CHINESE for NYC picky girls

Like most city girls in NYC with careers in fashion, my friend Blanche and I have shared many meals on trips around the world. We enjoy not cooking and often dine in euro-centric eateries. To change up the downtown bistro flavor a bit and reminisce, we went for chinese food– and uptown- which was almost out of town for us.

The idea of China Fun was fitting, as we’ve had many Chinese New Year celebrations + lots of dumplings together. So here we were, two know-it-all picky eaters scoping a rather extensive menu at China Fun Restaurant on 2nd avenue. Walking in, we immediately noticed a tiny bar with a cute tropical drink on view that immediately got us excited to order a warm weather refresher.

We tried the tropical spicy mango mojito + ‘a perfect storm’ to start.   Thirty minutes later, after browsing the extensive menu and asking the extremely patient waiter at least 20 questions, we finally ordered a couple of special dishes. The crispy whole sea bass, which was coming in a very special sauce, a spicy tuna roll from their japanese menu, and the old Shanghai rice cakes – the ultimate surprise du jour.   Though we asked the waiter few different ways about the rice cakes while looking at the picture before ordering, we couldn’t really understand what this yummy concoction to come was. It looked like vegetables in the pic – sort of like water chestnuts.

Then the yummies arrived. The date-friendly spacious atmosphere was perfect for an out of the norm chinese food experience. Take a look. (click any pic to launch gallery).

The fish was perfectly cooked in the most delicious sauce that went with “just rice” just fine. The show stopper in my books was the ‘old shanghai style rice cakes with vegetables.’  The divine vegetarian-friendly dish was a medley of textures.  What looked like a vegetable, had a texture of a thick noodle, but more chewy-sauteed with vegetables. Yumm. The backup plan for me, the spicy tuna roll, was just fine + fresh too. But the savory two were memorable… and so was the great service.

If you want to “enjoy” a chinese meal in an atmosphere good enough for a date in the city, casual enough for take out, hike uptown to China Fun. As a picky foodie with 20+ more questions, I’d go back again- and so will Blanche.

CHINESE for NYC picky girls written by Brigitte Segura.

CHINA FUN is located at 1221 2nd ave. at 64th st // 212. 752.0819

photos: Brigitte Segura.

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