M Star Cafe
“My favourite is the preserved egg & shredded pork congee (rice porridge), wide rice noodles, & milk tea.”
“PRO TIP 1:
Breakfast says until "11am" but in reality is served until 12pm and sometimes even a little later.”
“I have not try their whole menu, but their 大排檔腸粉 is a MUST GET!!!”
M Star Cafe
Delivery: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Good for Kids: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
PokéStop Nearby: Yes
Price range.
$ Price range Under $10
8 reviews
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Legit Hong Kong food. I am a regular here for weekend breakfast. It's basically comfort food for hk people. My favorite is breakfast D of satay beef with instant noodles. The milk tea is not your typical teabag tea, but made from boiled tea.
Decor is hole in the wall but comfortable and clean. There's a large mural of Hong Kong singers and actors/actresses.
This is a super inexpensive Hong Kong breakfast joint. A meal goes for $5 or less and that could feed at least 2 people or close to it.
Service is quick and simple. I got the satay beef ramen which the ramen taste like it's package ramen but the dish and broth was good and delicious. Add that $1 fried egg for flavor!
Very authentic, no frills, Hong Kong-style cafe in Manhattan. Think about all your favorite comfort foods at a diner, except Hong Kong style. For lunch, my friend and I splurged a little bit. We ordered the sticky rice in lotus leaf, curry fish balls, egg and spam sandwich, oyster congee, satay beef instant noodle soup, and two Hong Kong style cold milk teas. All of this came down to $30 including tip and tax (note: cash only!).
Our favorites were the cold milk teas, sticky rice in lotus leaf, and oyster congee! We were both getting full by the time the oyster congee was brought to the table, yet we still slurped the congee like we haven't eaten all day. Seriously, who knew that oysters added so much flavor to congee?
I'd love to come back to explore some of the other comfort food options on the menu, which is pretty extensive.
The most authentic HK style food you can find in Manhattan.
It's basically a hole in the wall, no-frills, little Chinese diner that looks dated from the outside but it is straight up a Hong Kong nostalgia of "cha chan tangs" with questionable kitchen hygiene standards and classic IDGAF waiter service. The walls are a little tacky but cute with HK celebrity drawings along with pictures of real Chinese movie stars that have visited!
The best part of this place is how quick the food arrives and how snappy the service is. You don't come here for Michelin plates and white glove service, you come here for authentic, quick and easy breakfast, lunch or dinner. The service is pretty horrible, in particular 2 Chinese ladies are notorious for their rude service, but fogettaboutit if you're a true New Yorka. You're in here to eat and go–this isn't Per Se or Eleven Madison Park so please, if you do mind it, complain elsewhere and make more room for the locals who wouldn't mind taking your table!
The breakfast special at $4.25 is a steal. It comes with milk tea, coffee, or tea. I usually get the rice rolls and congee or the 2 eggs, ham, fries and toast. Add $1 to change to a cold drink–if you do so the drink is sweetened(the hot drinks are not). A must get is their classic or fried rice noodle rolls. Thin sheets of steamed rice noodles rolled up and drizzled in mouthwatering peanut sauce, hoisin sauce and sweet soy sauce. The sauce to noodle ratio is the BEST here, trust me!
Nothing is really healthy on their menu, their idea of fruit salad is mixed melons in a mayo dressing(which is a Cantonese thing), so try to stay away if you're dieting. There's not many options for healthy eating here, only authentic eating. Do get their HK style milk tea–it's a heavy brew on black tea and light on the evaporated milk.
PRO TIP 1:
Breakfast says until "11am" but in reality is served until 12pm and sometimes even a little later.
PRO TIP 2:
The unspoken standard Chinatown tip fare is $1 per person, don't pay any less especially if you are a table of 4+ or risk getting chased after for tips.
PRO TIP 3:
For breakfast come 9am or earlier on weekends to avoid the noon and midday rush, or face loud crowds, long waits, or share a table.
PRO TIP 4:
Specials are written in Chinese and off the menu. If you don't know what it says, just ask. Clay pot bowls are often a specialty.
*steamed rice noodles (omg, yes please!! They put peanut butter, soy sauce and sesame seeds on top. Now I am only used to peanut sauce on top but that melted warm peanut butter is a new player in this steamed noodle game. I loved this and finished the plate in about 5 minutes)
*preserved egg and pork congee (blah! super cheapy with the preserved egg, it was cut into pieces for babies to eat. pork was also very limited.); Hong Kong style milk tea (yum! the tea has a rich flavor and leaves that sensation on your tongue when beverages are tannic. loved this)
This place is kind of a hole in the wall restaurant. Menus are below the glass on the table. Food is decent. Service is like every other Chinatown place: rude, brash but quick. You can tell there's definitely regulars hitting this place up on the weekends. Not sure if I'd come back again but that peanut butter on the steamed rice noodle might give me second thoughts.
I came here with my friend since she rave about how good this place is. This place definitely looked like it cater to the locals. I ordered the HK style steamed rice noodle, curry fish balls, HK style milk tea and the pepper pork over rice. I really loved the HK style steamed rice noodle. The noodle was so soft. The peanut and hoisin sauce were perfectly blended in. The curry fish ball was a total disappointment. It was small and HARD. I never had such hard fish balls before. It didn't taste fresh at all. The pepper pork was ok. The rice was on the hard side. The HK style milk tea was good. As for the service, it was bad. I literally had to call the waiter to take my order. I also had to call the waiter to get the check. They were so busy chatting at the back. Customer service is very important in my perspective. Hopefully, it'll be different if I do come back. I want to try their breakfast menu. As for now, I won't be going back anytime soon
Located on division street, M Star Cafe is actually very hard to spot if you don't know how to read any Chinese, because their sign is actually in Chinese.
Once you get in here however, the menus are in English. Fair warning though, you can't really glean what you're going to be eating exactly simply from reading the menu. These are all cantonese specialities, so everything will have a cantonese spin to it. Spaghetti, for example, might taste a little different from what you are used to. Still, I'd recommend dishes such as the oven baked pork chop, or some of the pasta dishes.
The best thing though is to probably come here for breakfast, since they have a large number of breakfast options, all at very reasonable rates. The milk tea that they have here is, while quite standard, is solid. This place is actually better than the other cantonese breakfast place *somewhat* nearby, Cha Chan Teng, in the sense that their breakfast options, as well as their general menu, is much larger, and is slightly cheaper as well (say like a dollar off everything).
Unfortunately, compared to CCT, M Star is a little less accessable, and a little more grimy. In addition, it doesn't really feel foreigner friendly. In that sense, I mean, if you're white, expect people to be slightly surprised to see you in this restaurant, since almost all the patrons are Chinese.
I think you tip here, but it's not super clear. Cash only.
Pan fried cheung fun (rice noodles), this is what I order everything I stop by. If you're getting take out, be prepared to wait casually by the back register. (There's only room for 2 people to stand side by side).
Basically any of their dishes are stellar. Basic HK style comfort food. I used to come by a lot with friends before I started yelping.
I love how they typically oversauce the cheung fun with peanut butter and hoisin sauce.
The pan fried cheung fun is crispy on the outside, but warm and gooey on the inside.
Their HK style milk tea is amazing. I could smell the tea fragrant every time the waitress walked by to deliver cups of it to diners. The tea tastes very rich, and dark because of the condensed milk. fyi, they use crushed ice for cold drinks.
Many people were having breakfast when i stopped by at 8:30am.