Sunday, October 7, 2007

Review: Amy's Restaurant- Chinese and Asian Cuisine

It has been recommended to me that in my search for GOOD Chinese food, I try "Amy's."

I went for a walk earlier today 'cause it is so nice out. I was looking for a place to buy a glow in the dark pumpkin to put in my window. Long story short, ended up walking down 207th street to hop on the train to go to Target cause none of the stores here had a light up one I liked. BUT on my way.... I passed AMY'S! I went in and got a To Go menu and here I am. No light up pumpkin- I decided it was a waste of money- but I am getting some Chinese food!

AMY'S RESTAURANT

586 W.207th st. New York, NY 10034

TEL: (212) 567-3175

FAX: (212) 567-3197

Open from 11am to 11:30 pm

It is 5:55 PM and I have just finished ordering the dinner combo 'Beef and Broccoli' Or L 11 for $6.50. It comes with your choice of chicken, vegetable or pork fried rice ( I chose chicken) and a can of soda. The lunch combo is a dollar cheaper, but not available after 4pm. Delivery is free and they accept all major credit cards. I also ordered Miso Soup for $1.75.

While I wait for my food to come I am flipping between my 12 channels. There is this new show on called "Gossip Girl." It looks like the OC has found its way to the Upper East Side. On channel 13 though is the documentary "New York Goes To War." I will probably flip between the two as they are both so extreme and the only other option is "Save the Last Dance." **quietly barfing**... Maybe I will just watch the news.. despite that there isn't a lot of good news these days.. Maybe they will do a feature on puppies that are being adopted by a chicken or something..

Wow,,, this is taking a while. It is 6:44pm. I called back.. they said " give me a few more minutes." ugh... really? I had such high hopes.

BUZZ!!!! Yay!!! The food is here! It only took an HOUR. It is 6:57.

ok.

It was a really long wait for that food. But here I am. Brown Paper Bag of Chinese food in hand.

And I open it.....

Crap. I should have asked for chopsticks. But it does come with utensils as well as duck sauce, sweet and sour sauce, and soy sauce. Lets hit the Miso!

eww.

Oh God. This is awful. It's like water. Geesh. The peices of seaweed are HUGE. and the tofu is all disintegrated. Bleh. I add the soy sauce packet to it. Bleh. Nope. I just wasted a $1.75. Hey Amy-- you need to fix the Miso. It's not workin'.

My friend who recommended Amy's said "They have the best CHINESE food in the area." Miso is Japanese... so I suppose it's like when you go to get a pickle at an Italian deli and it still tastes like a cucumber. So. Yea. It is gross-- Don't get it.

Ok. The beef and broccoli with chicken fried rice. There is a lot of rice in here, but not a lot of Beef and broccoli. hmm.. oh well. I have my own chopsticks -of course- and dive right in.

The beef tastes good. It looks healthy. It isn't SOAKING in brown sauce like some places do it. It is good. YAY! The beef is GOOD! The broccoli is fresh! BUT-- the food is almost room temperature because it took so long to get here. Sure the problem is easily solved by just walking in and getting take out, rather than delivery. But I didn't want to leave my house-- I got work to do here!

So, the beef and broccoli- the whole dish is just fine. It was just a little underwhelming. As is the chicken fried rice- it was good, but it just was a little too salty for my taste. I am full though now. I just wish that I had gotten more beef and broccoli and less rice. Even the crappy Chinese places give you almost equal portions. But this is the dinner special. It is cheap and maybe it is because of that they give you less.

On the menu you have options. You have the ability to choose Small, for 6.95 or regular for 8.95. I am sure both of those probably had a little more than I got with my 'dinner combo' size.

The chicken fried rice had a lot of onions in it. Some of the pieces of onion were pretty big too- not sure that I was into that. There was a good amount of chicken in there though and that made it nice. They also had some egg mixed in.

But really, the thing I am happiest about is that the broccoli was cooked just right. It was almost like they had steamed it. It was cooked just the way I like it. The broccoli was also very very fresh. No where near the blooming stage like at the other places up here.

So. Here is the scoop.

It took a long time to get here, but I liked most of what i got.

Honestly- I knew the miso soup was going to be pretty crappy. I just had this feeling. So just don't order that. If you want a lot of one thing-- don't get a combo- get the regular size from the normal menu and not the Combo menu.

Also- I got a fortune cookie. I had never gotten a fortune like this. It was pleasant and an actual fortune-- not just stupid sayings like "Patience is a virtue" or "peace is a state we should all live in." I can't tell you what the fortune was-- because it won't come true if I do. But just go to Amy's ( don't get the Miso) and get your own fortune.

This place IS worth the INK.

LONG wait. Good CHINESE food.

BAD Miso soup. OK prices

7.5 out of 10.

I will order from here again and see if it comes sooner. I will also try and order something more interesting, to see how they do at some of their own "Chef Specialties."

Oh- and Gossip Girl is Desperate housewives for high school kids-- right down to the narrator's weird voice.

Meh,, I'm going to go get a Freezee from the Bodega.

10 comments:

Unknown said...

Amy's used to be a whole lot better. I think they suffer a little from being the ONLY half-decent Chinese food in the area, so they get overwhelmed and seem to have relaxed their standards some. The longer and longer delivery times bear that out. When they first opened a couple of years ago, the stuff was comparable to the best places I knew.

Mike D. said...

Hey love the blog...I am 24 year old musician from CT that just moved to Inwood. So far I am loving it. Anyway my Chinese place of choice is Lotus Express. I have had it 5 times and I havent had a bad meal yet. Its on 4840 B'way not sure of the Ave. b/c I have only gotten takeout. Everything seems very fresh, Combo Plates are good and cheap most coming in under $7. Check it out I bet u will love it. Good wonton soup too!

Anonymous said...

Lotus is really good
I was surprised when I first ordered.

Randy Wallace said...

Amy's is awful. I can not handle the wait. There are two excellent restaurants (primarily for delivery, though) on 207th street. Try Empire Kichen (b/w post and Sherman). I love these guys; i always tip the $2 and they *always* bring me my food within 15 minutes. Of course, I live around the corner. Regardless, for 'new york style' chinese food, these guys are the best. There is also the Tex-Mex restaurant across from McDonalds on 207th and broadway. This is another very tiny restaurant that does most of their business through delivery. Excellent Tex-Mex for a great price! (and fast delivery!)

Jeff said...

Ewww! Empire Kitchen, Broadway, and You Like are disgusting. Amy's is totally the best Chinese in Inwood. I have also had Lotus Express (and it is fine). I am not sure there is such a thing as "NY-style" Chinese - unless you mean greasy Chinese food that comes from a bug-infested hole. There are definitely different price levels to Chinese places - and the quality of the food and the establishment's cleanliness usually reflects this. Amy's is a great mid-level Chinese place. P.S. - Miso always tastes like salty water to me. :)

viagra online without prescription said...

Amy restaurant have a good food! but ever make me wait a long time!! BUT, I can't living without Amy?

Anonymous said...

i think the same at the before comment when u want a good chinnese food i go fo amy's, but the price is a bit hiqh.

Brittany Connors said...

Try "One Family"- truly freaking amazing Chinese... so so so yummy!

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