Red Stixs
“If you like Mr. Chow you will love this place even more the drink menu was spectacular !!!”
“They have tea light candles all around, with white table cloth tables, but upbeat music playing lowly in the background.”
“For our entrees we had the tofu with mixed vegetables and the Beijing Chicken (chicken with walnuts).”
Red Stixs
Takes Reservations: Yes
Delivery: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Has TV: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Caters: Yes
Price range.
$$$ Price range $31-60
8 reviews
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I have to say Nance H's review sums up what's wrong with this place. None of the food is anywhere near the real things they are trying to be, and it's not as if they are attempting to be a sort of fusion place. It's also really pricey, and I'm not sure for what – it's not that they are giving you organic, local fresh ingredients, or anything special in the décor (it's just another midtown restaurant), etc. I just don't get it.
But if you want to know more details – I did have the following:
green tea (which tasted too strong actually for some reason)
pork soup dumplings (the most authentic thing they had, but not well executed – skins are too thick, and soup seems very very oily)
hand pulled noodles (was this spaghetti??)
string beans (ok these were fair, but again, not great)
salt and pepper shrimp (definitely nothing like the way it's supposed to be, but ok in taste)
white rice (what's there to mess up about rice? thankfully, not messed up here, or I would really flip in this review).
Total cost with tip was about $96 (this was a meal for two at lunch).
Evidently there is a Chinese chef "Skinny" Mei, but you know what they say about skinny chefs.
This place is overrated.
The food does not taste fresh at all. I ordered and less than five minutes the food arrives to my table. Seriously, it was less than five minutes. I ordered the Fried Rice / Chicken Beijing and it tasted no different than the food, I ordered at the mall from Panda Express.
Their speciality Lychee drink is served with Absolute vodka and you cannot request for Grey Goose or an upgrade because the mixer is pre-made. 🙁 Why use downgraded vodka in a $19 cocktail?!? Extremely bizarre, but since the rice and chicken tasted old, why should I expect anything more.
I gave 2 stars because the servers were responsive and attentive.
Amazing food! Although a bit pricey. I came here on a pre Valentine's Day date and for two people we paid a total of $170, but then again we did have an appetizer and dessert. I thought the pricing was well worth it for the food but definitely not the location. Would definitely come again though!
When I read on December 22nd's Page Six that the owner of this joint had been accused of strangling a waiter while threatening to stick a fork in the staffer's neck when he tried to defect to a rival Chinese restaurant, I thought, now this is where I want to come for Christmas dinner! And sure enough, three days later, that is what I did.
There is major drama between several of the upscale Chinese restaurants and if some network executive isn't trying to turn this into a reality show then shame on all of them.
Is it or is it not a sister-restaurant to Mr. Chow? That is the question…
It's literally written on the menu that they are "not affiliated with Philippe Chow," but two of the original founders of Philippe Chow Restaurant, Michael Reda and David Lee are the ones who opened this spot so you can see where the confusion and expectation comes in. (Michael Reda is the fork-stab-threatener.)
I myself grew up on Mr. Chow in Beverly Hills and where Red Stixs is located in New York on 49th St is the former location of my favorite NY Chinese restaurant Chin Chin (no, it's nothing like the cheesy chain you're thinking of) which was an upscale, elegant restaurant with traditional Hong Kong recipes and class for days. I was expecting a hybrid of the two but what I got was more like a wanna-be Indochine, which is fine, but not the same.
Red Stixs serves traditional, Beijing-style food so you have your standards: Scallion Pancakes and the signature Peking Duck, along with Jade Dumplings, Crispy Beef, Lobster Rolls, Spare Ribs, Specialty Fried Rice and their famous Chicken Satay.
There's a neon red and white lighted theme and they've made their own art with Pollack-esque paint splatter that extends past the canvases and onto the walls. It's a choice. Not nearly the charming art (old photographs of Hong Kong families) that lived in the former restaurant that reigned here, nor the Pop art of Herring and Warhol that hangs out at Mr. Chows. This is unified splatter spaced out on the walls. Interesting for one spot. Less so, when the whole place is a one trick pony. But that's just wall decor and the restaurant itself did a good job of satiating us.
The menu is what you'd come to expect at any upscale Chinese restaurant, but without the Mr. Chow markup. Which is not to say it's cheap, don't be surprised when your three-figure check comes, but it's still not as outrageous as Mr. Chow.
We started with the lettuce wraps done veggie style. They were interesting. Not sure exactly what was in them, something mostly orange? It was tasty nonetheless. For our entrees we had the tofu with mixed vegetables and the Beijing Chicken (chicken with walnuts). And two sides of string beans. I didn't try the chicken because that's not how I roll but my mom thought it was too heavy and drowned in brown sauce. (This may be because she was expecting the same meal she was used to at Chin Chin.) The tofu with veggies was tasty. Note that most dishes are for two and you can ask for a serving for one but that isn't how it's on the menu. Everything was satisfying enough that there was no room for dessert.
My review would be between three and four stars but I'm giving four because the waitstaff was very attentive and the food came out pretty quickly. It is NOT Mr. Chow and it is NOT Chin Chin, but if you set your expectations to be reasonable, you can have a nice meal.
Alas, nobody stabbed anyone in their neck with a fork when we were there but it was worth a try. (Where else do you get dinner and a free show?)
If it's good enough for Nicki Minaj, Kendall Jenner and Gigi Hadid, it's probably good enough for you.
Typical place to see and be seen. The menu is almost identical to Philippe's – they probably poached one of their chefs. The chicken satay and fried rice is good, and the chicken & duck entrees were decent.
Bring your new watch & wardrobe and be prepared to drop some decent coin.
I don't even know where to start with this review. The WORST part of my experience was the service along with the party dining next to us. Let me try to sum this up because this place isn't worth my time to write a long review. You know what really grinds my gears? Is a place that portrays themself to be of a certain caliber and it's nowhere near that! Smh. Came here for my sister's birthday and we dined downstairs (big group), usually where celebs and I guess big parties would be seated. There is also a bathroom downstairs just for the parties sitting there. Btw, the bathroom upstairs is MICROSCOPIC! All jokes aside, your bathroom at home could be the size of this one.
Service: Although the waiter was "nice", he was slow, disheveled at points, having a hard time waiting on a party this size. Seriously, wtf is another waiter or extra bus boys? He convinced us to get the tasting menu which runs at $115 pp. You do that math on how much the bill for 11 ppl w/some drinks came out to, and tell me if you expect to have below avg service?? Effin' shame I swear! We waited forever just to get a glass of water poured! He made it seem like we would be getting a little bit of everything. I wanted to try the crispy beef and peking duck, neither were included (ok fine, because the other food was plentiful and good), but I decide to ask him what happend to the peking duck because we got crispy duck? And his response was "oh there wasn't enough time to make that now and can't pay the cook overtime"…Pleaseeee tell me who says that? VERY unprofessional! These waiters need to be trained AND need more help for larger parties or maybe someone more experienced. smh! The other HUGE problem I had was the table next to us. I would like to say that I have no problem admitting I'm loud. I am Puerto Rican, lol, but when I tell you our whole table the entire time was MORTIFIED at how ghetto and loud these ppl were acting! Seriously horrible. This place prides themself in being high-end Chinese yet I guess if you are paying for your bill I suppose it's okay to act however you want!?? Where was the manager to check on how things were? Why did the waiter wait until almost the end of dinner to ask if they were too loud? No exxageration, I passed a comment at the end saying they need microphones for kareoke since that's what it seemed like! Our damn bill was about 3k (YES YOU READ THAT RIGHT) and you think we should've had to deal with that bullshit? I guess my sister's boyfriend didn't want to make a big deal out of it so he said it's fine to the waiter. Like I said; I'm not saying it needed to be quiet…there is music (pop/ top 40) playing in the room. It was cool, fun, but we aren't at the club ppl! For me to say this- IT SAYS A LOT. Shame on you Red Stix! I also get you guys haven't been open for 6 months etc, but now I see why you received the reviews from the post and on yelp the way you have.
Food: We got the chef tasting menu and it was a lot of food. Some items were better than others but overall I would say good! Nothing was horrible, however like others have stated it's a pricey place. And you know what? Had the service not been the way it was and we didn't have an American Idol audition/ College frat ghetto ass party next to us; then this review would've been better. Not 5 stars but not 2. The bill wouldn't even be mentioned had the experience been better but at 3k dining in the private room downstairs, you have to EXPECT better than what we went through. Brief overview of what we had in the tasting menu : Chicken satay, dumplings, crispy beef, pork fried rice, lobster, lettuce wraps, s&p calamari, kung-po chicken which I thought was delish, and steak. I pride my self on HONEST reviews and going through my reviews you will see service is huge for me. You can eat the best of any sort of food, but if the service is horrible it will ruin the experience! Red Stix, GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER IN YOUR SERVICE DEPT! Clearly, I am not the only one that feels this way. Hire experienced servers, TRAIN them accordingly, because like others stated; you can go to a cheap "authentic" spot and pay a quarter of the price and get better service. The ambiance can carry you so far as an establishment. You want to charge certain prices then make sure you have the staff to back it up! Obviously I didn't keep this review short and actually got myself worked up writing it. Smh.
Ahhhhhh super excited I finally came here! My boyfriend and I came to Red Stixs on a Sunday evening and had an 8pm reservation. The mood of the restaurant is romantic and trendy. They have tea light candles all around, with white table cloth tables, but upbeat music playing lowly in the background. We were seated at corner booth and given food and cocktail menus. I've been wanting to come here for so long, I didn't know what we should try.
To start I ordered a strawberry cocktail which was pretty good but not great. As appetizers we got wonton soup and the pork wok fried dumplings which both were excellent. As entrees we ordered the crispy filet mignon and Beijing chicken with a side order of pork Shanghai chow fun, and they also being out a side of white rice OMG it was all delicious. The filet mignon was cooked perfect, and I think the Beijing chicken was the best type of chicken I ever had from a Chinese restaurant, and on top of that the Shanghai noodles were probably the best part of the meal, so to say everything was great just doesn't do the food justice.
The service was excellent, with very attentive and knowledgable servers. We will for sure be back here very soon!
Red Stixs …. For as many times as they state on their menus that there is absolute no affiliation with Philippe Chow, I left there wondering how that was possible. But don't get me wrong, the service was great, the food impeccable, & strong tasty drinks.
The chicken satay was YUMMY
9 seasons prawns were soo good
Blue Ivy Mojito was my favorite
My only thing is that the drinks are overpriced. $20 for what looked like less than 8 ounces lol. The chocolate lava cake was also subpar. Pretty tasteless– nothing special.
Overall, I had a great experience I shall return .