Not So Nice Green Bo Restaurant

At the request of a very close friend of mine, who seems to be convinced that I only write positive reviews, I want to highlight a recent experience at long-standing Chinatown haunt, Green Bo Restaurant.

It was at this crawlspace of a joint, steps off of manic-depressive Mott Street that I encountered my first rather disappointing Chinese meal in the city.

Given that I've raved about The Grand Sichuan on 7th Ave South, and I continue to support Suzie's on Bleecker, it is only fair that I bring to light the rather disappointing dishes offered at this quite popular Chinatown favorite.

Based on some thorough pre-prandial research, Green Bo is supposedly considered one of the best spots for Chinese in the city, offering a wide variety of classic meals, with a particular focus on traditional Shanghai cuisine.

Not unlike most restaurants in Chinatown, Green Bo is somewhat hard to find, if not completely miss-able unless you had some sort of reason to be walking west on dingy Bayard Street. Still, at this stage of the Ubereating game, I should know better than to judge a book by its cover - or to even bother with books altogether.

As it pertains to Green Bo, this isn't such a tall task, in that the 70's era faded aquamarine shoe-box dining room is par for the course when it comes mid-range, no-frills Chinatown eats. Still, I've never been one to get hung up on ambiance, so much as long as the food more than compensates for the lackluster surroundings.
Unfortunately, at Green Bo, which actually is called Nice Green Bo, this wasn't the case.

First of all, the service here can be best described as bi-polar. One second we were greeted with smiles and menus predicated upon an genuine interest in our business, and the next second the pack of waitstaff huddled around the table next to us couldn't care less that my tea was getting cold. And it was getting cold you know.

This was not a good start.

When we were finally able to corral someone to come by and take our order, we wasted no time trying our hand at a handful of typical, yet often satisfying starters that dominate the American Chinese table.

Without fail, I will always order the Hot and Sour soup whenever I am out for Chinese. Why? Because I strongly believe the quality, depth, and mere temperature of this ominously opaque elixir is an excellent barometer for predicting the overall nature of the meal. Green Bo's version was surprisingly thick, viscous, and teeming with all the usual veggies that add crunch to this ageless classic. Judging by its Hot and Sour soup, I was almost sure the food would, at the very least, be served piping hot, and in great abundance.


Actually, as it turns out, this soup would be one of the highlights of the meal. The ensuing starters were all over the map. Eager to corroborate the abyss of claims that the soup dumplings were a must have, we were rather miffed to learn that Green Bo's pekid, gummy interpretation of a classic Chinatown staple, was rather tasteless. Light years ahead in flavor, texture, and overall enjoyability were the steaming gander of pork and leek dumplings (bottom left), and the pungent pile of pleasantly picant pickled cabbage (bottom right), which nobody else in this world seems to eat these days. Am I the only person that likes pickled cabbage at Chinese restaurants? Is there anyone out there that shares my love for the crunchy, salty, spicy glory that is to be had in a simple plate of cabbage?














As enjoyable, if not more so than the pork and leek dumplings, were the scallion pancakes (below), which were so good, a second order for the table was a must. A crusty, crispy-fried outside gives way to warm, moist, flaky inside, flecked heavily with diced scallion making this "pancake" quite reminiscent of a lighter, doughier version of a traditional potato Latke. Warm to the touch and quite loving of the accompanying vinegar sauce, the scallion pancakes were by far the table's favorite.


Strangely, the worst dish on the table was also probably simplest in form, that being the Beef Chow Fun. (Below) This rather well-known preparation that commingles wide flat noodles with wok-seared beef is found on every Chinese take-out menu from Melville to Malibu. Done correctly, this dish is more than capable of quelling any unexpected Chinese-food craving, but terribly mishandled, this seemingly benign concoction becomes a mushy, slimy melange of metastasized chunks of protein and fork-evading ribbons of chewy starch. I won't go as far as to say that Green Bo's take was disgusting, but it was way too oily, and lacked any redeeming quality of taste making this greasy go-at-it on par with anything you'd get at your neighborhood take-out joint. And if this is supposed to be one of the best restaurants in Chinatown, then that, quite frankly, is unacceptable.

At the end of the day Nice Green Bo restaurant is, at its worst, another run-of-the-mill Chinatown shop that slings extremely affordable food to the masses, and at its best, a restaurant that has, as I would imagine, enjoyed a reputation that not only precedes itself, but deceives itself to boot.

Truly, I cannot understand why so many rank Green Bo as one of the best restaurants in Chinatown, yet like any general consensus related to food in this city, logic and reason often lose out to inexplicable public preference steeped in a stinking pot of unfounded popularity.

Be that as it may, this doesn't mean I have to like it. And I don't - which is why I won't be going back.

Not so NICE is it.

Food: C (Solid Scallion Pancakes, and above average Hot and Sour Soup)
Ambiance: D (Comforting for those who like when the cooks mingle at the table next to you)
Service: C (at its best, inattentive, at its worst, damn near non-existent)
Experience in a thought: Why didn't I just go to Peking Duck house around the corner?