Benson Easting Station — Restaurant in New York

I was running out of places along 86th to try; just when you think your options have run out, another restaurant pops up. Gotta love NY.

I've been here for lunch a couple of times, and I have to say it is a sweet deal to order off their lunch specials menu. It's $5.95 and you get a rather large entree-sized dish of various noodles and rice dishes. If you happen to be off on a weekday, you can share a dish with two other people and still be full.

I have had the broad noodles with beef, the fried rice with crab meat, and a few dishes of dim sum. Dim sum is rather limited on weekdays so there wasn't much to choose from. We ordered the pork spare ribs and shrimp rice noodle. The pork spare ribs were pretty good. You'll find that the food isn't too salty here. I also found it to be a lot less greasy than other dim sum places.

There is truth within the other reviews: it does seem more like a place for elders to gather and chat for hours. It's also obvious that the new owners didn't bother upgrading the interior. I mean, what old school Chinese dim sum place is going to sport purple cafe lights and reflective mosaic tiles on the walls, and then have stapled plastic along the tables? Couple that with an ancient looking rug and it is faced with an identity crisis.

The KTV is really one big TV on the lower level of the restaurant. They play the China version of The Voice on it; it's rather entertaining. I will be monopolizing that mic if I find that they play English songs on it as well.

All in all, it's a decent place to share a slow-paced meal over conversation. The food has the special wok taste and this is most definitely attributed to the chef's skill level. To a particularly discerning eye, it might need some interior work, but if it isn't...

This place isn't as nice as other Chinese restaurants but still decent and good for big parties. They have meal sets too that are around $400-$500.

Crispy Fried Milk Custard ($8.95)- 3.5/5 This was our starting dish and they're decent, nothing really memorable about it.

Fish Maw with Crab Meat ($16.95)- 5/5 This is my favorite soup ever.

Steamed King Crab with Garlic (S.P)- 5/5 They let you take a picture with it while its alive, which is pretty cool. Ours was a hefty 9 lbs, and made into a delicious dish. The shells were cut for easy eating, which more restaurants need to do.

House Special Walnut Shrimp ($20.95)- 3.5/5 This wasn't as good as other Chinese restaurants and I'm not sure why. Maybe it was...

Really want like this restaurant but get disappointed very quickly. There were lots of accumulated stuffs alone with the pathway that takes you into the restaurant. It looks like there were stuffs that left from the pedantic time years ago. The bathrooms are nothing more than disgusting even compared to typical Chinese restaurants. I ordered some dim sum and a chicken fried noodles. The steam bun is dried and the running custards inside is not mixed right and of cause it doesn’t run at all. The chicken from the noodles is over marinated with braking soda and tasted funny. The noodles sauce is super salty. Don’t want to write review like this but there are so much room to be improved in...