Mission Chinese Gets Classic Rock Treatment in Two-Star Review

Mission Chinese Food 

By James Mulcahy

The NY Times dropped by Mission Chinese this week and filed a dispatch filled with weird Led Zeppelin metaphors and beat-poetry-esque riffs ("Hot woks run fast." "Robert Plant was keening now. He wanted to take me there, baby baby.") Wait, is Sam Sifton back? Nah, Wells just got all hopped up on spice at the LES hotspot, which he praised with a fired-up two-star review. He loved Danny Bowien's creative take on Sichaun food and celebrated the eatery's vibe, despite the epic waits crowds face daily.

He also pointed out one of our favorite things about the joint - the price. Check it: "The restaurant could almost certainly charge twice as much as it does on Orchard Street, where currently the most expensive dish is $15 and where four people can eat like pashas for less than $100. The prices (like those at Pok Pok Ny, in Brooklyn, opened by another out-of-towner) should give some proprietors of other loud, cramped, chaotic local restaurants a shiver of guilt, and cause them to glance nervously over their shoulders. Charging fine-dining prices in a dive may bring you gold, but it won’t buy you a stairway to heaven."

You can read the full Wells review here and see what a group of Zagat readers thought about the restaurant here.