Congee Bowery
“Their signature congee dishes give rice porridge a life of its own – various ingredients are added such as…”
“While I'm a frequent diner at Congee VIllage on Allen St, I visited this one on Bowery for the first time last week.”
“I also love their shrimp with walnut, their house special chicken and their peking pork chops.”
Congee Bowery
Takes Reservations: Yes
Delivery: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
Good for Kids: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Has TV: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Price range.
$$ Price range $11-30
8 reviews
Rate and write a review Cancel reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
My party of 8 arrived at 6pm with a reservation on Saturday. A reservation is a must especially on weekends or else you will be in for a wait. The restaurant was fully packed that night. This is a "nicer" Chinese restaurant compared to your standard in Chinatown.
My family likes this place because you get pretty good food that is always consistent. You must get the garlic chicken! It is by far my favorite dish and so delicious. The chicken has a crispy skin and the fried garlic and light sauce under the chicken is just perfect. It's great if you go with a group, so you can try a bunch of dishes.
Ugh, what happened to this place? I used to love coming here because it feels just like being in China, and they had good food. HAD.
I was here in Feb. and had a terrible experience. The food was over salted, the dumplings were flavorless and the steamed buns were blan. But I thought maybe it was an off day and gave them another chance yesterday. I think it was the biggest dining fail we've had in years in NYC.
The place was pretty empty after 9pm, and we had decided on ordering a bunch of fun dim sums to try and an entree to split. When we ordered steamed buns, dumplings and our entree, we asked for another dim sum. The waiter yelled NO!! when I tried to order it. Thinking maybe they were out of it, I asked to order a different one. Again he yelled NO!! ummm???
Then he got really pushy shoving the menu in my dates face demanding we order a second entree and yelling YOU TRY THIS!! TO MANY DIM SUMS!!
More like he wanted a higher tab.
My date ordered a half chicken just to shut the guy up.
The food came out in a weird order and we asked for hot/soy sauce which we never got. The food was again over salted, flavorless and disappointing. I've had better steamed buns from the 80 cent bakery.
The $16 clam dish was hardly any food since the clams were so small and didn't come with rice. The half chicken was mostly bone so not a ton of food either. We for sure could have used the extra dim sums we had been not allowed to order. $50 later we were not full and just excited to GTFO of there.
Sadly, I won't be coming back here again. In addition to the bad food and crap service, this place is just not worth a visit.
I personally had a good meal here. I came with a group of 4 friends, three of them Chinese. I think they treated us really well because my friends demands things in Mandarin.
Anyway, our service was quick and polite in manners. We ordered many dishes to share and they all arrived almost together.
Food was good, and tasty.
I love this place! It's my go-to for quick Chinese comfort food. The congee is the best that I've ever had (aside from the ones that my mom makes of course). The portions are pretty large and very well priced (average of $4 for congee). I've had the classic pork and egg congee many times as well as the three meat congee, neither disappoints!
The tables are pretty large, so it's a great place to come with a large and hungry group.
Today was actually the celebration of our birthday so I really tried my best to be generous in terms of making judgment; however congee Bowery really let me down!
Long story short, we have ordered the short ribs and have waited for more than an hour on the dish. In the end, they told us that they did not record that dish down! Why did you not tell us beforehand, when we were back and forth asking when our dish would be ready?! I sincerely wish they could have hired someone that does not have hearing issues.
Very disappointed, can I give zero or even negative star? Nevertheless, if you would like to celebrate some special occasion, please do NOT come here!
Came her for dinner with family. The decor to this restaurant is nice and unique. But it is on like the outskirts of chinatown and a little out of the way to get to. Maybe that is why it not as busy as the other chinatown restaurants on a saturday evening.
Ordered a whole bunch of food but nothing was memorable. Even the cold crab was kind of disappointing. Definitely not worth it. The crab was kind of bland. The boil which is around the area is much better if you want to eat crab. I believe they put way too much msg in their food. Was feeling so thirsty a little after the meal.
Food was mediocre, Service was mediocre. Not worth the walk there. Plenty of better options in the heart of chinatown.
So, you happen to be in Chinatown, but you are not feeling dim sum, then Congee Village might be the place you want to check out. That is, if you have previous concerns about the staff and the level of services in Chinese restaurants, heard headlines about the nasty bits of Chinatown, or even had a couple of bad personal experiences before, let me assure you that Congee Village(s) is not one of THOSE places. Yet, Congee Village won't be your unique food experience in Chinatown – they serve traditional Cantonese cuisine, but it could set the tone for becoming a frequent diner here, whatever the occasion may be. Having been here many times on both personal and professional occasions over the years, I've come to embrace this place: the food is consistently good and the staff always runs the show on-point （most of the time that is; there are still the occasional anecdotes about poor services and the few mishaps that i have experienced personally, but these are to be expected from a place that is as bustling as the street intersections in the heart of NYC ). On to food, there are a few items that I would definitely recommend to start out your entrees for sharing: the house-special spare ribs, house-special chicken, and, as if the name of the restaurant weren't getting to you, congees! The house-special ribs and chicken are famous here – you will see them on nearly every table. The chicken is crisp on the outside and flavorful throughout once covered in the oil sauce. The slightly fatty spareribs need no sauce, they are outright delicious.
Congee Villages is my favorite traditional-style restaurant in Chinatown, hands down. They have top-notch food but also a very respectable service staff that makes you feel dining is as much what goes into your mouth as it is an experience that is accompanied by a hospitable and attentive staff.
Tip: (no pun intended) recently, they changed to a no-tip policy. This saved me a lot of mental math. Now I just need to stick to my divisions.
Congee Village/Bowery has done it once again…only difference btwn the 2 is at Bowery the chef is a little more heavy with the msg..other than that it was simply deeelish…we had the healthy veggie congee, lobster congee, sauteed beef w/veggies, veggie dumplings and veggie spring rolls. This establishment is a gem!!!