Pig Heaven — Restaurant in New York

So... We swung by on the way home from the park. We decided on a little Chinese food. It was a little chilly but why not try something different.

We placed an order, paid and were told 15-20 minutes. We walked around the block and return around 20-22 later. Surely our food would be ready. Nope. I waited by the entrance. The hostess finally asked me to sit so that I was out of the way.... 30 minutes elapsed.... No food. I asked the hostess, she went to check on them..

We finally left with our luke warm food about 40 minutes after we placed the order..... To add insult to injury, there were bags for delivery on the table where they sent me to wait for my food. The restaurant wasn't full or that busy.

Poor order management.....

The hostess was not gracious. She offered a sorry similar in temperature to the soup... Tepid.

So how was the food. Okay. It wasn't worth the small premium.

The wonton soup had an okay broth. The skin on the wontons had an uncooked taste. They didn't have enough time to boil the dumplings?

The hot and sour soup was full of soy sauce and sesame oil.

The steamed dumplings were okay. They weren't special.

The General Tso's was a disaster. It was covered in a gelatinous sweet sauce. It didn't have any depth of flavor, just sweet. No tang or savory elements.

So, lesson today. It's good to try new things but don't return to Pig Heaven. It was closer to purgatory.

RESPONSE: (a) it would be have been okay if the person who took my order informed me up front that it would be 30-45 minutes. I would have ordered else where. (b) There were no fortune cookies, flatware or napkins in the order. (c) The staff didn't care. The restaurant was less than half full. There were some take out order on the counter waiting to be delivered. Order management was terrible. (d) My food was tepid. Some dishes were prepared before others.

I will probably find a different restaurant. Thanks for the invitation to spend more time and money at your establishment...

This would be about a 4, 4.5 review, if Pig Heaven could manage reservations and Holiday crowds. The food is extremely solid, and in particular, as you would imagine, the pork is excellent.

The new ownership appears to have failed to understand that Chinese Restaurants get busy on Christmas day in New York, and that if you accept a reservation over a month before Christmas for a large party, paying some attention to this on Christmas day is important.

We booked well before the Holidays, checked back in day of, and were treated to one of the most infuriating experiences imaginable. It's not a good sign when you show up on time to your reservation and people are literally screaming about their hour late take out orders. We were told we needed to be on time, and would not be seated without our entire party. We arrived to a scrum at the door, and a prompt "we're running 20 minutes late" 30 minutes later, they offered up a table for 16, with plates for 20, for a party of 25. The whole time the entire length of the space was filled with unhappy people trying to get in and out of the space.

Having just seated people adjacent to both ends of the space they offered us,they could do nothing, except wring their hands and repeat "I'm so sorry" We ended up with 9 of our party walking, because it was clear the restaurant wouldn't be able to resolve the situation.

The food which arrived in disorganized waves was extremely good, but the entire time we were there the staff was arguing with people over reservation, waits and delayed delivery / take out orders. This does not improve the ambiance of the space.

Food solid. Management overwhelmed, and ultimately unwilling to actually do anything to compensate for a ruined family evening. They reluctantly didn't charge us for 1/3 of the food. Of course, they didn't serve 1/3 of the food, because, 1/3 of our group left.

If the management is unhappy with this review, let me say. "I'm so sorry." "I'm so sorry." "I'm so sorry." There, I've now done as much as you...

It's not very often I go to a restaurant that serves hanging/bbq pork, chicken or duck outside of Chinatown, Brooklyn or Queens and there's good reason for that as well. If this place serves those very foods in Chinatown yet I can not get a boiled Chinese spinach or even fried salt and pepper pork chops (all of which is standard and basic stuff in any non fast food Cantonese restaurant menu that has hanging stuff), yet they have "Other 'Supoosed' Chinese" style food then seriously they should not even have the Hanging BBQ stuff to begin with, but I do understand that the owner is not Cantonese anyway.

Their BBQ Pork is certainly nowhere near as good as the hype surrounding it. 5 ingredients including a secret special ingredient..manure? Well it certainly doesn't make it better tasting or the chefs don't know what they're doing as mine was dried and tasteless-I added soy sauce.

Other than that service is not bad but its a dark atmosphere, just the very opposite of any Cantonese restaurant (as for Cantonese culture its a bad omen to eat in the dark) but I would say this place is especially good for people who have problems getting down to Chinatown, Brooklyn, Queens, or if you're curious (which was true in my case) or if the boss is giving you a free meal to write good reviews.

All in All a semi-fake Cantonese restaurant that breaks all the rules just for the owner's...