Yong Chuan

Yongchuan offers a comforting and well-executed take on Ningbo cuisine in the Lower East Side. The food focuses on clean, balanced flavors rather than heavy oil or spice. Highlights include the warm and soothing taro thick soup, and the savory stir-fried long beans with preserved vegetables. The tofu skin rolls are crisp and satisfying, and the light citrusy cocktail makes for a refreshing start. Overall, Yongchuan feels authentic, home-style, and thoughtfully cooked—a great choice when you’re craving subtle, comforting Chinese flavors.

Place is organized and their seats are well situated. The staff from the front to server and even the bartender they are all awesome! Really friendly and made the experience relaxing. They have accommodated us even though we are 10mins past our reservation. This place also was also booked during the NYE. So we are glad that we are able to secure our table. The food was really good, love every bite we had aside from one. We had Dim sum Platter, Fried Dim sum, Dan dan noodles, Yong Chuan Fried Rice, Mapo Tofu, and the Duck! The fave of the table were the duck and fried rice. Unfortunately the mapo tofu didn’t hit the spot. But aside from that everything was totally worth it!

The food here is shockingly bad. The home-style braised fish looked appalling—the rice cakes were so unappetizing I mistook them for chunks of pork fat. Aside from the soft-shell crab, the dim sum was terrible, and the rice even had a revolting, musty cockroach-like smell. It’s no surprise we were the only table in the restaurant on a Friday afternoon. A truly horrific experience.

*Afternoon tea experience review I had a reservation for 3:45 p.m. a few days before my friend's birthday. On the day of the reservation, I received a message from the restaurant stating that their last call for the day I made the reservation was 3 p.m. I spoke to my friend, and we were able to get to the restaurant on time. The scones were good, but they were not served with proper clotted cream, nor even butter, but whipping cream, which was quite disappointing. The sandwiches were a bit odd, too. They were very thin and slightly dry, with no dill in the cucumber or salmon sandwiches, and capers in the egg sandwich for some reason. The tea was good, but the petit fours were meh. The pineapple buns we ordered from the dim sum menu were tasty. We were just happy to catch up because we live in different states and we don't get to see each other that often. Then, around 3:45, the waiter stopped by to tell us that they were closing up the brunch service by 4 p.m. We were a bit stunned. It's an afternoon tea; who books an afternoon tea to enjoy it for less than an hour? By 4 p.m., the waiter stopped by again to ask if we wanted to pack up the leftovers, which is a polite way of saying that we had to leave. The restaurant staff were nice enough to let us stick around for 15 minutes or so, but by then they were moving chairs around, carrying dishes, eating dinner, etc. It was obvious that we were expected to get out and find a different place to hang out. I felt terrible for my birthday girl while scrambling to find a new spot out in the cold. I wish that the management had let us know that the afternoon tea was going to be cut short if we were to come in at 3 p.m. or been told to come in even earlier so we weren't so rushed.

YongChuan, Lower East Side NYC-Started with a taro soup which I found to be very interesting, I’ve never had any soup quite like it, has almost like a porridge consistency, hearty, flavorful and full of umami. This restaurant is known for its Peking Duck, slices of crackling skin and tender meat serve along side with cucumber, scallion and hoisin sauce. Also love the fact that they layer each wrapper with parchment paper for easy separation. The whole branzino was fried to perfectly golden brown, crispy, moist and topped with a well balanced sweet and sour sauce. Last but not least, thanks to our amazing server Barbara for such a wonderful dining experience!