Mama Lee — Restaurant in New York

The question isn't whether Mama Lee is good -- the question is whether Mama Lee is the best Bayside has to offer!

For being a defacto Queens Koreatown and next to Queens Chinatown, Bayside has surprisingly rich and varied restaurants. There are expensive very high quality places here, and you know what? Unassuming, humble Mama Lee gives them all a run for the money. Why?

In a word, "food". The food is remarkably good. No fooling. It may look like your typical corner "Chinese food joint", but the food here can be characterized as "rustic gourmet".

In two words, "food, price". The food at Mama Lee is cheap, cheap, cheap, even though it rivals the food at Bayside's most expensive restaurants. If Mama Lee slapped on fine table cloth, paint, and expensive silverware, she could easily charge more than double what she's currently charging and the restaurant would still be a good deal.

In four words, "food, price, Mama Lee". She is a warm woman who obviously enjoys running her business, loves her customers, and she definitely likes children. She is an inextricable part of the restaurant's charm. She obviously has grandchildren whom she adores. It's palpable.

In short, this is one of the best restaurants that Bayside has to offer, and it is certainly the best deal of all the restaurants in Bayside.

House Soup: A- A chicken soup. Rustic and beautiful, it's not complicated or even that savory. It's a wonderfully simple soup. Very tasty. The chicken is dark meat from various parts of the chicken. I saw some neck bones.

Curry Chicken: A+ Beautifully made rustic curry. The curry isn't very intense; very nice mellow yellow Indian curry flavor and a very slight kick at the back of the tongue. My 2 year old daughter loved it, so we're talking very low spiciness. More savory than spicy. The chicken itself is dark meat. The curry stew comes with potatoes, onions and carrots.

Jia Jiang Noodle with Pork and Tofu: A+ A wonderful, wonderful dish. The noodles are fresh and the pork sauce is supremely tasty (I don't detect any tofu -- perhaps the tofu is liquefied to provide body for the sauce?) It reminds me of the Gan Jjajang from Guh Song -- incredible yummy noodles with an incredibly yummy onion based meat sauce.

Five Spice Braised Beef: B- I wasn't fond of this, but you might be. It's braised chunks of beef in a brown sauce. The sauce wasn't to my liking because it's anise based, and I'm not a huge fan of anise, but that's just me. The dish comes with a thick chewy beef membrane called "silver skin" which I dislike very much -- it's thick and rubbery. I think it's skirt steak that wasn't trimmed properly.

Large Pork Meatball Over Rice: A+ The meatball is supremely delicious -- delicate and tender; almost like gossamer. A little like the yummiest meatloaf you can imagine. The sauce was a little like the pan drippings of the most yummiest meatloaf you can imagine and is divinely harmonious with the white sticky rice. This is an A+ dish, and really wonderful...

I have never left reviews ever, and for the first time, I know I must write this review so that everyone will know how much of a gem this place is! (and it's going to be a long review)

First of all the food is amazing! Simple menu, consists of core Taiwanese dishes, everything from taste, freshness, portion is just perfect! Definitely taste like authentic Taiwanese food and only better!

Furthermore, the owner of the restaurant is one of the friendliest and caring person we've ever met; She truly cares about her customers and always patient and listens to all of our (complicated)requests when ordering and applies all modifications seamlessly, and this is consider we are not frequent customers as we do not live nearby!

This one time we had to place in a request for vegetarian option along with other non vegetarian dishes, and wanted less salt and sauce due to diet restrictions and she delivered it, she make sure to use proper cooking oil for those particular vegetarian dishes and even double checked with me on my vegetarian preference so she could use the proper ingredients; we almost never get this kind of attention and service in restaurants and it's the amount of care she puts into each single dish that really counts; I still remember it was the coldest day in December, when I went to pick up for an order, she saw me carrying so much that she ran out to open the door for me without having her jacket on and said "please get home safe!" with the warmest smile on her face...

The place is not big and fancy, it's humble, but it is the most welcoming place(and of course in addition to the wonderful dishes offered on menu!), so for sure, we will be returning for many more times, in the...

After a decade of living in NYC, I've found it. A place where the cooking is as good as my mother's.

Got there at ~7:30p assuming we'd have to order carry-out since it was close to closing. Ms. Lee not only welcomed us in, but turned on a space heater and quickly brought out a soul-warming bowl of chicken soup. We ordered the salt and pepper chicken, egg with tomato (iykyk), and two beef noodle soups. She chuckled at us and told us to make it one beef noodle - there was no way we'd finish two.

Salt and pepper chicken - nicely fried, golden crust, not overly salted. Egg and tomato - a little bit of preserved vegetable in it for salt, cooked to a perfect consistency. The stunner of the meal? That beef noodle soup. The bowl must have weighed a couple pounds. Beef was fall-apart tender, without being too fatty, and included a good amount of tendon. And that broth - a richness of flavor that may only be exceeded by 永康牛肉麵, where my dad used to go when he was in college. She brought a second bowl of broth because the first (very large) bowl was overflowing with beef and noodles already. And a container of her homemade chili oil.

On our way out (with copious leftovers), she gave us a container of purple rice and another of pumpkin soup, refusing tips because "this is a family restaurant".

Don't venture to Mama Lee's for the decor, for predictable opening hours, or to have the avant-garde Taiwanese food in town (886, win son, etc.). Go because it's been 10 long years since you've gotten to go back to see your extended family in Taiwan and you want the food you were fed there as a kid when you visited every summer.

If you'll excuse me I'll be tucking into these leftovers for the rest of...