Flushing Mall Food Court – Closed

Flushing Mall Food Court
133-31 39th Ave
Flushing, NY 11354
$

Flushing Mall Food Court is a legend in the Flushing food scene. It paved the way for Asian food courts all over the city and its one of the first, if not the first, to assemble multiple types of Asian fast food in one place. I remember eating here way back in my high school days when it was the only Flushing loitering spot with food, before the days of Queens Crossing and New World Mall food court. Unfortunately, this food court just never got popular with the masses. Maybe it was during a time when Western palates weren’t accustomed to exotic Asian street food. Maybe it was because its location is far from the train station and it was too much effort making the walk down 39th Ave. Regardless, this food court is still here and whipping out food better than most places in Flushing.

Like most days, the outside of the food court is empty. Occasionally there are small-scaled shows and corporate rallies that liven things up a bit.

What was once a melting pot of Chinese, Korean, Japanese cuisine has dwindled down to only a handful of shops. Now the vendors primarily serve Taiwanese food

At Diverse Dim Sum 不一樣點心, you can get a variety of Chinese breakfast items such as buns, fried dough, dumplings, and soy products.

Fresh Juice Bar 水霸 is the only non-savory shop in the mall. Here you could get refreshments like teas, smoothies, fruit juices, and bubble tea. I see they still use the Taiwanese ice station that used to be here.

At the furthest end of the food court is Temple Snacks 廟口小吃, named after a famous market district in Keelung city of Taiwan. They specialize in regional small eats but oddly I didn’t see any seafood on the menu, a trademark of the Keelung Miaokou Night Market.

Place your order here. The staff is very friendly.

Fool-proof menu with pictures and names of the food. Also everything is cheap and unique.

Hanged above the cashier is the secret menu that’s in only in Chinese. If you can read these or feel adventurous, definitely order from this menu as well.

Reiterating from my previous posts, I love kitchens that are visible to the public. You can see how clean the place is and what goes on with your food.

Fried Chicken Roll 廟口炸雞卷

Fried Chicken Roll 廟口炸雞卷

You will love the crispy bean curd skin of the Fried Chicken Roll 廟口炸雞卷 ($5.75). Inside the roll is a filling of taro and onions but I don’t think there is an ounce of chicken. I guess it gets the name because it resembles fried chicken? Best part of the dish is the garlic sauce that lights up your taste and smell senses.

Bamboo Shoots & Stewed Pork w. Rice 廟口筍干焢肉飯

Bamboo Shoots & Stewed Pork w. Rice 廟口筍干焢肉飯

They don’t mess around with the pork belly in the Bamboo Shoots & Stewed Pork w. Rice 廟口筍干焢肉飯 ($6.75). The whole chunk of meat was juicy and full of flavor. Accompanying the rice is some shredded bamboo shoots, minced fatty pork, lettuce, and tea egg.

 The most famous vendor at the food court is Hankou Steaks 漢口牛排. Everything that is fried or grilled is good here but they are most famous for their steaks served on a sizzling platter. You can check our their menu here. I do fear from the C rating in the back though…

As soon as you walk into the vicinity, you feel an aura of oil in the air.

House Special Steak 漢口牛排 ($14.75)

The House Special Steak 漢口牛排 ($14.75) is what everybody gets. Its hard to resist when you hear the sizzling sound and smell the beefy aroma from the plates of everyone walking pass you.

House Special Noodle Soup 阿宗麵線

A restaurant called Ah Chung used to be next to Hankou Steaks but I think their menus consolidated. Being so, Hankou also serves the Ay Chung Mee Sua or House Special Noodle Soup 阿宗麵線 ($5.00). It is a soup of flour-rice noodles with some bamboo and cilantro in a bonito-flavored broth. After tasting the original in Taiwan, this one was not as deep in bonito flavor and a bit saltier. Nonetheless, I am glad I was able to find this soup in New York. 

Flushing Mall Food Court has seen better days and I am amazed on how this whole mall is still running considering there is no business in any of the shops. Every year there are always rumors of the mall and food court closing down and I can see why with competing food courts in Queens Crossing and New World Mall. Very soon, a fourth food court (New York Food Court) is going to open on 133-35 Roosevelt Ave. As for now, Flushing Mall is here to stay so might as well make the best of it and have a taste of history.

Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot (小肥羊)

Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot (小肥羊)
136-59 37th Ave
Flushing, NY 11354
$$$

The best thing Mongolians brought to China is probably hot pot. If there is anything Asians can agree about, it is hot pots are awesome. Each Asian country has their own variation and at Little Sheep, you have your traditional Chinese yuanyang 鴛鴦 variety with the double section pot (yuanyang makes references to the type of ducks that always come in pairs, hence the 2 section pot). Be sure not to get this place confused with the “Little Lamb” hot pot restaurant in Skyview Mall.

Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot is proclaimed by some as the best Chinese hot pot place in Flushing. Without a doubt it is certainly the largest and has the most influence to the hot pot scene. You can even find their hot pot soup base sold in Asian super markets.

As soon as you walk in, you can already tell that this place is different from most hot pot restaurants. Take notice of the ventilation system on the ceiling and the modern interior decor. Arriving at dinner time means a wait time of at least 30 minutes.

The restaurant has many tables but the walkways can be hard to navigate due to the fold up tables between each table.

Fortunately, there is a picture menu to help eaters know what they are ordering.

How it works here is first a $3.75 soup fee is charged per person. You pick the type of soup you want either in a whole pot or half and half, yuanyang style.

Next you purchase additional dishes of food and add that on top of the soup fee. Just put the number of dishes you want in the boxes on the corresponding row.  At first, you might think that the soup fee is cheap but the dishes of food add up and can get quite expensive in the end. A plate of the cheapest beef is $7.50 and most vegetables range from $3.95-4.95.

One side is the milky herbal non-spicy broth while the other is the spicy broth flooded with dried chili, peppercorn, and other spices.

The deciding factor that determines the quality of the hot pot is the broth. I am quite disappointed that the broths served at Little Sheep tasted exactly the same as their packaged versions sold in every Chinese supermarket. Everything was the same down to the flavor, the msg, and even the types of preserved herbs. Being so, I didn’t think the broth tasted that special and was very one dimensional, almost like the flavor of instant ramen soup packets. I kind of hope that they made their soup from scratch.

Since the tables are so tiny, each table is accompanied by a TV dinner table to put the vegetables and smaller plates.

Taro Root ($4.95)

Enoki Mushrooms ($4.95)

Beef Balls ($5.50)

Watercress ($4.95)

USDA Choice Ribeye ($7.95)

The choice ribeye is the cheapest beef cut they have. Definitely expensive for the portion you get. Picture above is the 6oz so if you are ordering more than one, be sure to order the 12oz set at discount.

Egg Dumplings ($4.95) and Fish Dumplings ($4.95)

The quality of ingredients and cleanliness is unmatched in Flushing. Also the place is spacious and great for groups. However, I’ve been to much better hot pot places flavor-wise and price-wise all around the city. And since Little Sheep sells their soup in markets anyways, the hot pot here can be easily replicated at home for a fraction of the price.

Yoz Shanghai (老鴨粉絲湯) (Recommended)

Yoz Shanghai (老鴨粉絲湯)
41-28 Main St 1FL
Flushing, NY 11355
$

Yoz Shanghai is one of the best kept secrets of Golden Mall and all of Flushing. Inside this mecca of cheap eats holds a small restaurant no bigger than your bedroom. Appearances aside, what makes Yoz beautiful is their cheap dumplings and… 8 soup dumplings (小籠包) for only $4.00!  As I write this, I cringe that I might have opened a Pandora’s Box because attention and popularity equals price inflation.

We live in a time where every other restaurant is raising dumpling prices. You can’t find soup dumplings under $1.00 a dumpling anymore. Thankfully Yoz continues to keeps the prices down. Additionally, they specialize in duck noodles and the traditional pan-fried dumplings (鍋貼) and boiled dumplings (水餃).

Locating the restaurant begins at the cozy Golden Mall Food Court. We head to the 1st floor to find Yoz Shanghai.

After going in the restaurant is to the right just a few shops in. Easy as pie.

The menu here is simple, you have your choice of various dumplings and then noodles to fill the rest of the stomach. Note: For the duck noodles, the one on the left is noodles with “duck treasure” (you can use your imagination with that), duck liver, and duck blood. The one on the right is duck noodles in a osmanthus broth with preserved duck meat.

There are barely any seating space (2 four person tables and 2 two person tables) and getting a seat requires some stalking and pushing if necessary.

Its a misconception that hole in the wall restaurants are dirty. In my opinion, if I can see the kitchen and the staff cooking the food, its clean in my books.

Soup Dumplings or Steamed Pork Buns

I chose to pack the soup dumplings 小籠包 ($4.00/8 pieces) to go because getting a seat was impossible. At only 50 cents a dumpling, these didn’t taste cheap at all. Each dumpling had a even soup to meat ratio and taste amazing. Also the skin was paper thin. It was good for chewing but bad for picking the dumplings up as a lot of them popped on contact. Which brings me to recommending that you eat these at the restaurant when they are served in the bamboo steamers.

Guihua Duck with Noodle Soup

The Guihua Duck with Noodle Soup 桂花鴨粉絲湯 ($5.75) is a good supplement to the dumplings. It is filled with rice noodles, fried tofu, baby bok choi, cilantro, and Chinese salted/cured duck. If you are Cantonese, the duck is really similar to 臘鴨, the flat salty dried duck that is seen hanging in supermarkets.

Yoz Shanghai definitely deserves some more attention but I hope at the same time prices doesn’t rise because of this. Actually, all the restaurants in the Golden Mall is worth a visit as the restaurants here serves some of the most traditional Chinese cuisines you can find. It avoids any American influences so you know this stuff is authentic.