Chengdu Heaven
“Their fu qi fei pian ($7) is good, but saltier than most I've had (I've had a lot!).”
“I like the Dan Dan Noodle also, but it's a little on the non-spicy side.”
“Cho declined, saying he wasn't drinking, but I, with the Sichuan food in my stomach competing with Mainland nostalgia, decided to acquiesce to a shot.”
Chengdu Heaven
Take-out: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Price range.
$ Price range Under $10
8 reviews
Rate and write a review Cancel reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
The first stand on the left when you get to the bottom of the stairs from the Main Street entrance, Chengdu Tian Fu Xiao Shi was our first stop on a day of mad eating. They have several tables in front of their counter, and a few more across the aisle (over which hangs a much needed air conditioner). Overall, pretty dumpy but most of the Golden Mall shops are like that; decor is not why you come.
I had one of the best dan dan noodles I've ever had here. It arrives in a white takeout bowl, white noodles with a few veggies and crumbled meat on top. The rest of the sauce is underneath so you mix it up. Its not a whole lot of sauce, which I generally associate with dan dan mein, but once you get the springy noodles coated, the flavor was fantastic. We devoured it and when our fifth compatriot arrived, we sent him off to order another, ostensibly for himself, but we all helped ourselves to some more.
Their fu qi fei pian, with big slices of beef tendon, tongue, and tripe, was also pretty good, numbingly spicy, flavorful, dotted with cilantro. We got some spicy wontons with fresh garlic and that was good, although not extraordinary.
Their fu qi fei pian ($7) is good, but saltier than most I've had (I've had a lot!). Also try the cucumber ($4), which is sweet and cooling and somehow cuts the fu qi fei pian nicely, even though it's swimming in the same chili oil and Szechuan peppercorn as the other dish.
Most recently I felt like they skimped a bit on the beef slices (vs. the stomach slices), but then again most places do. Times are tough.
Chengdu Heaven is the first stall you see when you enter the Golden Mall basement, at your left. They have slightly more seating than the rest of the stalls – the little nook just as you descend the stairs is theirs, as well as a couple tables in front of the stall itself.
Fun fact: Szechuan peppercorns were illegal for import into the US until just recently! (No, they're not hallucinogenic, though eat enough of it and you may start to feel that way)
Ugh, I am paying for what I ate here yesterday. And this is not to say that it was BAD food… it was just really SPICY food. My stomach is not happy with me this morning 🙁
Hubs and I have always been wary of "authentic" China cuisine in Flushing… I have a sensitive stomach and if something is remotely unfresh or 'dirty' I will know in an hour, tops. However, after going to China this past January, I have become a little braver in terms of adventurous foods in the States.
So we walked to Golden Shopping Mall to try this little shop that has had great reviews. It is in the basement of the mall, and there are a handful of stalls offering a huge variety of food, but you can tell that Chengdu Heaven is the most popular since it is constantly full of customers and take-out orders.
We ordered the following:
pork rib noodles
stewed beef noodles
hong you cha shou (wontons in spicy red oil sauce)
fu qi fei pian (I think these are lungs and other organs, not quite sure since I don't eat this stuff)
Our order, plus two drinks, came out to an affordable $20.50. Both noodles were drenched in hot spicy oil soup… and they are really the same soup so I think next time we'd order just one and pick something else off the menus. The place is hot + spicy foods = sauna conditions while eating.
The food is good. But like I said, very spicy and one may pay for it the next day. This is really China street cuisine at its best.
Although most menus are in Chinese, Chengdu Heaven has pictures of everything, along with fairly accurate English names for each.
It always feels like you strike gold when you find little hole in the wall joints like these. Chengdu Heaven has one of the best spicy kick-in-your-mouth, mala noodles I've tried in Flushing. Currently my most fav place to eat in Flushing. This place is downstairs in the food court, and the first food stand to your right when you go down the stairs.
Mala is a small black pepper they use in their noodles. It's not a traditional oily spicy like most peppers, it's a numbing type of spice that makes your mouth feel all tingly. Make sure you try these:
________________________________
Chengdu Spicy Cold noodles ($5.00)
Cold firm noodles mixed with a sweet spicy chili sauce. SO GOOD. For reference, it's the top left item in the menu on the wall.
Spicy Wontons with Garlic ($5.00)
Sweet Spicy Wontons with that same spicy addicting mala sauce.
________________________________
For the sides directly they display directly in front of you, choose three items for $4-5. Cash only. Sit at the tiny tables directly across from the food.
Very small and a bit dirty. The food was okay, but we have had much better in Chengdu, Monterey Park and San Gabriel. The food was spicy and had a good amount of Sichuan pepper. I picked the place from a news paper article and did not do enough checking before we went.
I took my Chengdu-born and raised (and New York-hating) mother here and she was thrilled. Enough said.
We ordered the pork rib noodles and the dumplings in chili sauce. I actually have a terribly low tolerance for spiciness, but ate as much of it as possible because it wasn't just spicy for the sake of being spicy — it had actual flavor.
This is not for everyone though. The menu is daunting although there are English translations. And I was truly hesitant at first to step foot into the horrible underground food stall area…
hot & spicy noodle soup…the one they have a picture of in the lower right corner of the menu. Only $5 per order!
Me and the bf always get it without meat / vegetarian
We've been coming here at least once, if not 2 – 3 times a week for the past 5 – 6 months since we migrated from xi'an foods after their continuous unwarranted price increases on their noodle soups.
A must try if you like spicy food! Noodle soups are definitely more flavorful and spicy in comparison to xi'an. I tired a dry noodle from this place once which wasn't great so for dry noodles, I'd stick to liang pi from xi'an.
His name might have been Ike like the President, or perhaps Mike like the mayor. Not that it mattered, since neither of those were his real name. That I never learned. What I do know is that his favorite brand of baijiu is erguotuo, and that he readily hands out shots to complete strangers.
My college friend Cho and I had journeyed out to the end of the 7 line for a long-overdue Sichuan supper. Our first choice, Xiao La Jiao, was shuttered. So we moved onto a old favorite, The Golden Food Court, an underground collection of stalls on a street corner in the middle of Queens' Chinatown.
The Sichuan stall, Chengdu Tianfu, is probably the only place in New York where I'm regularly admonished for my infrequent visits. The accuser is the restaurant's sole waitress and occasional chef, a Sichuanese in her 40s with long bangs and a smattering of little freckles under her eyes.
The stall has changed a bit since my first visit four years ago before a Mets game. One wall now displays 8 1/2 by 11 pictures of popular dishes, including Grandma's Pock-Marked Tofu and Shredded Rabbit in Spicy Sauce. The wall also shows the complete menu in Chinese and somewhat strangely translated English.
It's still, however, a place best approached with a working knowledge of Chinese, as the staff speaks essentially zero English and the variety of dishes on order is a bit daunting for a place with only four tables.
This was my first visit with a native Chinese speaker, which helped me pick up a few nuances I'd missed on earlier visits in a rush to order for and eat with several people. Cho pointed out a distinct lemming effect, wherein many new customers would order the same dishes that we were consuming. During our consumption of dan dan mian, a very thin noodle served cold with sichuan peppercorns, chili oil and vinegar, two people walked over to the waitress and requested more of the same. We also increased sales for the truly excellent double cooked pork and the wontons in oil, which could have used more garlic and way more pepper.
Tianfu's food beats any Sichuan in Manhattan, even though I picked an off night to bring Cho. The flavors didn't pop as much as they had on previous visits, and even after four dishes, I missed the forehead sweat and fire mouth a full Sichuan meal should bring.
What will set this visit to Tianfu apart is a fateful decision to bring my own beer. While Cho smoked a cigarette, I went to a corner store and grabbed four Negra Modelos for the spicy feast to follow. As soon as I cracked the first one open, the two middle-aged Chinese men (to clarify, everyone who stopped to dine that evening, besides us, was Chinese) asked, "Where did you get that beer?" Cho directed them outside and upstairs to the street.
Two courses and 10 minutes later, one of the men returned, not with beer but a bottle of Chinese rice liquor, baijiu. It was Erguotuo, an upscale brand used by working and middle class Chinese to celebrate special occasions, but here in the States a rather work-a-day beverage.
We started chatting, and after revealing my age, how I met Cho, where I learned Chinese and why we were eating here, we were offered shots. Cho declined, saying he wasn't drinking, but I, with the Sichuan food in my stomach competing with Mainland nostalgia, decided to acquiesce to a shot. And then another.
It was awful, the equivalent of swallowing a mix of paint thinner and mouthwash and then forcing yourself to feign a smile when finished. Cho very cleverly managed to get the bill from the waitress after the second shot, and I escaped by pressing upon our new friends the remaining two bottles of Negra Modelo. We left so quickly I didn't solve the mystery whether my baijiu friend was called Mike or Ike. Maybe it was both.