So Holly and I went over to Stanton Social to cool down and for some fancy cocktails. I won't review it since we didn't eat there but I will say that you are ever in the neighborhood and need a very cold place to sit and sip on great cocktails, Stanton Social is the place to be. It totally hit the spot. By the time we were nice and cool and 2 cocktails deep 1 hour later, Mission Chinese called. Perfect timing.
The inside of Mission Chinese is pretty small, with about 10 tables and 4 seats at the "bar" (it's more like a countertop than a bar). It's pretty dark inside and it's got a giant paper dragon attached to the ceiling that runs the length of the restaurant. The front of the menu are small plates and the back of the menu are large plates. The nice thing about the menu was that nothing was more than $15. Holly and I even joked that our cocktails at Stanton Social were more than most of the dishes here (our cocktails were $13 each). The menu is a good mix of "normal" Chinese food like peanut noodles, mapo tofu and eggplant and more adventurous eats like braised pig tails, pig ear terrine and "married couple's beef" which was beef tongue, heart and tripe mixed together. Our waiter said that for 2 people, 2 small dishes and 2 large dishes would be plenty. He also mentioned that they don't adjust the spiciness level of any of the dishes, so that's just something to keep in mind as you order as there are quite a few spicy dishes. Holly and I ordered the smashed cucumber in garlic sauce ($4), vinegar peanuts ($4), broccoli beef brisket with oyster sauce ($15), kung pao pastrami ($11) and since we were hungry we got a 3rd large dish of sizzling cumin lamb breast ($15). The cucumber and peanuts came our right away (I had later noticed that they just keep a bunch of them already made in the fridge in the hallway) and the cucumber wasn't exactly what I thought it would be. I thought that they would be thin slices of cucumber but these were not even slices of cucumber but giant wedges and they were more on their way to being a pickle than a refreshing cucumber. I didn't try the peanuts but they were actually swimming in the vinegar and Holly mentioned that it would have been nice if the peanuts were dry and not moist.
The lamb came out next and you could most definitely taste the cumin. In fact the cumin was a bit too overwhelming and for me, cumin is not a seasoning that I like a lot of (I prefer it to be more subtle). The lamb was also a bit too fatty. There was more fat than meat on the bones which made it difficult to cut through the meat. The part of the meat I did have was a bit dry and burned at the edges. The beef brisket and broccoli came out next and this was my favorite dish (and yes, pretty similar to the very Americanized beef and broccoli). The broccoli was Chinese broccoli and usually I don't like Chinese broccoli for some reason but this was pretty good..maybe because it was covered in a ton of garlic oyster sauce. The brisket was also incredibly tender and unlike the lamb, you could actually cut with with just the soup spoon. Next came the kung pao pastrami which is what Mission Chinese is known for. Honestly, it was fine but my mind wasn't blown away by it. It tastes exactly how it sounds. Cubes of salty pastrami served with the kung pao flavors of spicy chili, peppers, onions, peanuts and celery. Honestly, I would have preferred to have tried something like the eggplant or tofu instead. Looking back, the waiter was definitely spot on with the ordering suggestion of 2 small and 2 large dishes. I was so full and the last large dish was totally unnecessary but it's so hard to not over order when you're hungry.
I'm glad that I finally tried this place but it's most definitely not worth more than a hour wait tops. Frankly, I thought Yunnan Kitchen was a lot better and if you know where to go in Flushing or even Chinatown, you can get better Chinese food there too. Total bill: $36/pp with tax.
Photo Credit: Yelp
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