Best NEW Cheap Eats In NEW YORK (Chinatown)

Wow! I'm gonna get some of your soups, some of those homestyle soups you're talking about. This is not what the other influencers are gonna be talking about. $7 and $8 respectively, if you need to get chicken and you need to get your protein, this is the best deal in Chinatown right now. I'm gonna judge it on the meat to skin ratio. And the boba's actually still warm. I can feel that. Yo, that's real ube. What can you eat for $10 in New York City? With the economy as it is and the rising cost of living, food in Chinatown stands as a beacon of light. There is no better value. So, in this episode of Chinatown Eats 25, I'll show you all the newest spots to support while showing you some hidden gems only locals know. Shoot, I might even get a cheap haircut too. Hit that like button. Let's go! All right, everybody. Welcome to Cheap Chinatown Eats part 25. I think I'm losing track. There's so many of them. But of course, just to remind you, the reason why I do these videos is I'm here to keep you updated about all the new spots in Chinatown because I want to try the new spots too. So in this video, you might meet a couple of friends of mine, but also I'm going to try all the new spots in Chinatown and let you know how much they cost. Are they worth it? Should you check it out? What's going on in Chinatown? Let's go! All right. My first brand new cheap eat in Chinatown is a chicken spot and I'm not sure how to pronounce this. Coochie? I don't think it's coochie, but anyways, um, joining with me for this crawl is my Cantonese speaking friend. We got Ellen Ma. Hello! All right. Anyways, I'm here with Bing Bing and we're about to go try this guys. I'll tell you if it's worth it. How much does it cost? And does it remind me of actually a chain in China? All right, everybody. We got our coochie burgers here and our hambaos, uh, I have the grilled one, they were pepper one and they also give you this little pack of a cumin pepper. I'm assuming the cumin pepper pack, uh, kind of tastes like, uh, like the Xinjiang seasoning, you know, like the Shao Kao seasoning. Yeah, it does. That's, that's it. So if you want to sprinkle that, let me know. So these are a seven and $8 respectively. Here I have the grilled chicken one and what you notice about this bun is it's almost like a Xiao Bing. Like it's, it's not like your regular hamburger bun. All right, let's pick the, uh, Oh, that's a lot of grilled chicken. Oh, is that pineapple? Yeah, it's a pineapple. It's a pineapple grilled chicken. This is, this is a lot of meat. This is a lot of protein. It's almost like two chicken thighs in here. Almost two entire chicken thighs. It's very different taste. I've never tasted like a chicken sandwich this way. It's so good. The, the chicken is so tender and juicy. Super juicy. If you need to get chicken and you need to get your protein, this is the best deal in Chinatown right now. Actually, I'm going to put a little bit of this cumin pepper on here. So what do you think as a cheap eat in Chinatown, you think, uh, this is going to be a new hit? I feel like this is a new hit. There's more, there's more chicken than bun, guys. Just a little. How do you like the burger? Amazing. That pepper is really good. All right. So I had to look up some information on the spot. Actually, I guess this brand is started in America, but it's heavily inspired by Lele Burger and other Chinese chains in China. All right, everybody on Bear Street, right next to great NY Noodle Town and Xi'an Famous Foods is Taste of Home. Uh, 43 Bayard has been the home to multiple businesses and I ate here, uh, when it was kind of like a cha cha teng, like Hong Kong cafe, maybe like a year and a half ago or two years ago. But obviously since then it has changed concepts. It's very common in New York to do that. So all right, we're going to get some of your soups. Some of those homestyle soups you're talking about, cause I need some cause it's chilly. Oh, that's the turtle. All right, so guys, as you can see, this is a really small spot, but like there's people who come here and they come here for the soup and the soups are probably already pre-made in these glass jars and then they keep them in an oven and they had like a foil top. So it's just keeping it hot and kind of still cooking all day. And I think that's where all the great flavor is also coming from. As you can see this lady right here, she's enjoying some soup. Cantos loves soup. Let me tell you that. That's one thing you have to understand. My favorite. One of the soups is a lady nourishing soup, although he is going to try it. Oh yeah. It's still good for everyone. But I'm also going to try the turtle soup. They got soft-shelled turtle soup here. This is probably the only spot in Chinatown personally that I know you can get soft-shelled turtle. You can smell the herbs. I like it. Wow. That is so, that tastes just like the soups my dad makes. So my dad makes, I think he basically makes a chicken soup like this, where it has like goji berries. It has ginseng. It has some ginger. It tastes kind of medicinal, but very chickeny. So good. This chicken soup was $11. The turtle soup was $11, but this pork soup was $7. $7.95. One of my favorites. This is my favorite. Wintermelon. Wintermelon is so good for you. Very, very tasty. Has a slightly sweet, you put, very refreshing. You could put it in your tea. Wow. I think he makes a great chicken soup, like a gai tang, but this one is a way better than the version that he made growing up. This is so good. So this is soft-shelled turtle, guys, $11.95 here at Taste of Home, 43 Bayard. You cannot find this anywhere else. This is absolutely a cheapie. This is not what the other influencers are going to be talking about, guys. I'm going there. Soft-shelled turtle soup. And tell me what kind of soup flavor you think it is. All right. Whoa. It's, it's very strong. So it's strong in the herbs sense, but I don't really taste, like the meat, you don't really taste because there's chicken in here too. My head's right here and then you're like pulling the soup out. But the herbs, life-changing, guys. Wow. Deep flavor. The strongest flavor is this one, guys. You have these light. Turtle. I think soft-shelled turtles are very, you know, on theme with New York because this is where Ninja Turtles are from. Donatello. Oh my God. We're eating turtle. Turtle soup. Getting chugged. I feel the power of the Ninja Turtles. All right, everybody, none of us have ever tried this spot, T-Pulse, before. I got to try it out, you know, and let you know if it can really hang in the Boba Wars of Chinatown. Let's go. All right, everybody. We got the extra large. That was actually only $6. And then this, this Thai tea one, which is their signature. This was about $6 as well for the regular. And then I got this Don Tat, which is one of those tall Don Tats right now. It comes in a very nice pack. Look at this receipt. It looks like a ribbon. They do things fancy here. Let me try this Don Tat real quick. Mmm. Pretty good. I like it. It's not too sweet. But to call it a Pastel de Nata, I think it's funny because Pastel de Nata, shout out to my friend Joey Batts, his are a lot sweeter. Oh, it's in. This is their signature drink. All right. This is their jumbo signature drink. Is T-Pulse going to win the Chinatown Boba Wars? Cheers. All right. Very fresh. Very sweet. Very tasty. Refreshing. Fifty percent. It's actually pretty good. Hey, this is Matt. And I'm here for the double-fisted review of the Big Gulp size at T-Pulse and what Andrew describes as a Thai tea cheesecake. Let's go. I like that. I'm a big savory guy. I'm like flavor, more flavor, good. All right. What's going on, everybody? The next spot in Chinatown is Cha Ha Lo. And it's on Mott Street. It took the spot of another old drink spot that used to be there, but they are serving premium milk teas. This Chinese chain is actually from Xi'an, which is definitely a spot that you don't really think of when it comes to milk tea. But let's go. All right. Upon entering, as you can see, they got signature drinks. They have the Osmanthus Oolong milk tea, Rock Oolong milk tea, which is just a strong milk tea right here. And then they got the lychee flavored Osmanthus Oolong milk tea. That's a very long title, but that's what I got. So $7.49. It was $8.15 after tax. All right, everybody. I got my drink. And let me tell you about these new lids here. It's like a threefold. It's not just one fold. It goes back again, all the way back. So it hangs off. Man, they are changing the lids at milk tea bars all the time. All right, let's try it. Real pieces of lychee, 70%. Not too sweet. Yo, that's really good. All right, everybody. They gave me a jasmine green tea to try. Now, I avoided this flavor at first because it was kind of very typical, you know. So I'm really glad I got the lychee one, which by the way, the lychee is flown in from China and it's frozen. So it's lychee from China. It's not lychee from the can. That's why it was so good. I definitely recommend it. But let's try the jasmine green tea. That's pretty good. I think this is a great tea chain, honestly. I think you guys got to check it out. I know it's very competitive out here in Chinatown, but this is a newcomer, I would say. I think they got a chance. Cha-halo. All right, everybody. Our next spot is Dumpling House right behind me over here on Pell Street. This is a new dumpling spot right in the midst of everything, you know, right down the street from 12 Pell and, you know, right in front of Mei Lai Wah, Wonton Noodle. The sign says Lao Lao Si Fang Jiao, which is roughly translates to maternal grandmother dumpling spot. All right, here at Dumpling House, you're going to order off the iPad. And they got a lot of different styles of dumplings. They got beef and onion steamed. They got like a pork and pepper. I really wanted to try a lot more, but to be honest, I'm just one person. I'm not going to eat that much. So I just got what they recommended. These are the 12 boiled dumplings. This is called the three fresh meat. So it has chive, egg, which is one of the meats, shrimp and pork. Let's try it. No sauce. As you can see, this is definitely more of a northern style dumpling because it's kind of in like the ball form, not as long. But let's, let me just try it with no sauce and I'm going to judge it on the meat to skin ratio. Mmm. That's juicy. All this was $14 or $14.99. Yo filling to skin ratio is good. Not too much skin. It's not too thick. All right. So they got soy sauce. They have a vinegar. They have your chili oil. Let me just, let me do a little bit here. I like to eat my northern style, a lot of vinegar with some soy sauce. And then Laiyou. Check it out. Got my sauce. That's pretty good. If you like northern style, these are some of the better dumplings in Chinatown. I swear to God, lao lao dumpling, lao lao jiao. This spot is good. All right, everybody. My next brand new spot in Chinatown is over here on Elizabeth and Grand Street. This is Luckin Coffee. It has now made it to Chinatown. This is a multinational Chinese brand that serves coffee. It's not necessarily serving Chinese food, but it is a Chinese brand from China. All right, everybody. Next spot on Cheap Chinatown Eats, I have to admit, is not in Chinatown, but hang with me. The people who opened this shop are from Chinatown. They have other businesses in Chinatown, so they're very much part of the Chinatown community, but it's at Penn Station. There is a brand new boba shop here at the Exit Concourse, right across from Wasabi Insomnia Cookies. Let's go. All right, everybody. My friends here at Maddy's Boba Lab in the Exit Concourse just opened up, and they have a lot of cool new drinks, even things that really are a little bit different than other boba shops, like Jasmine Grapefruit Tea. I don't think everybody's spot has that. Here you go. Let me try this one. This is the Grapefruit Jasmine Maddy's Boba Lab, Penn Station. Actually, think about it. You're getting good, high-quality boba, real fruit in Penn Station. Wow, this has popping lychee boba. Dang, that's a good fruit tea. I love fruit tea, actually. That's my favorite, even over milk tea. I'm going to actually go ahead and give this ... Man, this is a 4.5 out of 5. All right, here we got the Lychee Rose, and as you can see, it actually has real rose petals in it. That's high quality. Mmm, got the rose petal on my lips. Mmm, that's refreshing. All right, everybody. We got the Vietnamese Iced Coffee here, the Cafe Souda with the boba in it, and the boba is actually still warm. I can feel that. Mmm. Whoa. If you're on your way back to Jersey or Westchester, and you need a little pick-me-up before you go, this is it. Look, they write, you're so brew-tiful. It's funny. That's funny. Nope. Oh, you can put it here. Mmm. Yo, that's real ube. That's like real fresh. No powder, all real. The Strawberry Matcha. Let's get it. Mix it up. Mmm. Real fruit, real matcha. Crazy. That's hella good, but you really have to mix some of the strawberry at the bottom, or else if you drink it all at the bottom, it's going to be a little bit too sweet, but let me just mix it right there. Bam. It's one of the best drinks here. Passion Fruit Strawberry. Let's get it. Mmm. Wow. Not too sweet. I like that. All right, so overall, to have this high-quality of boba right here in the exit concourse of Penn Station, I think it's really cool. It's all handmade, real fruit, high-quality ingredients, a lot of cool flavors. Come get it at Maddie's Boba Lab. The team is from Chinatown. All right, now back to actual Chinatown. I got to try a haircut in Chinatown. Chinese people are always bringing you the value. Cheap Chinatown eats, cheap Chinatown cuts. Literally, I'm not saying that Chinese things always have to be cheap forever, but I'm just saying that we Chinese people do a really good job of the cheap stuff. That's my rant. This haircut was $8. You said it was $8? $8. $8, and then obviously add tip. Guys, solid trim for $8. I mean, sure, you're not really getting the skin fade like that, but it's good. It got the shape down. Honestly, that's all you need, so shout out to Xing Choi. Xing Choi, man. One thing, though, if you know you're going to get a haircut and you got other things to do that day, bring a lint roller, especially for the Asian guys, because our hair becomes these little tiny, harsh, stiff, black bits. Last round. You need probably like three tapes to kind of really get, and then you got to get in your collar here, around the collar where the hair sticks in, and then, yeah. I just never liked that feeling about having little bits of hair everywhere. It got itchy and stuff, so anyways, good. All right, big thanks for watching, and shout out to Bing Bing and Matt for popping in. I mean, they're true locals, but also, if you enjoyed this video, make sure to watch all the other Chinatown Eats videos we filmed over like 25 or 30 in the past few years, so continue to support your local mom and pops, because they are, after all, what brings heart to the city, so anyways, until next time, I'm out. Peace.