Dun Huang — Restaurant in New York

To preface, I have a Chinese-American partner AND I went to China for over 3 months, so i’ve at least had some exposure to the food/culture. I went to Dun Huang for the first time to dine in & I had the Zha Jiang noodles (minced pork, mung bean sauce, etc) and the thinly sliced potatoes. I ate as much as I could tolerate because I’m a student working a job in the area and I need to eat something, but compared to all varieties of quality and differently priced foods in Asia, this made me so upset knowing that I had to pay a full American price for this meal. It was way too oily, somehow overloaded in the sauces but still not tasty or the right balance of flavors to justify the oiled up food. This was so upsetting because Chinese food is my favorite! I was just going to sadly pay the amount needed and go back to my healthcare job, because I know they’re just doing their job and I’m not going to single-handedly change the whole restaurant, BUT then the waitress got angry at me for not tipping on a meal I didn’t (couldn’t) finish, I didn’t even complain about the meal to her face, and she then tried to scold me by saying “If you don’t want to tip, only order takeout, but you dined here so you HAVE to tip”. I told her I wasn’t happy with the meal and was eating at this place for the first time ever, and I knew she was bullshitting me about being forced to pay tip (that’s illegal, say your full price on the menu or add this dine-in clause in bright bold letters at the front of the restaurant, but you can’t just steal from people). She got red faced and said “ Yeah, next time just order takeout or pickup, but you have to tip”. She pressured me to tap an option and stared at me expectantly but I just said No. Had it been someone else who was more uncomfortable or couldn’t call them out, they would have eagerly just taken your hard earned money. I can’t encourage you all any harder to find any better chinese food spot....

This might just be my favorite (and definitely most frequented) restaurant in NYC. Literally everything on the menu is great, but be sure to order some of their northwestern Chinese regional specialties! The Lanzhou beef noodle soup is light, fragrant, hearty, delicious, and an INSANE steal for NYC!!! You can pick what kind of hand-pulled noodles you want--I usually get wide noodles. :) I also am obsessed with their lamb pilaf--it has carrots, raisins, and cabbage pickles, and it's so good! Some of my other favorites include the cold eggplant, wide noodles in chili oil, peppery fried chicken, fried pork, and cabbage pickles. And while you're at it, pay a visit to Whale Tea next door! I've always had good experiences with service as well! I've never had to wait for a pick-up, and their dine-in service is also super fast. You can order everything with a QR code, which means you can keep ordering more if you're still hungry. They never leave you without water, which is important if you're eating spicy food! TLDR: awesome food with northwestern Chinese specialty, speedy service, and insanely good...

Dan Huang is a great Chinese place. Finally we have a good Chinese place near the UWS. The only reason I gave this place 4 stars is because it misrepresents the world of the ancient silk roads. It said that China and Europe were ”superior cultures” that met on the silk roads. Other than this, everything is great! I orderd the Signature Beef Noodles. They were very good. They were spicy, and the soup tasted sweet and great. It tasted like I hoped it would taste like. The flatbreads were great. They were not spicy, but they were sweet. The service was very good. The servers were very friendly, and they were not a lot like the service that you would find in any other Chinese place. The atmosphere was nice. When I went there, it was not busy and not loud, and the lights made the experience...