Big Wong King

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Rarely do you find as deep a chasm between style and sustenance as at Chinatown’s Big Wong King, a Cantonese stalwart where the cuisine is as inviting as the furnishings are unremarkable. The restaurant has been luring Chinatown diners for nearly 30 years for its exhaustive, almost dizzying menu that’s inexpensive to a fault. Consistently, most patrons are Chinese, a fortuitous sign in terms of quality. Seafood, poultry, beef, and pork are served in more than 100 different preparations. There are 13 types of congee, Cantonese milky-white rice porridge, speckled with morsels of pork, shrimp, or beef. The salt and peppered squid is deep-fried and dredged in spices, and its texture is soft, not chewy. Steamed rice crepes and a variety of noodles (chow mein, chow fun, pan-fried, and silver needle) as well as lo mein prepared in the steamed, Hong Kong style, come with beef, pork, tripe, and chicken. Vegetables like Chinese broccoli have a deep, rich color and are clearly cooked fresh. The roast duck leg is lacquered, sliced into crunchy pieces, and served at room temperature. In nearly every dish a high level of quality and attention pervades. The kitchen cooks at breakneck speed—you place your order and shortly after, plates start landing on the table. — Stephen Weiss

Congee, $3-$5; roast duck, $11.50; westlake beef soup, $5.50; salt and peppered shrimp, squid, and scallop, $15.50

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