Congee Village — Restaurant in New York

I'm focusing this review on the congee as this is what you would come here for.

Full disclosure: I grew up in the shanty towns of Kowloon, Hong Kong in the 70's. Been in New York since the mid 80's. My grandparents and parents used to work in Chinese restaurants. My mom is a great home cook and still makes congee at home every week. I currently live in Chinatown.

Back to Congee Village's congee. The congee (rice porridge) itself is very smooth. Smoother than the other restaurants' in Chinatown. May show quality in the cooking. Maybe better quality rice and longer cook time. Doesn't taste like MSG (although I can't guarantee they don't use it). Nice flavor and texture.

If you get stuff in the congee, the ingredients are good quality, but they don't give you as much compared to other restaurants. Pieces are also chopped finer, so to me, the flavor kind of gets lost. This may depend on your taste.

For me, the congee/ingredients ratio is a bit off. I feel they are a bit on the stingy side with the good stuff. It's like ordering spaghetti and meat sauce and they give you a big plate of pasta with a small dollop of sauce. You'd feel kind of good about the delicious few bites that have sauce and meat, but the other bites are just plain (still great) pasta. So unless you're into plain congee, (however great it may be), you may feel like you're cheated out of what you ordered. This may be exactly what you get in a village in China, but here in plentiful America, you kind of expect more. You get that "Where's the Beef?" feeling just like in the Wendy's commercial.

But there is something about their congee, that is so smooth and consistently good; and even though it's a trek for me to the opposite end of Chinatown, I find myself making that long trek back there every so often.

Service isn't perfect. Staff can be curt... almost rude, but that is to be expected in Chinatown. Wait time is ridiculous compared to other restaurants. For takeout, you can sometimes wait 20 minutes. If you order something special, like lobster congee, it can be 30 minutes. Even eat-in, orders can take a while. Probably a small kitchen or few...

I love coming here so much !! Their eponymous congees are so delicious and inexpensive (

My husband and I have been patrons of this place for years, so often that we’ve almost tasted every dish on the menu. Yesterday, March 14th, I brought my visiting parents who speak only Chinese to the restaurant, hoping to delight them with familiar food and atmosphere. We ordered a half garlic chicken, a vegetable dish of mushrooms and pea shoots 菌菇竹笙扒豆苗 and a whole steamed fish in Canton style. The food tastes less than expected: The chicken came quickly but it’s only lukewarm and the meat was dry; the vegetable dish was okay. But the steamed fish is missing half of the usual amount of soy sauce that it tastes so blend. But the reason why I decided to leave this review is not just because of the subpar food, it’s more because of the stereotyping they cast onto us. When the bill came, I put in my chase credit card as usual in the bill folder. The server goes “do you have cash for the tip?” “I don’t” I said, since I didn’t carry enough cash to cover the tip, “I’ll write on the check”. He then said “the credit card machine is having some problems, can you write it now on this bill?” With little doubt on the situation, I reopened the bill folder and wrote the amount of tip and gave it to process. Over the years of coming here, my husband and I had never been asked to put in the tip first before they even swipe the credit card. When I got home, As I processed what has happened and it downed on me that the “problem credit card machine” is just an excuse to make sure my parents and I pay the tip. While it’s perhaps understandable, this act is toxic because it’s stereotyping Chinese tourists. From a Chinese staff at a Chinese restaurant in New York. The irony and the pity are agonizing. There were 2-3 other tables around at that time (2pm on Thursday March 14th) and nobody were asked to put in their tip first. Congee Village, you will lose even more loyal patrons if you don’t right...