Legend of Taste — Restaurant in New York

My first experience I would rate 4 stars but my second experience I'd rate 5 stars.

The first time I came I ordered the wonton soup, fried pork dumplings and the Kung Pao chicken. The soup could have been better; it tasted more like take -out level soup. The dumplings were excellent and the sauce is tangy but delicate on the palette. The Kung pao was good, but wasn't quite dazzling as I was hoping for. It could use more of a hot pepper flavor. Maybe next time I'll request it spicier. My first impression of the food was mixed. I will say the staff are pleasant and finding parking is easy in the nearby neighborhood.

I was willing to give it another shot and order something else, because rarely does a Chinese restaurant make every dish top notch, so I had faith that they would hit the nail on the head with another dish. Sure enough, the second time i came my experience was much better. I ordered the fried dumplings again and they were great and this time, I ordered the shredded beef with longhorn green peppers and it was outstanding. It hit the spot and was exactly what I was hoping for in a Szechuan restaurant. It had that dark, spicy flavor. I also ordered the Mongolian beef and it was tasty.

If any of the owners are reading my post, I suggest having fresher more flavorful wonton meat in the wontons in the soup, and more pepper flavor in the Kung Pao chicken. I quite enjoyed the shredded beef with the longhorn green peppers. I love the after taste...

We probably wouldn't have paused at the Whitestone listing of Legend of Taste. But intrigued by the Michelin rating, and being big fans of Szechuan, we took a chance. Holy. Moly! We started with the large bowl of noodle soup (w/pickled vegetables and pork) copying a couple sitting nearby. Yeah, we copied their awesome pea shoot dish that they ate in between slurps of soup too. FLAVOR blast! Following the Michelin recommendation- we ordered the incredible "tears in eyes" jelly salad and gotta tell you...I began spilling that awesome sauce over everything. Not that this was needed. The soup- rich in flavor, perfect al dente noodles...the pea shoots-with perfectly thin sliced garlic slabs and scallions...and our entree- Orange Beef! Not two minutes after he dug in, my dining partner exclaimed, "oh, we'll be back-that's for sure! I need to mention that we were assisted by super friendly staff. Big thumbs up for this well deserved eating establishment. Addendum: the left-over "tears in eyes" sauce came home with me and continues to keep giving to our home...

I had the shrimp in garlic sauce, which was very good. The spicy jumble shrimp were very meaty, and the dish was a generous portion. We also had the orange chicken, which was also very good. We shared an order of meh fun with pork, which was excellent. Now, some complaints. That simple things like water or chinese tea, you have to ask for. The noodles you usually put in your soup, you have to ask for, with a $2.00 extra charge, even though we rang up a $70 plus food order. I asked for soy sauce, half expecting a charge, there wasn't. That said, the service was very good, polite, and whatever we requested was very quickly given. I liked the $8.75 charge for a glass of wine, which is rare these days of $10 to $15 for a glass. There appears to be ample street parking. Overall, we were very pleased to finally find a decent, pleasant Chinese restaurant, which these days, it seems, is a rare commodity. We will be going back, and I do recommend this restaurant. There is also a...