Congee Village

We come here often with my fiancé family. The food has always been good and service is not bad. Specially the fact that they are always so crowded. And that’s the downside of this place. It is always packed and trying to get seated specially if it’s a holiday is a big challenge.

You wouldn’t guess it from the name, but the beef and liver porridge is actually one of the tastier congee dishes here.

Excellent food. Service is not bad for Chinatown standard .
And from 2016 they waiver the tips. No service fee.

Congee Village was mainly a disappointment as some of the food ordered were «hit or miss».
For a party of three, we ordered a little more than usual when dining out for Chinese.
— Fried bread was without any flavor. It was like having a cottonmouth.
— The steamed dumplings were rubbery.
— The fried dumplings were overfried on one side and lacking flavor.
— The Shanghai surprise buns were a much better alternative to the dumplings.
— The chicken with garlic sauce was decent.
— The General Tso’s chicken is supposed to be spicy and there was barely any heat.
— The sesame chicken was the best of everything ordered.
Service was slow because the waiter was awkward with all of us being Deaf. The manager had to take over. Really?
The menu was so stiff and tightly bound that it was hard to keep them open. However, there was a wide range of selection for your dining experience.
This is a no-​tipping restaurant which took a little getting used to.
Don’t expect this to be the best Chinese place when you go. Fair warning.

This is the place you want to go to for a family style Chinese meal in Chinatown. They offer a lot of variety from lobster with sticky rice (my favorite), walnut shrimp, steamed fish with scallions and ginger, and various veggies. The options are endless! The lobster fried sticky rice is good because of all the juices and flavor of the lobster get absorbed by the rice making it flavorful and they put scallions to give it that extra edge in freshness.
When I come, its usually for family dinners, and they are packed always at night so call and reserve. They don’t take reservations usually for 4 or less people so if u have a small party, just come a little early and be prepared to wait a little.
Will be back always of course.

I don’t quite understand the 3.5 stars for this place, I think this place is super awesome, especially after you’re drinking all night and you’re trying to find something comforting before you go home.
On weekends, they’re open late till 2 AM and weekdays only till 12:30 AM.
I usually get the congee or porridge with whatever filling/​topping I feel like, highly recommend this if you want something comforting when it’s cold outside.
the chicken in a bamboo was also delicious. The house special garlic chicken was super delicious, it is very garlicky, so be prepared to have a strong mouthwash or gum to get rid of that garlicky smell-​unless you’re trying to scare your date away.
The soup dumpling was just okay, comparing to other places in Chinatown, NYC. Will certainly come back in the future for more…

My husband loves the congee they have here. The portions are large and it is served piping hot in clay pots if you get it to stay. We would recommend staying away from the rest of the menu as it is greasy and overpriced. We tried the fried chicken based on a recommendation and have to say that we were disappointed.
2.5 stars

One of the best chinese restaurant in chinatown. The food there is pretty consistent. Their congee is their specialty. Don’t expect great service, I don’t especially fond for the restroom.
The food is decent and price is reasonable.

This seems to be a staple in the Chinatown area. So we stopped by for an early dinner, which was great on our part since we dodged the dinner rush.
The food was relatively bland, everything seemed to be lacking salt. Our group truly enjoyed the 干炒牛河, but it lacked salt and flavor. But adding hot pepper oil helped the flavor tremendously.
I ask docked a star because of the lack of service. One of our dishes came out considerably late, we were already finished with our other plates. We had to ask where it was twice before they brought it out to us.

I used to go to Congee Bowery quite a bit until I noticed the quality of food was not up to par as it was years ago. Since then I now go to Congee Village which I find better in both freshness and taste. However like Congee Bowery, there can be long lines at peak hours so try to make a reservation in advance if possible. Although, the wait is well worth it in my option as they serve consistently solid Cantonese cuisine time and time again. Service can be rough around the edges as most Cantonese eateries, so don’t expect 5 star service. Some of my go to dishes are the Peking pork chops, the house special chicken, and the scallops in black pepper sauce. I haven’t really found another place who does scallops like this place does. I also recommend bringing several friends to Congee Village so you can sample the various dishes family style.

Super comforting Chinese food and fun place to go with a group of friends! It’s a bit busy on weekends but the wait wasn’t too long. The inside is huge with tons of large tables good for big groups. My only complaint is that the new laminated menus they have are SO hard to keep open — the pages just keeping shutting together :(
For food, we split everything family-​style and tried:
— Sliced pork/​egg congee and the pork, chicken, and duck congee (⁵⁄₅): both were very flavorful and had lots of meat. Preferred the more traditional sliced pork/​egg one but don’t think you can go wrong with either. For size, 3 bowls was a bit much for 5 ppl if you get other dishes too
— Scallion pancakes (³⁄₅): good, pretty standard
— Fried fresh squid with salt and pepper (⁴⁄₅): huge pieces of tender squid! Could use a bit more salt
— Pan fried bean curd with soy sauce (⁴⁄₅): loved the crispy skin on the tofu. The tofu itself could use a bit more flavor but tastes good with sauce
— House special chicken (⁵⁄₅): one of their signature dishes! The skin was the best part, it was almost like duck skin. The chicken itself was also pretty tender and the sauce complimented well
Overall great experience!

This place is my go-​to place for my family and I when we are looking for some food in Chinatown. Although service could be meh, this restaurant itself is chill. With tons of tables on essentially three floors with crazy decorations like trees and mix-​matched lighting, to say this place has a bit of character is an understatement. I would definitely try and get reservations here on weekends because this place can be a mad house of people eager to get a table.
We have a few main dishes that seem to be constant on our dinner table, great for sharing:
Sliced Pork and Preserved Egg Porridge: Tons of pork and black egg in the dish with a great hint of ginger in porridge. The portions are huge and essential for sharing. Some people may shy away from the black egg but if someone wanted to try something authentic and essentially the namesake of the restaurant, this is a great dish to eat, especially on cold nights!
Fresh Squid with salt and pepper: nicely fried with a brilliant sprinkle of salt and pepper.
Sautéed Jumbo Shrimp with Walnut and broccoli-​Big and lightly fried shrimp covered in Asian mayo, accompanied by some candied walnuts and big bushes of broccoli. A favorite in the restaurant
Pork Chop Peking Style — it’s almost like General Tso chicken but with pork. So good. Fried and covered in this sweet sauce
House Special Chicken– Moist chicken with a crispy skin, cooked with a light garlic sauce. A must-​have.
House Special Fried Rice– A heaping amount of fried rice that is both salty and sweet as it has golden raisins in it.
Fried Bean Curd with Soy sauce — a great super soft tofu dish. Light and salty for the palette.
Sauteed Snow Pea Leaf with Garlic — a «healthy» add on to get some green in your meal
We’ve also tried an assortment of other things like their fried flounder, soup dumplings, scallion pancakes, duck tongue, roasted young pigeon and fried minced pork with salted fish. All are great choices as well. Drinks here are cheap and company is always merry. Definitely worth a go, multiple times!

Congee Village
NY Manhattan LES
Tuesday 3pm 8^th December 2015
Four Stars
This Cantonese restaurant is fancier than I thought it would be. We sat upstairs. We drank tea. The Bamboo with Chicken and mushrooms was excellent. The rice soaked up a lot of flavor from the bamboo container. The mushrooms were plump and the Chicken was juicy. The baby bok choy was cooked to perfection in a starchy garlic sauce. Lastly the beef chow fun was large, not greasy and delicious. The only reason I gave this place four stars instead of five is because it’s on the expensive side. $ 30 total.

Large portions and not that expensive. I really liked their House Special Chicken and the Ground Pork Pancakes. Its worth it. Those are the two things that are most memorable. We got fish and vegetable and some type of egg and shrimp dish. It was pretty basic nothing special. Also we got the goose feet but I didn’t want to touch that. I wanted to try the congee but didn’t get the chance to. If I was to come back again I would definitely try it.
The place is very good for family dinner. You should reserve in advance because the wait can be really long. I say the food is just okay. I’m not from New York so I guess can’t really compare to different Chinese restaurants, but I went to a couple because of my boyfriends parents but I tried Park Asia and this place is better.

We went with a party of 11, it was good service. We got a table that fit everyone. We ordered a bunch of dishes, soup dumplings, the sweat sour pork was delicious! This rice noodles with beef, bak choy vegetable, and surprisingly we didn’t order congee. we also ordered fried rice and tofu. The tofu was great, but my favorite was definitely the sweet sour pork, the mixture of the sweet and sour was on FLEEK. It wasn’t too much sweet or too sour, but it had a great zingy taste to it. The soup dumpling mediocre, it wasn’t as juicy as the ones I usually get, but edible.
The service was good, they were really polite and got ice water for us right away when we asked. They also served us dessert which is the Tong Sui, I loved it, usually I don’t like asian desserts but it was great end to the satisfactory meal with my smallgroup — CHOMP! NYU AACF.
It was very pleasant atmosphere, and the total was 100 $ which is approx 10 $ per person, which is not bad at all in NYC. So if you’re looking for good Chinese food for a big party, come here!

3.5 stars. Daaaayum people weren’t kidding about the large portions. I ordered a the fish and egg congee, pork buns, and a lotus dish and could only finish about a third of everything. I found the congee very comforting but a tad bit too bland. I really liked that it was piping hot though (even after delivery). The lotus was great quality but a tad bit too sweet. The pork buns were soft and warm but the meat to bun ratio was a little off. Everything tasted good, but lacked a little something.
Delivery took about an hour on DoorDash. I’m not sure I would get this again but I’m glad I tried it! Great if you’re looking for Chinese takeout that isn’t extremely oily. Probably better for brunch/​lunch given that their specialty is congee.

This place is huge! And there’s still usually a wait.
I got pork, chicken, and duck congee. It was great congee, and the chicken and duck were delicious. The pork was more like a cold cuts sort of thing, which I didn’t like. Also, the whole thing was reaaally salty, but I think that that’s necessary if you’re gonna have a meat congee.
The staff is brisk and unceremonious, but the interior is quite nice. I’d come back if you’re in the mood for congee, but I don’t think I’d wait more than 15 or 20 minutes.

Came here with some friends last weekend after a late night of Halloween festivities. We arrived around 1pm and we were starving. The place was packed and we were told the wait was around 15 minutes. When we got seated we all ordered the same congee (pork and century egg) my favorite congee since I can remember. I was worried it wasn’t going to be filling enough so we also ordered a beef noodle stir fry to share which also hit the spot. We wished there was more beef in the dish but still good!
If you’re ever craving some good congee definitely come here!

I’ve only gotten takeout here and have been satisfied every time. I call in about 10 – 15 minutes beforehand and the food is always ready by the time I get there. I LOVE the congee here. It reminds me of home in so many ways. The pork+egg congee is always a classic, so you can’t go wrong with ordering this. If you are a seafood lover, I’d highly recommend the crab or lobster congee. You actually get a full mini crab or several chunks of lobster in the congee. Also, have I mentioned how cheap the food here is? You can definitely spend less than $ 10 and feel super full.
Also, this place is opened until 2am on Friday and Saturday nights. The bar has a large variety of very reasonably priced options, so if you’re in the LES and find the bar options to be too pricey, you can always consider stopping by Congee Village.

Four stars because this place reminds me of the places I eat in Asia. Big family style dinner tables with similar taste (extra plus for them speaking Canto!). I came here with my bf because we weren’t feeling too well so we wanted to get some congee. This place, contrary to the name, doesn’t only specialize in congee which worked out well for me! I’m not a huge fan of congee so we decided to get a plate of vegetables and sweet & sour pork. Pretty standard dishes.
The congee we got was the fish fillet and preserved egg but they gave us pork instead of fish :(BOOO oh well. still ok. Has a lot of taste. The small bok choi was good too but had a LOT of chopped garlic. I liked the pork the most because it wasn’t too batter-​y like most of the sweet & sour pork dishes I’ve had. Good experience except the waiters are so busy/won’t really check up on you unless you waive them down.