Pete Wells Awards Two Stars to Mission Chinese Food

And the review is up. As the readers of Eater predicted, Pete Wells awards two big ones to Danny Bowien's Lower East Side restaurant Mission Chinese Food. The critic raves about several of the dishes, including the tofu:

The ma po tofu that had looked impressive on the menu board was staggering in real life. Ivory cubes of bean curd were sunk deep inside quantities of simmered pork and fermented fava paste under a shimmering lake of chile oil.

It burned and buzzed in the pulsating manner of Sichuan, but in China the meat would be a mere seasoning. Mr. Bowien’s version emphasized and amplified the pork to the point where it knocked you down and left you happily breathless.

Although some of Bowien's creations don't completely work, Wells is very impressed by the restaurant overall. The critic notes: "Mr. Bowien does to Chinese food what Led Zeppelin did to the blues."
· Pastrami’s Strange Dream [NYT]
· All Coverage of Mission Chinese Food [~ENY~]
[Photos: Tamara Palmer]

Mission Chinese Food

154 Orchard St., New York, NY