39 Prince Cafe 利苑食坊 — Restaurant in New York

CASH ONLY

This used to be the old Sunway location until they rebranded to 39 Kings Cafe.

When you need some bubble tea at night, take out or dim sum after dark this is the place that I think of. They are open until 4am every day and it would surprise anyone that so many people are ordering food or dining in after 12am. It can be super loud inside depending on who is dining in.

The establishment is located in downtown Flushing at the corner of Prince (conveniently near a municipal parking lot that is free after 10p or 11p. But that area in Flushing is quite busy with traffic (Main Street closure to cars) and a lot of pedestrian activity during the day and during prime dinner hours.

When I usually dine in it is pretty late so traffic and parking are not an issue. The inside dining area has a good amount of seating and you will always see a constant flow of customers in and out (diners as well as people picking up take out orders).

I can only speak for myself and to my own personal experience for each place I review. Each time I have dined in I have had a good experience. I know Flushing is full of amazing restaurants and that restaurants differ in service and food quality. When it cones to 39Kings, it would not be considered the best Chinese food but for the convenience and awesome selection of hot food and drinks (non alcoholic) this place ranks one of the top in my book.

On the nights where you are craving for some take out or certain Chinese dishes (well after the time that most other places have closed for the evening) this is the place that I and apparently many many other people think of (good or bad they think of 39kings and keep returning).

The menu consists of appetizers and starters like gyoza and fried chicken and french fries. The regular daily menu consist of items you can find at any take out place or restaurant (chicken and broccoli, lo mein, kung pao chicken as well as things like congee, instant noodle dishes, HK style pork chop and one of my go to dishes, beef chow fun with bean sprouts. And mind you, this is at 2am on some nights. I named only a few but the menu offers at least 80 items to suit anyone's late night palate. Another one of my favorites they offer is a very simple dish that consists of spam, fried egg and chinese broccoli with white rice because sometimes simple is comforting and hits the spot.

ANDDDD they have a dim sum menu that is available all day and each one is made to order. Their crystal shrimp dumplings (har gow) are a must as well as the sesame balls, rice rolls, scallion pancake and beef balls. The egg yolk buns are a very nice treat.

For the drinks, you have an assortment of bubble tea flavors and slush drinks. The taro, green tea and coffee are some of my favorites. The mango slush also super refreshing. Just please keep in mind that this is not a bubble tea chain but the drinks are quite convenient and definitely go well with the food.

*The only thing I would probably stay away from is the soup dumplings

The staff is multilingual being able to speak in Mandarin and Cantonese (the demographic dialects of that area) as well as English (for order taking purposes which is very good for those customers who do not know how to speak any Chinese at all.

The staff is usually very prompt and courteous. I have to give a shoutout to Stella who always takes time to welcome me and chats for a bit even though is busy.

If you do not have time to dine in, call ahead so they have your order ready for pick up. And...

I used to go here all the time and service is amazing and food is great. Today, however, was a whole new experience. I have not been there in a month and there were a few new waiters. When I took a fortune cookie from the bowl (which was intended for customers to take from), the lady at the front desk glared at me. I have always done that and before the manager stood at the front desk allowed it and sometimes even urged me to get more. When we sat down, a waitress I have never seen before came to serve us. I ordered the usual, Hong Kong style milk tea. She asked me weather I wanted a small or a large. The menu wasn't very clear and I told her I wanted the 20 oz option, which was in the hot drink section on the menu. She then told me that the option on the menu was not the largest one they had. I asked why that was the one listed on the menu and told her that I wanted the large, then. The one I used to get comes in a tea pot and I assumed large meant that one. She was extremely impatient when explaining and came back with a cup of milk tea. I told her politely that there was a mistake, that I wanted the milk tea in a tea pot, and asked if she can change my order. I assume it was an easy task since she could just pour the tea into a pot and add more. However, she started to tell us how she clearly explained it to us. And when we told her we didn't understand her very clearly, she asked us if she was speaking in an alien language. Excuse me? That is extremely rude and definitely not the way to talk to a customer. At that point we just left the restaurant because the service...

I'm not sure how this restaurant managed to score a 4 out of 10; if there were minus points, I'd definitely give it a -10. The service was atrocious, which is the first time I've become so irked while dining at a restaurant. We sat down, selected our desired dishes, and then raised our hands to signal a young Chinese girl who had come over to take our order. She also saw us indicating that we wanted her to come over. However, instead of coming over, she deliberately ignored us. After waiting for about a minute or two, I called out for her to come assist us with ordering. She arrived at our table looking visibly displeased and reluctant to help us. Using Chinese, I explained to her what I needed, yet she responded to me exclusively in English, even though I had again used Chinese to communicate with her. She then arrogantly informed me that she didn't understand what I was saying. I initially assumed that she might genuinely not be able to speak Chinese, but moment later I overheard she chatting with other servers in Chinese fluently. It soon became apparent that her poor service was a deliberate choice. Her attitude was dismissive and condescending, lacking in both etiquette and refinement. Despite the fact that there were only a few tables occupied in the entire restaurant, she appeared to be completely unbothered, which led me to suspect that she might have intentionally acted in such a manner. This was the very first time I had visited this establishment, and it will undoubtedly...