NYT Food Critic Waxes Nostalgic About Brooklyn Heights Chinese Eatery

By on July 15, 2011 8:47 am in Food

The New York Times’ food critic Sam Sifton mentions a late lamented Brooklyn Heights Chinese restaurant in his Q&A column today:

NYT: Ah, the great bad Chinese food of our youth! For the younger Mr. Critic there was China Chili on Montague Street in Brooklyn Heights, where a dish called Chicken Yunan reigned supreme: all dark meat and gloppy brown sauce and mushrooms and the red glint of peppers to warm the heart. You could eat there in gloom and happiness, and occasionally a Chapin brother would come in for a meal or takeout: folk-rock royalty with an egg roll on the side. Now it is a Radio Shack.

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  • AEB

    They don’t serve Chinese food at Radio Shack?

  • Degs

    I remember a much older one, a old fashioned chow mein place with red banquets, on Montague near Henry, up a few steps, where Profiles is. It was my family’s “going out to dinner” place when I was a little kid in the early 60s, before the Szechuan invasion and deliveries. Maybe it was called China Teacup?

  • AmyinBH

    Radio Shack does serve Chinese food. You just have to giver your telephone number first.

  • bornhere

    Degs — It was, I think, “New China Teacup.” I’m not sure if there had ever been an “Old” iteration of it. I’m not sure if the food was as good as I recall (I was a little kid at the time) or if the whole place was just so un-Peter Luger that it was a nice change.
    And Degs — where have you been? Hair Profiles is, unfortunately, so two-other-businesses ago. It is currently a UPS store.

  • AEB

    Uh, Jesus, you’re goofing, right?

  • Eddyenergizer

    Yes the place up the stairs was the “New China Teacup” straight-up Cantonese style…

  • BronxKid

    Anyone know why Fortune House on Henry Street is closed tonight? Went by there for take out after work, and it’s dark, doors locked, no sign on the window or doors.

  • Jesus

    Uh, no. Not kidding. Have any of you ever given Great Wall a try?

  • AEB

    BroxkKd, Fortune House is on vacation. It reopens on Monday. One wonders whether the fish–oh, never mind

    Jesus: yes.

  • Heightsguy

    Great Wall? Oy vey. Although it is superior to Chinese restaurants in rural upstate NY, which feature sweet red sauces.

    I remember New China Tea Cup. Even earlier there was a Chinese restaurant on Clark St. (now Cadman Towers) called Lottie and Jack’s. I bet NO ONE ELSE remembers it. 1963 (AD)

  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlsiLOnWCoI Arch Stanton

    @ AEB how unfortunate, I was hoping they are closed forever. Jesus is right, Great Wall is the best Chinese food in the hood.

  • AEB

    You know, Arch, that’s undoubtedly true.

  • tman

    My wife and I used to go to China Chili. We thought it was good especially compared to all the other choices in the Heights. It was run by a nice couple – Errol and Christine. We were sorry when they closed. Around 2000, I ran into Errol when he was working at Chin Chin on 49th and Lexington.

  • x

    You guys in north BH are missing out on the delicious food from Chung Hing, across the street from Trader Joe’s on Court Street.

  • since47

    Heightsguy: Lottie and Jack’s, yes! It was on Henry and (I think) Pineapple, now Pineapple Walk.

  • PeterB

    While the Chinese places in the hood are pretty bad, if I had to pick one, it would be Andy’s on Montague. Usually decently solid, but hardly something I crave often. In fact, if someone can recommend a decent place in Cobble Hill, let me know!

  • eg

    When I moved here in 1978, I remember a China Chile on Henry Street near the “restaurant row”. It was good but they moved a few years later to Boerum Hill near the river. Still there I think.

  • Andrew Porter

    Heightsguy, I remember “Lottie & Jack’s”, which was in the corner store now occupied by Peas & Pickles. Later it was a gay bar with papered over glass windows; I never knew (never wanted to) what went on in there. Ate cheap Cantonese food at L&J.

    I’ve been on a low-fat diet for a long time and though I really like Fortune House, seldom go in now.

  • Gerry

    Christene and Earl the couple who owned China Chile it was the best $5 lunch a young guy working at Brooklyn Union Gas could ask for.

    Beef & Broccholi with a soda for $5 soup also that was 1984.