Jing Fong
20 Elizabeth Street between Canal and Bayard
New York, NY 10013-4802
212/964-5256

You can't miss Jing Fong with its shopping mall-style escalators. Sunday is the best day for dim sum, so try to go by 10am so you can experience "China" in the middle of Elizabeth Street. The lady at the bottom of the escalators screams into a microphone to call your number and it's like a madhouse bingo-hall environment. Once you're upstairs, you'll see the gaudy red and gold decor: a true Chinese banquet hall. You share a round table with other people if your own group has less than eight people. If you're lucky, there will be a wedding on one side of the hall and you can witness how Chinese parties are done! Waiters push food carts around and you order your food by stopping any of them to get a peek of what they're offering. They speak a small dose of English and sometimes, they will be annoyed if you can't make up your mind. If it looks interesting, go for it! You have nothing to lose! A billion Chinese people can't be wrong! There's also a buffet table up front so you can pick up your own food if you don't feel like eating the ones that come from the food carts.

Recommended dishes: snails, chicken feet, congee, taro balls, and all the different kinds of dumplings you see. Skip the oily fried rice and leave some room in your tummy for the things you don't normally eat.

We went to Jing Fong on a Saturday afternoon for dim sum. For those who don't know what that is, it is a variety of appetizer-like foods that are pushed around on carts past your table and to which you point when you want to order the food. The waitress marks your ticket, a tracking device placed on your table by your waiter of how much you will pay for whatever foods you chose.

When you first enter Jing Fong, you go up a long escalator and are then escorted to a table (the two of us shared a table with a family of three). The decor was typical of a Chinese restaurant, but the place was huge!

The waitresses did not seem as friendly as I have experienced at other dim sum places, but those restaurants were much smaller and were not in New York City's Chinatown. I imagine that many of the waitresses and patrons at Jing Fong speak only Chinese, and perhaps that was why the service seemed somewhat aloof. Waiters removing dishes and bringing tea were extremely quick and efficient.

One unique thing about Jing Fong, and I don't know if it is typical of other Chinatown restaurants or not but it was a first for me, was that you did not have to wait for a waitress to bring around a cart in order to get some food. You could go up to a centrally located buffet with your ticket and a server would mark your ticket when you picked up a dish.

Jing Fong served typical dim sum foods, but they had a mussel dish that I had never had before. The mussels were excellent. Most of the other foods were also very good.

You cannot beat the prices for the amount and quality of food you get at Jing Fong.

The bottom line: Jing Fong was inexpensive, had good food, and had decent service.

This is one of my all-time favorites…it is cheap, the food is good, there is something for everyone, and it’s so much fun, especially with a large group. This is a huge restaurant, taking up the whole block (or so it seems). Smack in the middle of Chinatown, the sign outside is easily missed. On weekends, look for the overflow of people outside the entrance; they are all waiting for a table at Jing Fong.

Here’s the drill. Give your name and number of people to the reception desk and you will get a number in return. Then be alert for the microphone calling out your number in Chinese and English. You will then be allowed upstairs, where a huge auditorium decorated in red and gold dragons and other Chinese motifs will meet you. There are tables everywhere, people talking loudly and walking around, and to add to the confusion, there are ladies pushing metal carts around with dim sum inside.

Dim Sum dishes are Cantonese "snacks", literally means a little of the heart. These are delicate little dishes, meaning you can stack your table high and still not get full. Ask for the ladies to show you what she has in her cart. Don’t miss out on the "Ha Gow" (shrimp dumplings), "Shiu Mai" (pork dumplings), "Cha Siu Bao" (pork buns) etc….you’ll sample as you watch those carts go by. Of course, more exotic items include chicken feet, but hey, if it tastes good, why not?

Having lunch here is interactive on every level. You will find yourself eating and spying for the next cart constantly. You will also be eyeing the next table, trying to figure what they are eating. It is so much fun.

The best part is the bill. On a recent visit, we had a table of 8 hungry adults, and our bill was only $10 per person inclusive of tip and taxes.

This is a huge dim sum palace that makes you feel like you are in a huge banquet hall in Hong Kong. Go with a group to try the many Chinese specialties like Shrimp Dumplings and BBQ beef buns.