Stopped by here for a quick bite on NYE and it is quite a hidden gem in NYC. The service was super quick and efficient and the waiter was truly hospitable. You can tell they get a lot of late night locals ordering a hot wonton and some noodle dishes that I will have. To get next time. The place is a bit small so if you have big parties get there during the slow hours. Other items we ordered but didn't take a pic of were chow fun and friend rice with roasted pork. Definitely coming back as it was truly delicious. read more

218 Restaurant - Restaurant front - Chinese Near Me - New York, New York

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I saw the BBQ chicken wings in the window and went in to get one. It was $2.00. A bit on the dry side, but it was very flavorful. This is a full service restaurant also with sit down service and a big menu. Casual. Please come and create your own adventure. read more

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Very good take out rice dishes. I thoroughly enjoy their roast pork and soy chicken. Staff offer quick service with reasonably low prices. Didn't take any pictures of the interior, however is just like every other Cantonese restaurant. read more

This place is awful. Stay away. We ordered their $48 Peking Duck dinner. It was terrible. They basically gave us a bunch of leftover pieces from previous orders. It was dry and we took a couple of bites and sent the dish back. We will never go back. read more

First time returning after the pandemic, we ordered the usual dishes. All dishes ordered were still very good; the roast duck with thin crispy skin, very little fat is the best in Chinatown. The veggie and steamed fish were fresh and cooked just right. The waiter was friendly. We'll definitely return. read more

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Another birthday celebration continues. I wanted to go to Uncle lou but it just so called HAPPENED to be closed on Tuesday. Specialty I called in the morning to see if they were open and a lady pick up saying yes until 10pm tonight. But when we got there it was CLOSED WTF......... So plan B to find another restaurant. Green Garden Village located at 216 Grand st. It was packed during dinner rush. One of the whiteness asked the customers nicely if they could change into a smaller table since they have a party of 2 when they were using a table for 4. They said NO this is why I didn't even want to share a table. Wtf.... we waited for 20 mins or so and just left to find another restaurant...... Plan C (which we don't have and wait to annoyed and tried..so I randomly picked a place) 218 restaurant located at 218 Grand St. This place used to be good. I don't know what happened. The food quality was extremely poor, but at that point we were just exhausted. So for my bday dinner i ordered - Bitter Melon with beef [bc one of my friends wanted to try it] - Clams with black Bean Sauce - half of duck [just dry] - Buddha delight [we need veggies ] But overall dinner was ok, I wasn't thrilled with the food unfortunately, but the company is always GREAT!!! read more

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Bare bones, reasonably priced place in a sea of overpriced tourist traps. Really nice congee, Chinese tea, & roast chicken & duck. If you want a vegetable, tho, get ready to pay through the nose. Very friendly staff, too. Old school style. read more

Typical old style New York Chinatown restaurant! Owners and Chef's are extremely pleasant and helpful! Anytime I am near Chinatown I stop by to get roast duck and roast pig! Wonderful!! read more

Stopped in to pick up a few Chinese BBQ items. We got some cha siu, siew yook, and roast duck. I didn't love the duck because some of the pieces were a bit dry but the other two were good. The cha siu was a bit on the fattier side, which is good or bad depending on your taste. I personally like mine with a little fat, otherwise the meat is tough. The siew yook was probably the best out of the three. We ate it an hour later and the skin was still crispy. We had leftovers and even then, the skin was still crispy - straight out of the fridge. Next time, I'll try their stir fry dishes - or even some of the prepared dishes in the window look pretty good. My only complaint would be that the place smelled a little funky, but what place in Chinatown doesn't? It's a part of the charm. read more

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Good service, fast turnaround, authentic Cantonese food, multilingual. Lunch specials with custom combos. I'll be back. read more

218 Restaurant - Steamed fish, vegetarian, tea, soup - Chinese Near Me - New York, New York

TAKE OUT I recently visited 218 Restaurant in Chinatown and ordered the beef tomato with rice. The portion size for the rice was generous and the dish was incredibly delicious. Compared to other places I've tried this dish, 218 had the perfect taste and texture. I couldn't stop myself from wanting more. The staff were efficient and the pricing was reasonable. The restaurant is conveniently located and it is a great spot to finish other errands. The ambiance of the restaurant is not relevant to my experience. read more

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Ordered the triple BBQ rice dish - Roast Duck, Soy Sauce Chicken and Roast Pig. Pretty underwhelming. Not as good as Green Garden Village next door. Small portions but good prices. Very attentive, friendly and quick service though. Comes with a bowl of well prepared soup with no MSG which was a good compliment. read more

I wish I could say it was a better experience. The salt and pepper pork chops were very good but everything else was not very good. The server was very rude and kept wiping his nose, never washing his hands. The worst part was how dirty everything was -- the water glasses, the floor, the menus, the bathroom. I won't go back. read more

Got a roast duck with roasted pork rice. Good crunch on the roasted pork skin, roast duck is deliciously oily but the cut given to me was a bit too much bone than meat. The soup seems to come with the price and I think it is pretty decent (and such a big portion that you can just use it as a drink throughout the meal). Decent choice and can come back. read more

218 Restaurant - Chinese Near Me - New York, New York

Stumbled upon this place after intending to eat at a BYOB place next door that had over an hour wait. It is a standard looking restaurant in the heart of Chinatown, one side of it is opened for takeout and the other is for sit-down. It is nothing special at first glance and even a little rundown and outdated, but we gave it a shot anyway. Turns out, I am very happy we did! They have an extensive menu made up of various meat, poultry and fish dishes. They sell 1 or 2 types of beer but they let us drink the beer and wine that we had with us which was nice and even provided glasses and ice for it. We ordered a variety of food to split amongst our party of 4 - sautéed green beans, dumplings, roast pork, roast duck, fried rice, and a specialty noodle dish. The food came out within minutes which was nice - however I felt a bit rushed and would've liked to have a little more of a leisurely dining experience. The pork and green beans were my favorite dishes -- so good and the food came out piping hot. Dinner came out to $22 a person - so cheap for the amount of food we got. I will definitely come back here in the future...dreaming of having that roast pork again. The only thing is, it is 'Cash Only' which I was unaware of until the bill came, so prepare ahead of time. read more

218 Restaurant - Roast Pork - yum! - Chinese Near Me - New York, New York

Once our beloved "Big Wing Wong" on Hester Street closed, this place has become our go-to place especially for the soy sauce chicken and char siu. If you don't already know the secret to get some good char siu, make sure you ask for "half fat half lean" so it's juicier. And don't forget to ask the master chef/butcher to cut it in small pieces. Unfortunately this time the char siu was a bit dry. The last couple time I got it when it just came out so it was warm and juicy. read more

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Come here for the friendly service and roasted meats. Too many places in Chinatown are not friendly to English speakers / non Chinese people... luckily, this is an exception. You are always greeted by friendly genuine smiles here. It's really nice and refreshing. The roasted meats are excellent. I love the roast pig especially. Also the salt and pepper Chinese smelts - they sound and look weird but are delicious. They're basically fried little fishies that are super tasty. I also love the pan fried noodle here. And how can I forget the snow pea leaves with fresh garlic? Go here and thank me later. read more

218 Restaurant - Beef pan fried noodle - Chinese Near Me - New York, New York

Don't accept cash, but has great Peking duck. Half a duck and rice is $20 which is a steal. At 9pm, they surprisingly still had duck left and it was juicy. I'm craving it now just looking at this photo!!! read more

218 Restaurant - Chinese Near Me - New York, New York

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Every time I go to Chinatown, this is a mandatory stop! I've eaten a fair share of Chinese bbq but this place stands out. We always get a whole roast duck and a pound of roast pork and eat it over a couple of days. The roast duck has such strong flavoring and the skin is very crispy - tastes so good on some French baguette. The roast pork has a sweet but savory flavor and is amazing over hot rice. This place is so good that my fam always requests for us to bring back some whenever we go home! read more

Yum! Cute little place with roast meats and HK style plates. Stumbled upon here because our original BYOB spot was packed and staff was nice enough to let us drink our beers & wine. Food came out almost immediately. Roast pork and duck were juicy and delicious, with some say sauce on the bottom for dipping. Roast pork fried rice very tasty, although on the saltier side. Beef chow fun was great as well. They didn't have green beans on the menu but when we asked they came out with some delicious garlic sautéed beans. They bring you fresh cut oranges and fortune cookies at the end, which was great. Beware this is cash only though! read more

218 Restaurant - Chinese Near Me - New York, New York

This review doesn't cover any roasted barbeque meats. The restaurant is a tad dirty, but it's an old school authentic Cantonese joint, so that wasn't anything out of expectations. The seating area isn't very big, so don't be surprised if you have to share a table with other customers. The Frog Leg Congee(田鸡粥) basically tasted like Plain Porridge(白粥). The frog meat was overcooked and sinewy. The water spinach(空心菜) was average. I enjoyed the Shrimp and Loofah Casserole with Vermicelli(虾米丝瓜粉丝煲). The star of the meal was the steamed grass carp(蒸鯇魚). The cook was perfect and the meat just fell apart in your mouth. I was disappointed that the dishes were fairly oily even after requesting less oil, but it didn't detract too much from the flavour of everything, and the wok hei(鑊氣) was evident. read more

218 Restaurant - Water Spinach(空心菜), Shrimp and Loofah Vermicelli Casserole (虾米丝瓜粉丝煲), Steamed Grass Carp (蒸鯇魚). - Chinese Near Me - New York, New York

I decided to not go to this 218 to buy take out anymore. Food is good. But woman worker who is working for casher is terrible attitude. One time ,I said to her I don't need plastic folks after she put folks in to bag ,she yelled "you have to say before I put in" in very rude way. And another time,I order 5 dishes as take out. And I asked her to put everything in my eco bag in polite way. And her response is "you put into bag by yourself" No customer was there beside me,why her attitude is always not nice like she is angry at me. read more

My go-to take out place in Chinatown for soy sauce chicken (sometimes when I have a protein craving I just buy half a chicken and eat all of that by itself in one sitting for dinner - yes, it's THAT good). Absolutely love their salt and pepper pork chops. For around $14 bucks (they might have raised prices recently- I forget because we always order a whole bunch of things together), the portion is HUGE -like massively exploding out of the container huge, and my bus ride home from Chinatown with it sending wafts of crispy salt and pepper always makes me so hungry. We call it crisssssspy heaven whenever we get that for take out. Also love their beef chow fun, and most recently also started getting their silverfish and egg stir fry, which is just melt in your mouth delicious and a dish that I used to eat frequently when I lived in Hong Kong and Macau but haven't seen often in Chinese restaurant menus here in nyc. read more

218 Restaurant - Silverfish and eggs - Chinese Near Me - New York, New York

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You want duck? We got duck. That's the only reason I ducked in here to begin with. The roast ducks hanging by their elongated necks were a sure sign that they indeed serve duck. I was staying a couple of blocks away and was surprised to find myself immersed in Chinatown within seconds of leaving the hotel lobby. What a great city this is where you can have a cannoli on one block and a $6.50 plate of Roast Duck over Rice just around the corner. That's exactly what happened on the last morning I was in Manhattan. I'm sure there are higher rated places to eat in the neighborhood, but I was sticking to my tightening schedule. I just walked in to see most of their business focused on takeout orders. There was barely any activity going on in the formica-laden dining room next door. In fact, the old-school waiter had to get up from his stool and put on his vest before he came to my table. The hot tea came automatically, and that morning I needed it. Of course, I had the duck, and it was pretty good for 10 in the morning. There was plenty of duck neatly chopped and placed over cabbage and rice to catch all the grease (photo: http://bit.ly/1NJCrUl). The skin was crispy even if it all tasted a bit lukewarm. For a fast plate of roast duck over rice, I can think of worse. FOOD - 3 stars...duck over rice hits the spot when you need it AMBIANCE - 2.5 stars...old-school Chinese cafe, no more, no less SERVICE - 2.5 stars...old-school waiter, no more, no less TOTAL - 3 stars...wanna buy a duck? read more

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OK is a little rice shoppe serving old style Cantonese dishes with the standard cha siu (roast pork), glistening roast ducks, and a whole roast pig hanging in the window. I would stack up OK's BBQ items up against any of the Wong noodle shops in Chinatown. Most of their business is takeout at lunch time serving BBQ meats over rice as well as prepared foods such as grouper fillet, home style bean curd and vegetarian Buddha's delight. If you're feeling adventurous, you might want to sample the jellied duck's blood. The small adjoining dining room with wait service for about 6 tables cannot handle more than a family of 6, but with a little squeezing could handle a group of 8 if they were really friendly. Being one of the most convenient places near my parent's apartment building, I've been coming here for years, but their prices have become a little steeper lately. But if you're on the hunt for that unique "wok hay" flavor, set yourself down for some good Cantonese fare. read more

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For the past 5 years or so, 218's honey roasted drumsticks were my go to. Sure they were a bit pricey, but they were worth it. Today, I bought the last 4 of their drumsticks for the day, and they tasted saltier than the ocean, and the meat was hard like jerky. I don't know if they changed cooks or what, but the drumsticks were not edible this time. Please be careful. read more

Good place for simple Cantonese cuisine. I had lunch of black bean spare ribs over rice, it was disappointing only ok since the ribs were tough meat and cuts suck. I like the simple soup that comes with it though like homemade soup. See some people as this is a hangout and eat spot for them. read more

218 Restaurant - Dining room - Chinese Near Me - New York, New York

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First time trying OK218 and will definitely be coming back. The staff is very nice and even moved our table since we ordered more food that can fit on the one we had. They filled our tea whenever it started getting low and sometimes just to put fresh new hot tea in. Everything here was exceptionally good but the stars of the show where the salt and peeper squid which was light and fluffy with a great salt taste to it and the roasted duck. The roasted duck was succulent and roasted perfectly with skin thy melted in your mouth. Even the veggies here where a step above many other places I got to. read more

218 Restaurant - Spread - Chinese Near Me - New York, New York

I make a stop here every time I am in the neighborhood. I either get a pound of BBQ pork or roast pork to bring home for dinner. out of all the places that have meat hanging in the window, I think this is the best. The bbq pork is not too sweet and has a nice caramelization on it. The roast pork is flavorful and has a crisp skin. I recently started getting lunch plates with 1 meat over rice and some veg for $6.50. I mean how can you go wrong. read more

Note they sort of changed the name/ ownership to simply 218 Restaurant and dropped the "OK". Even though that's what it was - OK. First thing I noticed was the dirty tea kettle. It's stainless steel and they can't wipe it down? Tea was also too black so you can tell there's no QC there. Plus side is that service is fast and the water gave a decent recommendation to a fish that needed to be steamed ahead of time. It's also relatively inexpensive since mom and dad always like to be in Chinatown for pretty much all our meals. So between the three of us, we had four dishes for lunch: Shrimp with mayo/ broccoli/ walnuts. Twas perfect. I like it when they give plenty of broccoli and not too much mayo. The Peking style pork chops was the biggest downer as they were over fried. Bok Chow were simply stir fried with whole garlic. Generic as they come. And the fish (cod I believe), was slightly overcooked and the oil/ soy sauce lacked a particular depth as if there was ginger missing. Nevertheless, it's OK. I'd come back and try the roast meats. read more

218 Restaurant - Chinese Near Me - New York, New York

Very standard Chinese bbq meats. The price and value was good. So far one of the better restaurants I've tried that sells this type of Cantonese meats. read more

We walked in randomly. It is a traditional cantonese style. The roast BBQ is the best one I had so far after tried so many places. The hot sizzler befef taste is very good as well. Chicken and Tofu in Salted seafood is a little too salty to me. The food with the good size. The waiter with good service, and big smell. Highly recommend! read more

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218 Restaurant is one of the better Chinese barbeque places in Chi town. I spent two years working in the area and they were my go-to place. I would pick up roasted pork ribs, duck or soy sauce chicken on my way home to supplement our weekday dinners. The duck here is succulent, with crispy skin and flavorful 5-spiced dark meat. I would carry it home on the subway and salivate from the delicious duck aromas. Sometimes other passengers would smell it and stare longingly at my groceries. I love eating it fresh over a bed of rice, accompanied with Yuchoy. The soy sauce chicken is juicy and well seasoned. I love the soy sauce skin and their ginger garlic sauce. I'm a bigger fan of dark meat than the chicken breast so I would hog all the wings and thighs and devour them with the sauce. Their pork ribs are good. Crispy crackling skin with juicy half fatty meat on the bone. Man, I miss this place. read more

This place lives up to its name as an OK Restaurant. I went here today for a fast, cheap, and authentic take-out and it did not disappoint. I ordered the roast pork on white rice ($4.25) plus a can of Coke ($1). They took my order quick and had the food packed and ready before I could put my change away. The atmosphere at the counter was hurried (even on this slow, rainy day), but polite. The portion of pork is generous and definitely filling. The pork is deliciously moist and saucy, and it's a nice mix of fatty and crispy parts (thought I wished it was more crispy). Its a little too much fatty pork for my taste, but that also didn't stop me from devouring the entire serving. The white rice was a little dry, the only sauce is whatever came off the pork. A little drizzle on the rice would have gone a long way. The cabbage got a little soggy as is unavoidable in a Styrofoam container, but was a nice compliment to the meal. I wouldn't rule out trying OK 218 for some other dishes, although if I'm craving Chinatown pork I will go to Big Wing Wong. read more

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I have only bought the crispy roast whole pork to go here and found it amazing both times. This will now be my go-to for crispy roast pork - be sure to ask for the rib portion of the roast pork - it's the best part! One only needs to find the place with numerous elderly Toisan (Taishan?) regulars to know that the traditional Cantonese cooked meat providers are still around and alive to ensure that the vibe of Chinatown isn't too gentrified. I really do love this place and hope it stays open for a very, very long while. read more

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So, I usually get sent here by my elderly to pick them up food. They warned me about the one sales lady who acts like she doesn't want to be there or bothered. They say go to her...so I do...and she brings the goods. They have roast meats which are delicious and fresh every time I have gotten them. The window dishes which you can get a container of or as a rice dish are delicious. The Buddha's Delight with rice is a generous and delicious portion. My go to dish. read more

The ladies in the front are the rudest people I have ever met. The cashier refuses to give me chopsticks because as an ABC, I apparently do not know how to use chopsticks, only forks and spoons. I also do not deserve to have soup (which comes with the rice box) because I cannot speak fluent Cantonese. I am appalled by the way I am treated here. Aside from that, the food is ok. read more

This place serves homestyle cooking, steamed eggs with vermicelli, eggplant with salted fish, beef and broccoli, chicken...all was very good.... Very small seating area so you must be patient, we came here after Lombardis pizza and walking SOHO, with a different group of great friends and it was very good to the stomach.... Tables aren't for large groups but for a few just looking for a place to munch on the basics of Cantonese style, not bad at all...... read more

This is a restaurant that is NOT friendly or welcoming to minorities. My wife and I visited during our stay in NYC in January 2023 and the staff could not have possibly been more rude. We asked for a substitute for a dish that had pork and were looked at as if it were sinful to make such a suggestion. We also noticed how the same waiter engaged other customers sitting across & behind us and how those interactions were quite different. On top of that, the food is below average based on other NYC Chinese establishments. Best advice, stay away! read more

Can't beat a combo roast duck and roast pork on rice and cabbage for $6.50! Free hot Chinese tea when you sit down and food comes in 2 minutes. No frills and no fillers! Gets the job done and curb the cravings! read more

218 Restaurant - Chinese Near Me - New York, New York