Hop Kee - New York

Seeing as though this would be our last visit to New York this summer, I wanted to make an effort to visit China Town. Genuine Chinese food was what we were looking for and boy did we find it. Located at 21 Mott St, you’ll find the underground restaurant Hop Kee. When you enter you will see pictures of Bill Cosby and Anthony Bourdain on the walls enjoying some of their favorite dishes here. It is a family style restaurant so we decided to share a couple of dishes. First of all they give you a bowl of crispy wonton snacks accompanied by sweet and sour sauce to dip them; they were good but nothing as spectacular as our main course. For entrée’s we all shared Chicken Fried Rice, Salted Squid and Fried Hop Kee Chicken. The rice was hands down the best fried rice I have ever tasted. The Squid was a dish I heard about a lot and had to get it, crispy, mouth watering, salty squid, topped with thin slices of jalapeno which made my day. I probably could have eaten this entire plate to myself and ordered another to ship home to California. Last but certainly not least, the Hop Kee Chicken. When we received the plate it wasn’t like any other fried chicken I’ve had in my life. Visually it looked like a wet battered fried chicken garnished with bok choy, water chestnuts and peas, drenched in a creamy gravy. It was phenomenal, all of the flavors worked well with each other. If you come here, you must order this. I like my food a bit spicy so when I asked for sriacha they laughed. He came out with this oil chili which was awesome and added that perfect heat to my dish. The server was extremely friendly and spoke in Spanish to my husband the entire time which wasn’t expected seeing as though he was Chinese. I absolutely love this place and if you decide on going to China town I highly recommend you to visit Hop Kee.