Mimi Cheng’s

Opened in 2014, Mimi Cheng’s mission is all about providing delicious, high quality food that connects them with their heritage and family recipes. This restaurant popped on my radar when I was looking for delicious Asian food after a long day at work! This was only a few blocks away from the hotel, so I grabbed my husband and we set out on a cold, rainy day with the end goal of some delicious food. This spot is apparently very popular and they even have their dumplings available to buy frozen and cook at home. Despite the popularity, the restaurant was completely empty when we arrived – maybe people in New York just eat dinner way later than us. There are a few seats inside, but the restaurant is fairly small and maybe mostly takeout. Anyways, we looked over the menu and decided to order some dumplings and noodles to split.

Here’s what we ordered: Pork & Chive Dumplings, boiled; and Spicy Dan Dan Noodles with Bok Choy. I’ll start with the dumplings. As a dumpling lover and a self proclaimed connoisseur, I have eaten a ton of dumplings in my lifetime. For me, these dumplings just missed the mark. They weren’t very flavorful and were definitely lacking something. I prefer boiled dumplings, but maybe these would have been better if they were pan fried. The sauce that was served with the dumplings was also incredibly spicy so that didn’t help with the flavor of the dumplings. I was definitely disappointed, especially with knowing that these are popular and a family recipe. Now for the noodles…Dan Dan is typically on the spicy side and since I don’t have the highest spice tolerance, we asked for the spice to be lowered so we could both enjoy the noodles. These were ridiculously spicy – to the point that they weren’t even edible. The spice was so overwhelming and took away any flavor of the noodles. The noodles were okay, chewy but a little overcooked.

Overall this place just didn’t hit or live up to my expectations. I would probably skip it or maybe try something different next time.