Since Neel and I both love trying new restaurants, we try to make an effort to carve out fun 2 hour lunches on slow days at work every now and then. A few months ago it was a fun outing to Yuji Ramen and this time we managed to sneak out to try China Blue - the new sister restaurant to Cafe China. It's about a 20-25 minute walk from our building and luckily his lovely wife Sarah was able to join us too since she worked downtown too.
It's in this very off-the-grid street in Tribeca and it's definitely not a place you would randomly stumble upon while walking around. The decor inside is very much in line with the more industrial look and feel of Tribeca vs. the more home style decor of the one in Midtown. Despite it being a random Friday, the place was packed because there was a office party in the main room, but they do have a separate room to the side. The menu is focused more on Shanghai-nese style food. One of the best reasons to go out to eat for lunch is that most places have a lunch menu that is much more affordable but still with great variety. Neel, Sarah and I decided to split 3 different lunch specials (each special comes with choice of hot and sour soup, egg drop soup or an egg roll). We opted for the spicy pork noodle ($11), the eggplant in garlic sauce ($11) and then we debated between the chicken and chive flower or the three cup chicken, so we asked the waiter which he would recommend. He told us that the chicken and chive flower dish had no sauce or flavor - um, ok then why is that on the menu then? So clearly we went with the three cup chicken ($11). We ended up trying out both soups and the egg roll since we got 3 individual lunch specials. The soups were you standard Chinese style soups but still good and soothing. The egg roll had a nice crispy and flaky outside and they gave us a dipping sauce that was very heavy on the vinegar but I didn't mind that at all. They then brought out all of the lunch specials at once and I was so happy that we decided to split all of them so that we could all get a nice variety of dishes. Each dish was actually pretty big for a lunch size so I definitely encourage going family style. The pork noodles was a very thick chewy noodle base with a spicy ground pork sauce. I loved it even though it was a bit dense. I definitely would not recommend someone eat the entire bowl by themselves unless they want to take a deep sleep nap afterwards. The eggplant dish was also your typical eggplant dish - it was sauteed to the point where it was pretty mushy but in a good way and then covered in a heavy garlic sauce. The three cup chicken was served with chunks of chicken rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, tons and tons of garlic and basil. I was expecting it to pack in a bunch of flavor based on what the waiter told me and while it was definitely tasty, it didn't hit me in the face with any overwhelming bite of flavor. It actually could have used a bit more something (maybe spice?) to it.
All in all, it was a lovely extended lunch experience and while I could see that the dinner prices might be a bit high for Chinese food, the lunch specials were a pretty good deal considering that I easily spend more money at other places nearby (i.e. I had spent $21 for lunch at Wei West the day before). I would definitely come back if I had time and try out some of the other lunch specials on the menu. Total bill: $15/pp with tax and tip
Photo Credit: Yelp
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