Fu Zhou Wei Zhong Wei Jia Xiang Feng Wei

A little fujianese restaurant in the basement of the east broadway mall. It serves standard fujianese cuisine. They have a nice shanghaiese pork bun. They also sell it by the frozen bag of 50 buns for $ 20.
This used to be a lot smaller back 10 years ago and now they seem to have expanded their basement business quite a bit.

This is a little hole in the wall in a mall basement.
Our waitress was excellent, bringing extra napkins, small bowls to share the duck mei fun soup, and little solo cups for hot sauce. Given the environment you would not have expected much in the way of service, but she clearly knew what she was doing.
Kudos also go out to the juicy buns, not soup dumplings but moist round bundles, filled with what I am guessing is barbecue pork. While we were eating, a family came and bought large bags of them to go, a very good idea if you have the steamers at home.
I am somewhat ambivalent about the soup. This is not a chicken or pork broth soup topped with roast duck, here the duck has been boiled to make the soup, and while the broth is tasty and delicate, the duck itself is a bit dry and chewy, having enriched the soup. The large bowl was five bucks, so I can’t complain too much.

I love everything about this place. cleanliness, delicious, cheap and attentive counter service
My favorite here is Bamboo Shoot Cake

Really good.
This restaurant can be found down in the basement/​underground level of the mall. If you’re entering from East Broadway, you will walk into an old, rundown mall with various stalls and shops. Ignore the cautioned off escalator that is permanently out of service, and walk straight down the stairs. Once downstairs, you can turn in either direction, and the restaurant is all the way in the back. If you feel like you’re completely lost, than you know you’re going in the right direction.
Though the kitchen area is small, the actual dining area is pretty large. There are quite a number of tables, so it’s possible to come with a group. I’ve always ordered food after 3pm, and the place has been pretty empty, so it could be about timing. All the items are posted on the wall in Chinese, and it looks like they do have an English menu as well that’s tucked away in the back dining/​seating area. I assume the English menu belongs to them, as there are no other restaurants in the area. But I’m not 100% certain that menu belongs to them since no one working there speaks English. Also, it’s a fairly decent sized menu that includes several different drink options, and I don’t see how that smaller kitchen has the space to cook all that food. Then again it’s Chinatown, and I know how resourceful and crafty people can be.
–Peanut noodles ($ 2): pretty good. I thought the noodles were good and worth getting again from here, but if I had the time to walk to the other end of Eldridge Street, I’d get my peanut noodles elsewhere.
–Xiao Long Bao ($ 4): so, so good. This is not like the typical xiao long bao’s that are steamed with a soup broth inside them. These look like the white, steamed, BBQ pork buns you can order at dim sum restaurants. For $ 4, you get 8 mini buns that are stuffed with seasoned pork. It also comes with a dark, vinegar type sauce. Get these. They are really, really good.
The dining area in this restaurant is actually stroller and/​or wheelchair friendly as the tables are pretty spread out. However, I’m not sure if there is elevator access to get down to the basement/​downstairs area.
Cash only.

In my opinion this place has the best fried dumplings in New York. Also the mini pork buns are really, really good.

A ludicrous location even by Chinatown standards, a journey to Fuzhou Wei Zhong Wei requires descending stairs next to a frequently unplugged escalator and past stalls dedicated to striped pajamas, mismatched wraps and ladies pant suit sets and a Mandarian-​speaking law shop.
When I visited the ratio of customers to people cooking or assembling raw dumplings was 4:1. And there were two customers, so that actually meant a medium-​sized family was sprawled over three separate rooms (including a couple empty chairs) putting together meals for the surrounding community.
This has to be a primarily frozen dumpling operation, because there’s no way the ten tables or so could handle the volume of meat I saw being put to work. There’s also the matter of the subterranean location meaning there’s no foot traffic, the complete lack of an English menu and Chinese signage with so many revisions it’s hard to tell what might be available.
Don’t overthink things. Get the dumplings. Confusingly labelled as «xiao long bao» on the menu, these are pure northern-​style baozi. It’s shockingly hard to get done correctly in New York, especially in Canto-​crazed Manhattan. What they are doing in a clearly Fujianese establishment, I’m not sure.
Again, don’t overthink it. If you’ve descended this far into the basement, get what everyone else is having — or making.

Hi. I came here for lunch four times in a week because it was 1) that good, 2) that cheap, and 3) I never feel MSG thirsty afterwards. No MSG? Is a unicorn cooking in the back?
My favorite is the Fuzhou dumplings, pork-​wrapped dumplings in a light, chicken (?)-based broth with fresh scallions ($ 3). Second favorite, crispy pan-​fried dumplings, about 10 for $ 3.50 — but these are not your anemic pan-​Asian dumplings or gyozas with a nubbin of meat, they’re like twice the size. Third favorite: peanut noodles ($ 1.75 for the small.) When I’ve brought a friend or am feeling hungrier, I order xiao long bao (steamed white buns)– 8 of ‘em, pillowy outside, the meat inside has been braised and is that classic reddish-​brown «紅燒» (literally, red-​braised) color. The noodle bowls seem very popular.
Located in the basement of the mall with a bare bones set up of tables and chairs, you can tell your order to one of the 3 (usually) elderly ladies working the floor as soon as you come in. Or, if you need more time, just say so — there’s a large Chinese/​English menu on the wall in the back. They all understand English and have been friendly. You pay either with the ladies or take your ticket and go to the cashier’s window at the kitchen area. It’s really «streetside» Asian despite being subterranean, but it’s mostly been clean and it’s ALWAYS been good.

This place is where all the real fuzhounese locals eat. You probably won’t even be able to find this place if your not a local. I seriously doubt anybody who works here speaks any english. It’s a total hole in the wall, but I love their food. My go to order is always a rack of xiao long bao (meat filled buns that my white friends go ape shit over), peanut sesame noodles, and fuzhou style wonton soup (bian rou).
Tip: The soy sauce in the squeeze bottle on the tables is meant for dipping the xiao long bao in, it’s a delicious homemade vinegary sweet soy sauce and goes perfectly with the buns

This little treasure buried in the basement (in the back) of a three story mall has some of the best dumplings I’ve ever eaten and you can get a massive plate of eight of them for a mere $ 3.00 filled with succulent pork, greens and broth. This is not a place where Westerners come to dine. Everyone here is either working in the building or is Chinese, this I’m pretty sure of. Very friendly, some seem surprised by my presence, but happy (or so I think) to see someone with the common sense to eat where the food is simply wonderful! Good luck ordering but the menu is in Chinese and English. Like many area restaurants, your waitstaff may not speak English.
So good I think it needs to be on Unilocal but I’m guessing its been here for years. You won’t find this one by mistake. I’ve now eaten here three times and have seen the dumplings being made by elderly women off to one side of the restaurant. Mouth watering, undeniably fresh and tender, this is a food adventurer’s paradise, dream find. I go here every year when I’m in the city and will return again. They also have Ramen, a wide variety of soups and various noodle dishes but it’s the dumplings that keep me returning.
Seating is very informal. This is a place to get something to eat, not a date destination but who cares, the food is wonderful!

If you want the real Chinese experience this is pretty much the place to go. Instead of hole in the wall placces you got down in the ground with this place. Located in the basement of 88 Palace dim sum place is Fuzhou Wei Zhong Wei.
At first I wasn’t even sure if this place was the right name for this place since it’s so «out of sight» I’m not even sure if City even knows about this place because I definitely do not see a sanitary grade posted anywhere.
This restaurant sells straight up Fuzhou cuisine in the random empty space next to some store partitions with a few tables scattered across and three long cafeteria style tables where you sit across from random people.
In all this place sells solid FJ food at fast speeds for cheap.
PROTIP: The «xiao long bao» they offer is more of a bun type than dumpling type and to complete the full Chinese experience you don’t have to tip.

Okay I’ve been more and more adventurous with my Chinatown eating lately. Check out the progression:
Congee Village (lots of non-​Chinese people)
-) Moon House (some non-​Chinese people)
-) Super Taste (no non-​Chinese people)
-) Lan Zhou Handmade Noodle (only Chinatown laborers)
-) Fuzhou Wei Zhong Wei (no one who legally resides here)
Goodness me. Just walking into the mall that houses this place brought me screaming back to China in a way matched only by my first visit to Pacific Mall in Toronto.
Cardboard-​textured, colorful pajamas for sale! Plastic bags hanging on the clothes-​pin spinny things to dry for reuse! Yay!
I went during an off-​time (5PM on a Saturday) so it wasn’t crowded, and our waitress was actually very nice when we asked her to recommend or explain some dishes. Stuff is cheap. CHEAP. The menu is only in Chinese. That’s right. There isn’t even a «English Menu with our Popular Choices» selection.
We ordered the xiao long bao (Very different than the Shanghainese soup dumplings. These were more like mini bao-​zi: steamed white buns stuffed with salty, fatty pork), some weird lamb soup with rice noodles (Meh), and sauteed rice cakes with clams (We ordered this at the waitress’s recommendation and it was surprisingly yummy).
In all honesty, I love my ghetto, but this place may have been too much even for me. I’d try it again, but I’d look around to see what other people order, and/​or ask the waitress for more suggestions. They do have dou jiang you tiao (soy milk and Chinese donuts), if any of you readers get up early enough for breakfast.

Travel to Mainland China for $ 2 !
A few years back (probably in 2005), I discovered a food stall in the basement of East Broadway Mall, right smack in the heart of the Fukenese part of Manhattan’s Chinatown.
As someone of Cantonese-​decent, most of us tend stick to the Cantonese part of town. Feeling adventurous (which is quite often, maybe too often, if you ask my friends), I decided to venture to the Fukenese side of town to check out Wei Zhong Wei (what’s official name of this place anyway? Fuzhou Wei Zhong Wei? or Wei Zhong Wei? Fuzhou = the capital city of Fujian province in China). I don’t remember exactly how I ended up here… perhaps I read an article in TimeOut extolling the tasty /​ghetto-​ness of this hole-​in-​the-​wall (the seats and tables even spill out into the hallway).
The food is decent (warning the xiaolongbaos are not the Shanghainese kind), but go here to be magically transported to the backstreets of any Mainland Chinese city. If you’ve lived in China or studied abroad there (like myself) and need to take a stroll down memory lane, this is the place to go to.
When you’re there, you will forget that you still in the Western Hemisphere… it’s crowded, it’s clean by Chinese-​standards, nothing is written in English, nobody there speaks English (waitresses and customers), and the service is what you’d expect in China.
Guess what? I love that type of atmosphere. The taste is authentic and the prices are ridiculously cheap. A 4 cai 1 tang (4 choices + 1 soup) deal is $ 2.75. I have yet to take them up on this deal, and doubt any of you can find that specific deal for cheaper. In Flushing, I’ve seen it for $ 4, and Centre Buffet (the best for 4 cai 1 tang !) is only $ 4 after 5pm for takeout on weekdays.
I’ll reiterate, the food is not drop dead amazing, but a trip to Wei Zhong Wei is a nice foreign excursion type trip that can help you forget that you’re in New York, or better yet in Western society.