We get together in NYC with a small group of friends almost every year on the first or second weekend of January, when hotel prices are at their cheapest. Last year our first night’s dinner was at Dhamaka, the “unapologetically Indian” restaurant on the Lower East Side. The experience was loud, crowded, bustling, exciting, outstandingly delicious, and over-the-top spicy (especially the dish with goat testicles, which was on the verge of being hotter than I could eat). Certainly one of my top ten meals of 2023.
This year our first meal was at Hakka Cuisine in Chinatown. The contrast with Dhamaka couldn’t have been greater. In a lovely setting with solicitous servers, the experience was quiet, gracious, and relaxing – very good food with not a chili pepper in sight.
We started with the vegetable spring rolls (one of our group is a very cautious eater), which were very deep fried with a nice crunch, but the vegetables were pretty bland (cabbage, carrots, and maybe bean sprouts) and the frying left the rolls greasy. Not an auspicious start.
The stir fry chicken with pine nuts and lettuce wraps was very good - everyone liked it (especially the cautious eater) – but the pine nut flavor was not very prominent. It was a nice, savory stir fry, with a few noodles and some shredded carrots.
I thought the blossom chicken (chicken skin stuffed with shrimp and taro) was the best and most flavorful dish of the meal, with the crunchy skin being a nice contrast to the ground filling. Others in the group liked it too, but I think maybe not quite as much as me.
The sweet and sour pork on ice generated much more mixed opinions. I liked this a lot. It’s way tilted toward the sweet side of “sweet and sour,” which not everyone shared my appreciation of. I also really enjoyed the lightly frozen garnishes of cherries, grapes, and pineapple.
The low point of the meal for me was the crispy whole squab. This had to be pre-ordered (as did the blossom chicken, sweet & sour pork on ice, and the braised pork belly). Squab was a new protein for me, but one member of our group specifically requested that we order it (but seemed to be surprised when I told him after the dish arrived that it was baby pigeon). It came deep-fried, with head intact, and for me was very reminiscent of the deep-fried quail you sometimes find in Vietnamese restaurants. I don’t find it to have a lot of flavor and it’s hard work getting the little bit of meat off the bones. I definitely would not order this again at Hakka Cuisine and I’m not sure I’ll order squab again anywhere. It just seems a little too young on its life cycle for me.
Our last dish was the Hakka braised pork with preserved vegetables, which Wikipedia says is the classic Hakka dish. To me it was very reminiscent of the classic Chinese dish red braised pork, except with no discernible anise. This was generally well received around the table, but I think I’m with SteveR on this one – this was “a good version of something I don’t care much for” (I also don’t much like red braised pork). Unlike SteveR I liked the fatty part quite a bit, but found the lean part too dry and chewy.
Finally, I really enjoyed the two lists of instructions in the restroom, one for the staff and one for the customers. On the customer’s instructions, I’m partial to #1 – “Please keep the toilet seat clean. Don’t step on it.” On the staff employee instructions, I like them all, but particularly #9 - “Together, a clean restroom and everything is possible!”
Overall, I found our meal at Hakka Cuisine to be very good and we had a great time, but it was probably not among the best Chinese meals I’ve had in New York City.