Milu — Restaurant in New York

This place has become my favorite workday lunch spot. I came here frequently for the past months and have tried basically everything on the menu.

Make no mistake, this is a high end restaurant disguised as a casual lunch place. All the meat dishes are so well made that they could easily be put in a high end Chinese restaurant menu with double the price. Milu makes them affordable by focusing on small menu, streamline the process, controlling the portions, and pair them with simple rice and fresh veggies for the bowls, which makes for perfect work day lunch. It's incredibly tasty, the portion is just enough to fill the belly without putting you into a food coma. Hard to find anything better.

As a Chinese I can clearly recognize each dish has their origin in traditional Chinese cooking, but the chef clearly added some unique flavor to make them distinguish from the "standard" taste you can find in most of Chinese restaurant out there, and I have to say I like almost all the changes they made. It gave Milu a very personal identity that...

Milu is a pretty unique spot for fast and casual Chinese food. They have a good mix of classic dishes with a modern twist. It's a self service type of restaurant where you order up front and you get to sit anywhere you want. The place is so cute and the tables and seating actually look so comfortable. Milu is right by my office, so I decided to grab lunch to go. I ordered ahead on their website and the staff was actually very punctual with the pickup time, which is a huge plus during the lunch rush hour. I went with the Chili Crisp Chicken bowl for the day. The portion doesn't look huge for the price, but it was actually quite filling. The chicken was fried nice, crispy, and wasn't really that spicy. The chicken with the scallion mayo on the side is such a great pairing. There were tons of fresh veggies and the tofu seaweed salad was so refreshing to mix with everything. I don't know why it took me this long to try Milu, but it is now on my list of quick...

I am a fan. This is Panda Express meets Dig Inn in the sense that you're getting pretty healthy Chinese fast food that's still incredibly tasty. Not that this city needs more chains catered to the busy corporate crowd, but I will take Milu over an assembly-line salad or burrito bowl any day.

Similar to a Dig Inn, you order and pay at the register and bring your number to your table. They will bring your food out for you.

What we got:

-- Mandarin Duck: Yum. So this was billed as "tender duck leg with crispy skin" but there wasn't a whole lot of crisp to it, just so you know. It was still very tasty though. Came with plenty of hoisin sauce. The spicy marinated cucumbers were a great complement.

-- Chili Crisp Chicken: Pretty much popcorn chicken but with a kick.

They also have cute little pineapple buns at the register that I gazed longingly at. Will have to come back next time to...