Dong Fang Chuan Dian
“If the words lamb, skewers, and cumin make you giddy then you need to get over here.”
“We ordered the lamb, beef, chicken, chicken hearts, and bacon wrapped enoki mushrooms.”
“The food here is so good and tasty, especially the lamb chunk, which is my favorite!”
Dong Fang Chuan Dian
Takes Reservations: 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
4 reviews
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Get ready to whip out your…..
Google Translate app when you come to this northern Chinese, Korean-influenced BYOB char-grilled skewers restaurant.
The menu is entirely in Chinese characters so you're going to need a handy app that lets you write characters on your phone and instantly translate them. Better yet, have a friend/coworker who can readily read Chinese come with you!
We didn't have that, so we spent a good fifteen minutes trying to decipher the menu. Be careful not to let the nice waitress try to take advantage of you by offering suggestions, which will just be the most expensive choices. (I know what you're up to.)
Despite all the trouble with the menu, it was worth it to get our skewers. We got (and I recommend you trying to describe to the waitress):
– bacon wrapped enoki mushrooms
– thin pork belly slices
– straight-up beef chunk skewers
– straight-up lamb chunk skewers
– chicken hearts and liver (if you're a little adventurous)
We also ordered some veggie dish that came with pork. (That one was good, but not worth $14.)
The fun part is grilling the skewers on the rack over the charcoal. For those who have been to yakiniku places like Gyu-Kaku in the city, this is NOT like Gyu-kaku. This is straight up turning your skewers over charcoal, and it is more rough and caveman-like. BUT it is fun, and if you've brought some beer, it goes perfect with fresh grilled meat!
P.S. The fobs are going to be the toughest critics here shhh. They have the highest expectations but want to pay the lowest prices. *braces self for fob backlash*
I thought I'd share a few tips:
1. If you've been to flushing and expect the same level of skewers as the street cart, you gotta lower that down. Food is decent, for for lamb skewer, flushing street cart next to Chase bank is the best.
2. Don't let the waitresses take advantages jof you by following her recommendations. Food is a bit pricy here. We ordered a bunch of food but she kept selling some cold dishes so I thought it wasn't enough. We ended up don't really touch the dish she recommended but spent 114 before tip for two people who weren't particularly hungry.
3. Lamb soup is highly recommended. Despite of everything, I may come back for that.
Since my last visit, they've made English menus, which makes things so much easier. The draw of this little restaurant is the Chinese style BBQ, where you grill your ordered meat skewers over a bed of charcoal that they place on your table. You then proceed to roll it around in some red spicy powder stuff they put on a saucer for you.
We ordered the lamb, beef, chicken, chicken hearts, and bacon wrapped enoki mushrooms. Service was good, the waitress cooked the initial stuff for us because she said the coals were really hot, therefore difficult to work with. Whatever, less work for me, and I still get the fun of watching.
Of everything we ordered, my favorite was the lamb. It's a bit expensive for the amount of meat you actually get, but the experience is worth the price.
If the words lamb, skewers, and cumin make you giddy then you need to get over here. This is a DIY BBQ joint that you order skewers ala carte (choices range from lamb, beef, chicken to more challenging things like chicken heart and gizzard, and then back to nice things like mushrooms wrapped in pork, and marinated squid), and then roast them to your preferred done-ness and then dunk into the spice mixture they provide to you in a heap on your plate. The spice mixture is like crack. It's so good. It's got some cumin and other spices that give the meat a wonderful taste. and the best part is that you smell delicious for the rest of the day.