Hwa Yuan Szechuan — Restaurant in New York

As several other reviews have mentioned, Chinese New Year 2023 was the worst dining experience and service. It's sad because I've eaten here once before and enjoyed the food, so I booked a table for 5 people at 7:45pm to celebrate the special occasion together. Unfortunately, it ended up being a terrible choice. Simply put, the poor management ruined the entire experience for everyone - all the customers and staff alike.

Check-in: A reservation means nothing here. We arrived on time for our Resy reservation made well in advance (2 weeks ahead). It was impossible to check in, as the host was never at the front desk and was always running around. There were several large groups waiting ahead of us that were completely crowding the restaurant, making it impossible to find the host and move around. They should have been asked to wait outside or even turned away given the busyness of the night if the restaurant hadn't planned ahead to host them. After waiting 30 minutes, we eventually tracked down the host and were seated at 8:15pm, but only because we agreed to be squeezed into a table meant for 4 people. At this time, we happily took the table and considered ourselves lucky as people with earlier reservations were still waiting.

Ordering: We decided our food orders while waiting for our table to quicken the process once seated. We placed several food orders to be shared family style, but all the items were already unavailable, particularly the Peking duck, which was the main reason we chose this restaurant. We eventually had to ask the waitress directly what she recommended from the whichever items were left. We ended up ordering a few items, which honestly I would not have picked on my own, but we tried to have an open mind and remain positive.

Service: We asked for tea, and they said they were out - of tea at a Chinese restaurant! We couldn't believe it, but they explained they were out of the tea, teapots, and teacups. Eventually, our kind waitress was able to track down a teapot and cups for us, but only after waiting for over an hour. In the meantime, our first food order arrived around 9:30pm. It was the dou miao pea shoots. They were tasty, but the portion was tiny. Also, our rice did not arrive yet, so we had to eat them by themselves. Eventually rice arrived at 10pm. And finally at 10:15pm, our cucumber salad appetizer arrived. This was a $15 dish, that was made of less than half a cucumber with a scoop of sauce dumped on top. We even saw the waiter try to mix it up before serving it to us to make it more presentable, but it honestly looked half-eaten. We tried to ask a staff if this was indeed the correct dish, and they simply replied "It's a busy night."

Exit: At this point at 10:30pm almost 3 hours after our reservation, we still had not received 80% of our meal or a single main dish or hot appetizer, so we decided the trouble was not worth it. We kindly asked the manager if we could cancel the rest of our meal to leave. He at least quickly agreed, once again stating, "It's a busy night," with no apology. In the end, we paid $55 for 1 pot of tea (from a teabag), 1 pea sprout dish, 3 bowls of rice, and 1 "cucumber salad".

I honestly felt bad for the waitstaff, as they looked to be having a really tough night too, completely not to their own fault. The restaurant management accepted way too many parties, without anticipating the strain on the restaurant and staff. We understand CNY is probably the busiest day of the year for them, but to not plan ahead where the service is compromised to that level is simply unacceptable, especially for the kind of prices they charge.

In the end, our decision to leave actually saved our night and we found another nearby restaurant open late with incredible service and... Peking duck!

As for Hwa Yuan Szechuan, I hope their business will not be too affected by this terrible night. On a normal night, the food is delicious, albeit a bit expensive. But people deserve to know that unfortunately, if you are looking here for a holiday, we suggest you...

My son wanted Peking duck. The last time we ate it was in 2017 so he was due. Previously, we had gone to Peking Duck House on Mott street in Chinatown. We had fond memories of it, but looking at recent reviews, it sounded like it had lost its sheen. After a quick search, Hwa Yuan came up as a solid recommendation for Chinese food in general, but Peking duck (or as they correctly call it, Beijing duck). Having another friend who happened to be there earlier that day who highly recommended it sealed the deal for us. Chinatown is an interesting neighborhood where you'll find marketplaces that look like they've been around for decades with cut up cardboard with prices sharpied onto it juxtaposed next to completely renovated remodeled edifices with glass and clean lines. Hwa Yuan was the latter - kind of a modern oasis on a street still fighting progress. So first impressions - interior decor: very clean and modern. We made reservations via OpenTable so no waiting. We were taken to the second floor. Note that the space is partially sectioned off giving the quasi-private room feel without totally making you feel like you're on your own. There were several waitstaff personnel always around at any given time. And they weren't the useless kind that just stand around to give the impression of service. Our waters were constantly refilled and someone was always available to bring a replacement chopstick or something. They used heavy plates with a large one underneath a medium sized plate which was frequently taken away and replaced with a fresh one. They even provided two sets of chopsticks which we had never seen before and when asked, the staff responded that one set is for serving yourself from the public family style plates onto your plate, while the other chopstick set is for you to actually eat off your plate. Genius - but you better hope your fellow diners remembered which one was for what. So the waiter explained that the Beijing duck could take up to 45 minutes to prepare so you can imagine our surprise when our duck appeared after only a few minutes. My only explanation is that in my OpenTable reservation, I put in the comments that we were going to order the duck so maybe they got one going in advance of our arrival. The duck was very well sliced and a nice pile of extra duck skin was provided as well. Small plates of the duck accouterments (e.g., slivers of spring onions, asian pear, and cucumber) as well as a bamboo steam basket of the wrappers were brought out. This was disappointingly small portioned - we easily went through 3 refills of the stuff before we ran out of duck. But the duck was deliciously fatty and crispy, married with the crunchy slivers, with a touch of the hoisin sauce resulted in a luxurious combination. The one other disappointment was that the wrappers were ripped with dry edges. But they tasted good and provided a good vessel for all the fillings. Quick notes on the other dishes: snow pea shoots in garlic sauce- just ok (e.g., pretty generic); mapotofu-tasty but not that spicy (could have been victim to my dining buddy asking for everything to be mild); house special hunan chicken-very delicious; pork soup dumplings-nice and soupy and very tasty; cold sesame noodles-came highly recommended but not really my thing due to its slightly acidified sesame oil taste and the weirdly dense texture of the noodles; pan fried noodles with seafood-very delicious with plenty of fried noodles. In general, all the food was pretty tasty but felt overpriced (or underportioned, especially since the serving plates are huge). At the end of the day, the restaurant was a very upscaled Chinese food restaurant, high on the authenticity levels but (necessarily) high on the price side. Definitely an elevated Chinese food experience - well suited for folks looking for a solid food experience in a place much nicer than your corner...

It was their third day open, so one expects there to be challenges. It's a high end Chinese and quite pricey. The space is massive and most of the appointments like the crockery, chopsticks, and cutlery are quite beautiful. The tea cups only work if you're right handed, but they are nice. There are ornate carved doors, art and decorative pieces throughout the space. The muted grey linens and the waiter uniforms are very tasteful.

There were three different lighting sconces on the same walls in the dining room we were in and completely incongruent overhead fixtures. I'm not sure why the designer chose the lighting scheme. I've seen similar choices in other Chinese places. Perhaps it has to do with feng shui.

The service was terrible. The waitress was very sweet, but her English was hard to understand. She spent a lot of time apologizing.

Most places when you just open, bite the bullet and schedule too much floor and kitchen crew. This was woefully understaffed. People waited and waited to order. Drinks took forever. Tables did not get cleared. Wine got dropped at the table and not opened. People had to beg for their checks. They didn't have things that were on the drink menu, like cranberry juice. There were no limes in the restaurant.

The kitchen was not able to handle the guests. The food took FOREVER with many, many promises that it was coming. We ordered a dish that she said they didn't have. Then she said they had it. By the time our food was supposed to come, they'd run out of it. NOT GOOD.

We waited so long for one of our dishes we said to forget it and asked for the check. Then the dish arrived and we said we didn't want it. They offered it wrap it up for us and take it off the check. We said, "We don't want it." The waitress insisted that we take it, and then never took it off the check.

There was what looked like a manager coming into the dining room periodically, who did NOTHING. Anyone who has ever worked in a dining room could see that tables needed to be bussed and orders needed to be taken, wine poured, etc., but the guy just looked around and walked away.

Now to the food. They serve their famous cold sesame noodles as a very decent sized amuse bouche, if you are lucky enough to get it. I noticed one of the tables near us didn't get it because theirs was served to a different table. When another waiter came out with the noodles that were supposed to be served to the second table he was confused that they already had them. The noodles are very tasty.

The rest of the food was overpriced and some didn't make sense. The first dish was black fungus and frisee. It had a very light black vinegar and sichuan peppercorn dressing that lacked the personality to make the fungus, which is mostly texture and not flavor, interesting.

A dish on the menu was called short Rib on sticky rice. I couldn't find the rice in the dish. It was pleasant tasting pieces of beef atop chunks of sweet potato. I mentioned the lack of rice to the waitress and she said it was amongst the seasoning on the beef. There may have been a few grains, but not enough to say the short rib was on rice.

The hot and sour soup was $10.00 and a single bowl serve. The ingredients were nicer than your average $1.00 bowl of the soup you can grab at many cheap take-out spots in the area, but it was neither hot or sour.

The deluxe seafood lo mein tasted good, but looked terrible for $18.00 and there was something not quite right with the massive sea scallops. We didn't eat the last one. The shrimp were lukewarm.

The snow peas shoots in broth ($18.00) tasted like snow pea shoots in water. The garlic was tasteless.

The orange beef ($28.00) was what we took home. They didn't even send white rice with it. It was fine.

They have a long way to go to get the place in order and to become the restaurant that warrants the pricing they...