Nice Day Chinese Takeout | Huntington NY 好日子外卖店 — Restaurant in Town of Huntington

I've been looking for a good Chinese restaurant in the Huntington area as I've tried most of them and have been disappointed. I should also note that I grew up in a Chinese household and have eaten excellent Chinese food in Chinatowns across the country. Is Nice Day Chinese restaurant like the restaurants in Chinatown? No, but they're not pretending to be, so my rating is not comparing this restaurant to them. Looking at the menu, it's clearly a modern, innovative, fusion menu of Chinese and American tastes. I was pleasantly surprised that I was happy with the taste and quality of the food. We ordered through Grubhub and the order arrived on time. The items were nicely packaged with no leaks. The Sesame Chicken was not overly-sauced or sweet which tends to happen in some Chinese restaurants. Real Chinese food is not drowning in sauce and loaded with sugar. I was also happy to see Xiao Long Bao (soup dumplings) on the menu because they're not on the menu in any of the other Chinese restaurants in the Huntington Village area. These were tasty. The scallion pancakes were pan-fried which was the proper way to cook it. The other restaurants around here tend to take the quick and easy and non-authentic route of throwing scallion pancakes into the fryer like french fries. The problem is that this results in a completely different texture than scallion pancakes are supposed to be. They end up being greasy fried dough with little taste, kind of like the fried dough you get from carnival vendors. So I was very glad that this restaurant cooked the scallion pancakes the proper way. The steamed dumplings were fine. I was surprised there was no pan-fried dumpling option on the menu. My kids (and most people I know) prefer their dumplings cooked this way. If the restaurant adds pan-friend dumplings, they'd probably sell a ton of them. The restaurant also sells other dim sum items like steamed vegetable bao. We did not get order these, but if they started carrying char siu bao (roast pork buns) we would have gotten them. So for the type of restaurant this place is, I gave it 5 stars because I would order from here again, and I'm super picky about...

Since they have opened, I probably order from here 3-4 times a month. There are a LOT of Chinese food restaurants in the area, but this place is pretty standout. I try to order something new every time, but I always end up getting the same thing, but that's what's good, they're consistent.

Top favorite item is the Mapo Tofu. You can get it elsewhere, but it's just not as authentic (usually in brown gravy). No other place is serving it up the right way. And the tofu is super silky.

The next best item here is the Spicy Szechuan Crispy Chicken. This was a rather new addition, but holy moly, it's just the right combo of flavors. The right amount of spicy, salty, and crispy. Really awesome.

The Buddha's Veggie Delight is also great, to kind of round out the rest of the meal. Just really fresh and light tasting, but again, flavorful.

Take it from me, I've been eating Chinese food my entire life. I grew up going to Flushing and Chinatown with my family, and I'm happy that NICEDAY is local. It has a good balance of American Chinese cuisine, some brand new items, as well as some authentic tasting dishes.

Don't sleep on the Mapo Tofu and Spicy Szechuan...

Take out

Online order: prepared and packaged in time with appropriate amount of sauces, can add more as they keep sauces, utensils, and fortune cookies on the counter to pack yourself.

Gentleman behind the counter helped with the pickup promptly

The one dish that needs attention is the Mapo tofu. Both of the people who ordered the tofu in this order could only swallow one bite before discarding the rest of the meal. Would not order the Mapo Tofu. Did not resemble the dish at all. Most evident was the lack of Sichuan peppers. More aptly described as tofu in tomato water.

Wonton soup broth, no flavor. Lightly salted water. The actual wonton is average at best.

Average dishes were

Spicy Szechuan Crispy chicken Scallion Pancakes Dan Dan Noodles Chow fun w/ Tofu Egg rolls Sesame balls

The best dish was clearly steamed mixed vegetables in garlic sauce

Ordered:

Wonton soup Egg rolls Spring rolls Boneless spare ribs Scallion pancakes Fried Pork dumplings (8)

Mapo tofu (with and without pork) 2 orders Steamed mixed vegetables in garlic sauce Stir fried DIY Dan Dan noodles Chow fun w/ Tofu Spicy Szechuan...