Legend 72 — Restaurant in New York

I’ve been a fan of Legend 72 and the Chelsea branch since they opened. No more. Service and food at 72 are now mediocre at best. SERVICE: I reserved a round table in person 4 days before a dinner for out-of-town guests. Upon arrival we were rudely told that others had reserved them. So we had to sit in the cramped front section. For the whole time we were there a round table was empty in the back. Abysmal service. FOOD: Pea shoot casserole with minced scallops and egg was delicious. The shoots were lightly cooked and still had texture. It was downhill from there. Soup dumplings were obviously pre-frozen and arrived at room temperature. Beef short rib on a sizzling plate was at room temperature (plate was cold - no sizzling) with gloppy Chinese carry-out brown sauce. Shameful. Lemon squid was tasteless and rubbery. Peking duck was both greasy and dry. Pan-fried noodles with seafood (liang Mian Huang) featured soggy (not crisp) noodles, tired seafood, and light brown gloppy sauce. Dry fried green beans had NO taste of Sichuan pickled vegetable (an essential for this dish) or Sichuan pepper. Likewise their previously delicious kung pao chicken came with yet another gloppy sauce and had zero ‘mala’ flavor. The food alone would probably rate 2 stars, but with awful service, it rated one star. Sadly I must now recommend...

I've read through the previous complaints regarding service, which I found baffling. I found the service to be very good and accommodating.

My dan dan noodles were excellent, and my crispy fish in sweet and sour sauce was cooked to perfection. Despite the obligatory warning from my waiter (this wasn't processed fish but rather a real fish after all), I found that my fish had almost no bones. In short, the preparation was excellent: so good, that I took a picture of my food, something I am usually loathe to do.

Here, sadly, was the problem with my experience. The freshwater fish selected for my meal (it may have been a trout or possibly a carp) had a distinctively earthy flavor. I chose to ignore the muddy aftertaste as the fish had been prepared very well. Later on in the evening, as I sat through a concert, I kept burping up that unpleasant earthy taste. This made for an unpleasant experience. This restaurant must improve its supply of freshwater fish. It should not permit a forty dollar entree to be ruined by inferior supply.

This may be one of the few instances where using farm-raised fish may be preferable to wild caught fish, as the filtration systems in farm-raised specimens tend to cancel out the muddy taste prevalent in...

EAT HERE! I wish I could give this place more stars. I’ve eaten here a couple of times and have found the food absolutely phenomenal. I decided to have my 25th birthday dinner here and it really proved that my frontal lobe is in fact developed. Great decision. The staff made me feel so special and went above and beyond to accommodate my group which was much larger than I had anticipated when I made the reservation. We were checked on constantly, drinks were always full, and the staff were insanely kind. They even gave me some moon cakes for my birthday (pictured).

The food is so well priced for what it’s worth. All of the food is such high quality and cooked to perfection. The Szechuan chili peppers give the food an incredible, unique spicy flavor without being too hot for anybody in my group. For a birthday dinner or larger group, I suggest ordering and sharing:

Mao po tofu Green beans w beef Chongqing chicken Ginger & peanut chicken fish with cumin Stir fried beef with cumin

Bok choy Scallion pancake Sesame Cold noodle Dan dan Shrimp shumai Pork dumplings in chili oil

This was such a special treat for myself and my guests. Thank you so much Legend 72 for making my birthday...