")

The next dish was a shrimp and broccoli from the regular menu that turned out to have mayonnaise as the white sauce. I know that many Chinese people like this kind of dish, but I don't, so I let the others eat it, and they were happy to do so.

We then had Beef with Chinese Broccoli Chow Mein. Congee Village must be one of the very few Chinese restaurants in the U.S. where Chow Mein is a real, authentic Chinese dish, and it was nothing at all like the gloppy Chinese-American stuff many of us know and loathe. Actually, we had this dish before (described as "beef with nicely crunchy and pleasantly bitter Chinese broccoli") at the previous meal some of us enjoyed at Congee Village, which starts this thread. The beef and Chinese broccoli in a tasty brown sauce are presented over a nest of fried and then dried thin noodles, the Chow Mein. A waiter's recommendation from the regular menu, it's a worthwhile dish and we all enjoyed it.

After all that, one person was still hungry and I said I could pick at some more food, so we ordered flounder from the regular menu (some others picked at it in the end). As a special favor to us, it was brought cooked two different ways ("tasting portions," in their words), each on its own half of the plate. Both styles were quite tasty. One was breaded, fried pieces with shredded lettuce and plenty of little jalapeno slices; the other was in a white sauce with thin-sliced carrots, diced ginger, and assorted other goodies.

Following our meal, we were all asked how everything was and expressed our appreciation. The waiter, obviously pleased that I, as designated orderer for the group, had shown an appreciation for good food and an eagerness to seek advice from the waitstaff, put his arm around my shoulder.

For all of this, including a generous but in my opinion well-deserved tip, we paid only about $24/person.

I look forward to the next time I have a chance to go there with a large group.

Those who were there the last time noted that we didn't get the Lotus Root with Red Bean Sauce this time, but with all the other delicious dishes we did get, no-one really cared. ("We'll get that next time" was the sentiment.)

Thank you for telling me about the menu with the lamb chops, Fat Guy!

[Fat Guy]

Glad that worked out for you, Pan. For those of you who don't want to slog through the 15-page thread on off-menu ordering, here's the relevant comment I made about Congee Village:

In terms of number of dishes, Congee Village holds back a heck of a lot more than any six French haute cuisine restaurants combined! There are like four levels of menu at Congee Village and if you keep asking questions you will eventually be shown all of them in both Chinese and English. This is an excruciating process that takes forever, because if you're not Chinese you have a racial issue to overcome, and it eventually requires being handed off to a manager, but the reward is an incredible diversity of offerings. Don't rest until you've been given access to the lamb chops -- both versions ("Do you have lamb chops today? Can I see the menu with the lamb chops on it?" is a good opening gambit). Also be sure to look at the banquet menu -- they'll make pretty much any dish from that menu for you and serve it as a normal dish for about $17. If you're into presentation, they do a really nice scallops in bird's nest thing. Also, the managers who can make all this happen are concentrated in the upstairs room.

[Pan]

Now, I have to remember to ask about the banquet menu the next time I have a large group at Congee Village.

[jogoode]

I finally made it to Congee Village, and had an excellent meal. I was eating with friends, some of whom are not adventurous eaters. One friend is particularly cautious, and requested that we order General Tso's Chicken. Not only did he thoroughly enjoy Congee Village's rendition of the chicken -- it was quite good -- but by the end of the night he was digging through a pile of shells to make sure we'd finished all of our razor clams in black bean sauce.

This dish was the highlight of the night. The clams very fresh, and very chewy, and the black bean sauce was the best I've had. It had a multidimensionality that you rarely find in the Chinese food -- at least in the Chinese food I've experienced; I'm sure you more-experienced folk can set me straight -- and for that reason, I thought the dish felt vaguely Thai.

Next time, I'll have to go with a more adventurous group. Either way, I was happy that the seven of us rang up a bill of only $106, with two soups, rice, and six mains.

[Pan]

JJ, I'm glad you and your friends had a good first visit to Congee Village. I've never had razor clams there but will keep in mind your recommendation. Another place you might want to try ordering razor clams is Fuleen.

[lambretta76]

Any new dishes out there to try? Among the ones I plan on ordering are the House Special Chicken, Lamb Chops (which is better - fried or w/black bean sauce), Sauteed duck tongues, and the congee with pork and thousand-year old egg.

Is there anything else on the menu that is truly special?