Wah Fung No. 1 Fast Food
“I always order the large barbecued pork plate with rice, cabbage and greens sauce for only $5.00.”
“Outside of Hong Kong this is probably one of the best places in NYC for char siu (叉燒) and sit yik (脆皮燒肉).”
“He went from a street cart with hour long lines to a storefront with hour long lines.”
Wah Fung No. 1 Fast Food
Take-out: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Good for Kids: Yes
PokéStop Nearby: Yes
Price range.
$ Price range Under $10
8 reviews
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4.5 stars. Whats not to like about this place!? No frills, unpretentious food. You get in line, pick what you want, then go! There is beauty in this kind of simplicity. The char siu is juicy and flavorful. The roast pork is bomb!! Super crispy, just enough fat, and delicious. Watching these guys work so quickly and efficiently has a zen like effect. i like going right across the street to the park and getting busy on one of the benches. don't let the small container size fool you. It's almost like the circus clown cars. They pack these things and the portion size will certainly satisfy. If you are anywhere near this place, do yourself a favor and stop in. ENJOY!!!
This place is Chinatown's staple, no doubt about it! You can't get a meal more cheap and satisfying. If you can, it probably still can't beat this place. I recommend ordering roast pork over rice because the roast pork is incredibly succulent and sweet. For those who prefer a different kind of meat, they also have duck and chicken.
There's also a separate cart inside that serves lo mein, rice noodles, fishballs, etc. So many options and you can order any one for under $5!! The only warning I have is that the line gets pretty long during lunch hours. But here's a quick tip. If you order from the side cart, you can also order your rice dish there too, which enables you to avoid the long line solely for rice dishes.
Located near the corner of Christie St. and Hester St. in Chinatown.
Wah Fung sells a variety of meats. Pork, chicken, and duck. The biggest sellers are the pork and chicken.
The big draw here is that for $3.75, you get a small tin of rice, cabbage, and your choice of meat. You can also do half and half of two meats. The small is actually pretty big and is a good size meal. They pack those small containers with alot of food. As a sidenote, ask for the green sauce on top of your meal.
The quality of the meat is decent and it tastes pretty good.
There's usually a line in front of the store that takes anywhere from 15 mins to 30 mins, but its worth the wait.
There's seating and tables in the park across the street to eat at on a nice day. If that isn't an option or isn't appealing, you can take your order to go, as this place is takeout only.
Notorious for their cheap take out boxes of roasted meat atop rice and cabbage, the food absolutely does not disappoint. If you can find this tiny establishment, don't be scared off by the non English speaking staff or large butcher knives or animal carcasses hanging in the window.
Order a small, choose a meat and voila, you have the perfect meal. The meat selection includes chicken, pork, duck and pig. The roasted pork is char siu–that red marinated stuff that we call "bbq pork" in Chinese restaurants in Hawaii. The roasted pig is what we call "roast pork" in Hawaii–it's the fatty pork with crispy skin. I chose the duck, however, and it was great. I like that the boxes come with vegetables and sauce over the rice. I also love that they are open early and that you can take your food over to the park across the street to enjoy on a park bench. I don't really recommend the park thing if you're put off by Chinese people talking very loudly (as always) to one another or hacking up spit to spit on the side walk. Lol.
Definitely a must try in New York Chinatown, and definitely get a boba milk tea at Yaya to accompany your duck with rice! Yum!
So as it stands this place is really popular. I've been working in Chinatown for some months now and every time i walk past this place there is a long line out the door. The place is really small so that's probably partly to blame, but after finally going in here to order something i realize that that the delicious food is also to blame. Less than $4 gets you a small container super packed with either rice and pork or noodles and pork. And i mean super packed. Honestly it's really impressive to see how much food they can actually fit in that thing, but it's a lot. And it's really tasty too. Like really. I managed to get lunch early one day so i got in there and beat the line and I'm glad i did. I thought this area would have a lot more cheap food options than it does, so finding this place was a real life and money saver. Yum!
I used to come here almost everyday to long lines out the door. Wait was not that bad…around 10-20 minutes depending on how busy it is. The food at Wah Fung is really affordable! Last time I checked, it was $3.75. One of my friends told me that the place started out as a street cart and the owner increases the price by a quarter depending on gas market prices.
For $3.75, you can choose Roast Pork or Chicken w/ Cabbage over choice of Rice/Noodles. You can choose to have no cabbage. The food comes in a small aluminum take out box(there's no seats here), but the portion size is a lot! I usually get Roast Pork(Char Siu) w/ Cabbage over Rice. The roast pork tastes not too sweet and is really flavorful. I've also tried the Roast Chicken, but it was too salty for me. The rice is fresh from the rice cooker. It's texture is moist and cohesive, and not fall-apart grainy. The cabbage helps to wash down the heaviness from all the meat. You really get your money's worth!
Can't believe I have not made a review for this hidden gem! You get duck, roast pork, or chicken with rice and vegetables for around $5-$7! What a steal! The line can get pretty long during meal times so get here early and bring cash! The duck is my favorite, but the roast pork is also great. Great meal for post workouts!
Food: 3.5/5.0
Service: 1.5/5.0
Value: 4.0/5.0
Decor: 1.5/5.0
Overall: 3.5/5.0
Decent bbq meats across from the park on Chrystie Street. Unfortunately, that the meats are done well is probably driving a minority of the 4.5 Yelp* rating as of July 2016, with the rest being this conception that Wah Fung is fantastically cheap. In fact, the value is good but actually not out of this world — I would actually call the pricing slightly above the average around NYC and only somewhat cheap in the context of Manhattan Chinatown. You can debunk this perception after having been to enough places by consider their pricing on the whole duck, chicken, and bbq pork (per pound) options. In fact, what's really got everyone in a tizzy is the ability to avoid paying for form factor — you can walk away with only a few cuts of meat over a bed of basic cabbage and rice in a scaled down format without getting charged a big percentage premium for it. It's also not super clean, as more than once I've pulled out lint from the food.
There aren't many $3.75 (chicken/pork)-4.25 (duck) meal options around, but there are enough $5-7 large pork/duck plates that lead me to like Wah Fung but not find it mind blowing.