I am not cool enough to have know about #1 Chinese, the new hip chinese place conceived by Frank Prisinzano (of Frank's and Supper), before it opened, but with the help of Below 14th I was able to get there on day three.
First, Frank knows how to make a place that will bring people. It is on 4th and B which while sharing the area with a bunch of restaurants doesn't really have anything like this close by. And the building is pretty amazing. Two story cavern of sorts - open kitchen - candle light - two bars. The east village hip are going to flock here.
Here is a quick rap up of our meal:
Crispy noodles - all the american chinese places have these and so this place does- pretty good ones - three sauces to dip them in. A soy sauce based one, a mustard, and a way-too-sweet sauce
shrimp ball appetizer: I liked these a lot - better then the shrimp balls at Sea on 2nd Ave - smokey chicken mixed with fresh shrimp.
five spice chicken wings - not bad - didn't find all 5 though
BBQ short ribs - kinda dissapointing - tasted like mom's brisket but not as good.
Stuffed Eggplant w/ crab meet - complaments of the house - not much to say about them more then they were ok especially because they were free
Salty fish and chicken fried rice - good dish - cheap and filling - with a great chicken flavor - didn't really get the salty fish taste.
Tangerine pork - so this was great but WAY spicy - and it wasn't listen on the menu as being spicy which is fine for me but what a surprise. I mean really there were so many hot green and red pepers in this. But the Tangerine still came out strong and the mix between the salty, sweet, and hot created a fine dish.
Sesame Chicken - where have you been?? So I know 14 bucks for sesame chicken is a bit crazy (especially becuase you are not at a place like Spice Market or 66) but it was much better then your average sesame chicken. Fresh chicken with a dark sesame flavor - addictive really.
No desserts yet but its still day three. The servers are getting use to working - one guy just kinda hung out with his friends while the other servers worked but in general they were freindly and fast.
So get to #1 Chinese before its too hip for actual customers.