Gem Bing Shop 好吃煎饼 — Restaurant in New York

3.5ish stars

Gem Bing Shop is a micro-sized eatery on St. Marks. it’s a walkup from sidewalk to a small doorway that you just order from and your food is made in front of you. there’s no tables or seating inside. there might be a table or two on the sidewalk but takeout is the name of the game. basically there’s a menu explaining what a jianbing is and the menu options as well as some soft drinks. Gem Bing only accepts cash and venmo as payment.

never had a jianbing before which is basically the only thing Gem Bing makes. i’d liken it to a crispy crepe sandwich for which you choose your fillings. apparently it’s a street food in China. the basic jianbing is the crispy crepe lined with a sauce and then stuffed with thin layer of egg, a crunchy wafer, lettuce + (any additional fillings like spam, duck, more egg, pork, etc. for an added cost). ordered the regular-sized jianbing ($8.99) with an add-on filling of crispy duck (+$3.99). your jianbing is made in front of you and take about 7-10 minutes. it’s boxed and bagged neatly. how was it? pretty good—nice amount of crunch, decent amounts of savory duck along with the crisp lettuce and egg. the mix of textures and flavors make for an interesting bite. wasn’t sure what to expect and i pretty much liked what i got. the price feels high bc the duck jianbing i got was like $12.98 + tax + tip. you can get a snack size jianbing which is a couple dollars less. overall, it’s worth a try if you have never had one.

the service is pretty curt, outside...

Get their Portuguese-style egg tart! I was told that they are made fresh in store daily. It’s the best I’ve had in the city, better than the ones at a well-regarded Portuguese coffee shop in LES, which have too much cinnamon powder in them. The crepe is alright; I tasted sausage and duck meat in the fillings I believe, which is interesting. I’d have liked the exterior to be a little crispier, but that’s hard to achieve and just my personal preference. Here they add a piece of fried dough that’s crispy in the fillings to boost the crunchiness. Good snack if you are craving something flavorful but do not want to get a full sit-down meal.

They accept Venmo and the people who work there are very nice. The store itself is small and doesn’t have any seating inside, located one level up...

This is such a lovely snack stop after a long day of walking around NY coming from LA! The owner was extremely hospitable and offered my 67 year old dad an extra seat when my mom and I were sitting on the bench outside to stay dry from the rain. Not only the owner was such hospitable, he was also a gentleman.

Additionally, about halfway into our hot steamy JianBing, the owner gave me free oat milk on the house! He said that looking at my parents and I devouring the JianBing reminded him of his childhood when he was with his parents. That was extremely heartwarming coming from him and such a kind gesture as well.

Please head to this humble JianBing store to try some authentic, quick Chinese crepe with good savory toppings in it!

I wish you, your family and your business all the...