Hot Kitchen

Five stars not because it’s on par with Michelin restaurants, but that it’d be among the top three most authentic Szechuan places in NYC on any native Chinese diner’s list. Nothing but real, solid, and — – this is a big one — — properly named Szechuan dishes prepared in the old-​fashioned way. Just look at their menu — they have the «American Chinese Food» aptly coined and stowed away as a separate column. Thank you Hot Kitchen!
Everyone has their go-​to singles at Hot Kitchen, including the Wontons in chili oil (红油抄手), the Tan-​tan (担担面) and the Crystal shrimp dumplings (虾饺), which is actually Cantonese. Friends I came with tend to go for the Mapo Tofu, the Minced pork with cellophane noodles and Scallion pancakes, all of which are really solid choices. My personal favorite, however, is no other than the Pig Feet in Soup (老妈蹄花), which I haven’t found anywhere else in NYC (at least not one properly cooked in the Szechuan way). Being a signature dish from the Chengdu area, it pleases my homesick taste buds by and large.
They also generally do spicy stir-​fry dishes really well. Try the Village Spicy Chicken — you won’t regret it, so long as you have a medium (to high) threshold of spiciness.
I think there are better places for Spicy Woks (麻辣香锅) and Spicy Stews (麻辣烫) in NYC, but that doesn’t take away from what’s good here for me.
My go-​to place for Szechuan cuisine — one where I visit once every few months just to get that home-​like taste in.

Found this place based on the Unilocal reviews while visiting NYC. We took a chance since my sister was also there and visiting from Germany where they don’t have much asian food selections.
We ordered 4 dishes which was plenty of food for 3 girls. We ate just about everything. The dishes were all good I just wished it was a little bit more spicy.
The waiter was attentive and the place was modern and clean. Small but so are all the other places in NY.
Will def visit here again should I visit NY.

I’m very picky about Chinese food. I’m happy to write this place is good. I love veggie Chow fun the fat noodles. it’s not that greasy but still filled with flavor. The sauteed wild mushrooms plate is amazing. Quick delivery.

I like this place but it’s a little on the pricier side of around at least $ 15 per dish.
Each dish comes with a serving of rice so you don’t need to order it.
I always look for good stir fried string beans (gan bian si ji dou) and it’s decent here (not the best but it does the trick). Everything is relatively authentic but it’s oily so don’t expect it to be healthy meal. It’ll be yummy though so it’s worth the extra oil I guess?
Service is pretty good but this place can get crowded so you may possibly need to wait for a table.

Based on my latest delivered order, I’m not sure that it was ever hot or that it was even made in a kitchen. A more appropriate name might be «Gruel Trash Heap».

It was a prime dinner time, and full house. There was a mixup of the order with our server. Our dishes did not arrive until 45 minutes later. Ask them to bring everything you order at once.
Food was excellent! No complain. Will visit this place when it is not too busy.

Super solid 4. I ordered delivery and was very impressed: First, Caviar said it would take 40 – 60 minutes (which usually means at least an hour if not over), but this time I received my food in 30 – 40 minutes. I got the braised chili sauce fish and it was DELICIOUS. It came in a deep bowl of hot sauce with lots of garlic. The fish was tender and intensely flavorful. It was actually noticeably spicy, which was a plus for me. Despite the base being a giant bowl of chilli soup essentially, somehow the dish wasn’t too greasy overall.
I definitely want to try other things on the menu. Note: If you have a lighter palate, you may not like this place as much, but I am all about the spices and salt so I really liked the food.

Got the crispy chicken with peppers. It was basically fried chicken with some fried peppers. Not a ton of chicken though. It was okay. Wouldn’t get it again though.

My friends and I were discussing whether to give this a 3 or 4 star after our dinner here last night. While nothing was wrong, per se, I would not call any of the dishes particularly special or stand out.
The service was perfectly fine, probably a 4 star.
The décor is unoffensive and clean, again not special.
I wouldn’t be upset going back to this spot, but I would not be enthusiastic about it, thus the 3 star A-​ok rating.

Very nice restaurant, clean! Neat! Nice service!

definitely my go-​to neighborhood Chinese restaurant. I would said their style is more so «hunan» spice rather than «Sichuan». Which is more aromatic than the numbing spice, for me, is definitely my favorite spicy cuisine of China.
Many ppl compare not kitchen and the Bao, for me hands down hot kitchen is better while the Bao is more «hip» and have superior soup dumplings, hot kitchen is focus on the specialty dish and stir fried, it makes me feel like I’m back in China eating on a street stall.
My must have: Malatang (spicy aromatic soup with a bunch of Chinese veggies like lotus roots, bean sprouts and such) lunch special shredded pork with dried bean curd, mapo tofu.
Over all, stay away from the American Chinese dishes that most people are comfortable ordering and go for the weirder the name from my experience the better it probably is lol

Service was above average; we were early for a reservation, and they invited us to sit inside at our table while we waited for the rest of the party. There were some empty tables around 7 on a weeknight, though the place started filling up toward 8 and on. They were also pretty quick in taking our order and getting the food out once we were settled in.
The food is decent. The cold beef tripe (夫妻肺片) was a nice appetizer for the table, though altogether not too spicy. The string bean with minced pork (干煸四季豆) was a standard vegetable dish. The highlight was probably the famed spicy wok (麻辣香锅), which is more of a modern assortment of everything you can think of than a more traditional single dish item. There definitely was a lot of content in the dis, and probably fed more than two people fully. It contained a lot of flavor as well, though by the end it was definitely being overridden by the oil at the bottom. Finally, the sliced whole fish in spicy broth with cold noodles (凉粉沸腾鱼) was fine – lots and lots of fish meat and noodles, though the fish was a bit firm.
I don’t doubt that there are less fancy and expensive Sichuan places in the Chinese enclaves, although you’d probably be hard pressed to find some of the more extravagant items elsewhere.

An authentic Chinese restaurant not in Queens or Chinatown, with good service and a nice atmosphere. This place is great — my friend and I split the Mei Fen beef and the crispy chicken. We both enjoy spice and the dishes were both spiced perfectly.
The crispy chicken balls were oddly good — they did not look like anything special but were very flavorful and tender. The beef had a light coating around it but was covered (not drenched) in a great sauce with veggies surrounding it.
Often times Chinese food is soaking in sauce and overcooked veggies. The meat and veggies here were cooked to perfection and the vibe of the restaurant was fun.

With one of our good friends in town who loves a good, spicy Szechuan meal, we decided to hit up Hot Kitchen after our first choice (Han Dynasty) had a much longer line. Despite the frigid temperatures, it was packed with a small wait here on a Friday night, so it’s probably best to be prepared to wait a little bit (especially if it’s the weekend of Chinese New Year’s). Service was pretty standard for a Chinese restaurant — quick taking of order, quick serving of food, and a bit too quick to take plates that the waiters thought were done.
That said, the food here was very solid, and I was impressed with the quality of the food without being too spicy. I really liked the sauteed lamb with cumin (and plenty of crushed red pepper); if anything, though, I thought it was cooked a little too much — it ended up being a bit on the dry side (although that may be part of the dish). We also got fish and tofu in pepper-​infused broth; I liked the combination the tofu with the fish, and I liked that this version was served with de-​boned fillets from the get-​go, instead of having a whole fish and you have to cut it up yourself. To counterbalance all the heat, we also went with a simple sauteed water spinach with garlic — very simple, plain flavors, but a nice contrast to everything else we were eating.
In all, it’s good to add another tasty Szechuan spot to the repertoire. I don’t eat Chinese food all that frequently (and when I do, it’s usually in Chinatown), but almost every Szechuan spot I’ve eaten at has been outside of Chinatown, and it’s still quite delicious overall. Definitely a spot I’d come back to in the future!

surprisingly good and authentic Chinese food thats not in Chinatown or flushing.
cripsy intestines: this is the dish that I come here for!!! ah I love it so much. so crispy and flavorful :) not enough intestines in the dish though. so many peppers in there as filler.
tendon: they are just ok.
string beans with pork: I love this too. a lot of places make this but dont get the string beans crispy enough. but here they make it perfectly.
cripsy spicy chicken: they were made the same way as the crispy intestines but its okay because it still tastes good
overall very good, but a bit pricey for what I like to pay for Chinese.

Been here a few times for both takeout and dining, never been disappointed.
The portions are huge and the food is always tasty. I have dined in house once and ordered the shredded duck with ginger. The dish was huge and tasty, but the duck was, well, chinese food place duck and not top quality restaurant duck. One of my friends got the pork belly that night and WOW was it delicious. Like bacon took a bath in some brown butter. Try it for yourself next time, you will thank me. Service was very choppy and slow, but I can’t say I was expecting more.
This place has an extremely varied and diverse menu that is mostly separated by region, so it’s probably a place where you want to venture out and try fun stuff, rather than your typical chicken and broccoli (though they do have all of those types of dishes as well).

The more standard Szechuan in the hood had an hour wait so a friend and I ventured here. There was no wait but the place was full of expert Chinese diners = authentic!
Started with dan dan noodles — texture not as chewy as I like but sauce was delish! Spicy cucumbers had amazing sauce that I poured over everything! Pea shoots were fresh and flavorful with big slices of garlic. Assorted spicy wok was tasty but a little overwhelming for the two of us. Add noodles you won’t regret it!

The first and outstanding thing you notice as soon as you enter is that the staff here is genuinely, openly and refreshingly nice. Forget those Chinese places with the brusque service. The peppercorns in the food might fire you up later but the smiles will warm you up first. This was the second visit for me. The first was good, but the food I tried last year wasn’t what I considered to be authentic Szechuan food along the lines of a Mapo Tofu or Gourmet Szechuan. But we had come at lunchtime and many of the spicy, non-​meat dishes I liked weren’t on the lunch menu. The food was good but I deemed not spicy enough, though my bf at the time disagreed. This time around I was determined to try the dishes fabled for the region. And we were not disappointed. The string beans, flash fried to crispy perfection, were tasty and garlicky, with a perfect snap whenever we bit into them. We ordered the fish fillets in hot bean paste and I was surprised and slightly dismayed to see the fish chunks fried. Mom always taught us that restaurants did it to hide less than the freshest fish. The waiter, seeing my reaction, seemed so worried that I assured him with a false smile that all was fine. He was too sweet to vent my frustration on. And Mom was wrong this time. The coating itself wasn’t that thick, hard crust you find in cheap Chinese joints. And under the batter, each succulent bite of fish we took was tender and juicy, and the slightly sweetish, spicy, slightly vinegarish sauce was divine. Even after chomping away in delight, the portions were generous enough that we took food home. And at the end of our meal we had a complimentary treat; a bowl of tong shui with mochi dumplings, a sprinkle of black sesame seeds for contrast and color in a slightly sweet soup. Well done. My friend didn’t like mochi, so I happily slurped two bowls. Hot Kitchen is a restaurant you want to patronize again – the space itself is cozy, the food is excellent, and the service so welcoming and pleasant.
Note: I don’t understand the Unilocal reviews about price and I don’t think my fellow Unilocalers are quite fair. This isn’t a Chinatown dive or even an East Village one. Hot Kitchen’s prices are in line with other authentic and better Chinese restaurants that do Sichuan and Hunan cuisine. Also, authentic Sichuan is supposed to be greasy depending on the dish. But you don’t drink the oil or munch on all the peppercorns unless you are drunk or have a death wish.

The food here is delicious! We came here with a group on New Year’s Eve and ordered a wide variety of things — Scallion Pancakes, Singapore Rice Noodles, Crispy Diced Chicken with Chili Peppers, and a dish whose name I can’t remember but it was basically steamed pork slices served with white buns. Normally I don’t notice the difference between different qualities of chinese food but this clearly was of superior quality. The pork slices were fatty but they melted in your mouth and chili pepper chicken was nice and crispy.
The atmosphere was also good — we did make reservations as it was New Year’s Eve but it wasn’t too crowded inside. Our service was fine and our food came out at a reasonable speed and in a reasonable order — scallion pancakes first. We actually ended up sitting here an hour or so after finishing our food because it was just a nice place to sit and chat. Not sure if it is normally like this though.
But the reason for 4 stars and not 5 stars is the price. I know it’s NYC but I’m used to paying $ 10 for a Chinese dish not ~$ 20 or so per dish! I guess you can order some smaller items (Scallion pancakes, Noodles) that are less expensive to balance the more expensive items in a group, but the price of the food would keep me from coming back by myself or frequently. But the food was great — it seems you really do get what you pay for!

I’d been here a couple times for lunch, where the deals were good and the food was tasty albeit a bit salty. This was especially true with muh fave mapo tofu; one bite I’m like hell yeah, two bites still good, six bites later though I’m gonna have a massive coronary.
Recently had dinner here for a dear friend’s going away, on a rainy sticky July night, without an umbrella so I looked like hell (nice one Josh)… so yeah, a great time to bloat myself up with some peppery hot cuisine.
There were 7 strong rolling in at 7:00 on a Monday night, and the place was surprisingly well attended later on in the evening. And we were there till later in the evening, as 7 mouths need lots of food, so we ordered around 10 dishes. Now keep in mind that not all diners this night were built like me, as I have quite the tolerance to spicy food, a stomach half bigger than 77% of the population pound for pound, and innate competitive tendencies that render me incapable of showing that I am «full.»
We started off with the ox tongue and tripe in hot oil, a fine starter, which prepped me for the hot oil based sauces I’d be consuming the entire night. Some dumplings followed, along with dan dan noodles (a personal fave), eggplant with pork, a spicy beef and seafood medley, crispy chicken in pepper, LOOFAH, beef and seafood spicy soup dish, green beans with pork, and mapo tofu.
Some of the standouts were the dan dan noodles, eggplant, and I loved the LOOFAH. The latter was a sweet and refreshing contrast to the spicy dishes we were eating throughout the night. And the mapo tofu this time around wasn’t as salty as mapo tofus past.
Well done Hot Kitchen, I may just need to add you to the repertoire of places to eat in the East Village… when it gets cooler outside of course.

Xiao Long Bao are a Little thick but the soup and pork inside is absolutely GREAT! Had also Mapo Tofu, pretty authentic as well.