Dong Fang Chuan Dian

This place is like a hidden gem. Let me first explain to you the type of cuisine they serve. Dong Fang Chuan Dian means «Eastern Skewers Shop».
It is owned by ethnicity Korean living along the Chinese/​Korean border, so the food here is a fusion with Korean food (for example, Naengmyeon, or cold noodles, use of Kimchi), Northeastern Chinese cuisine (example, sugar-​covered sweet potatoes, Di San Xian) and Xinjiang/​Mongolian style skewers. That is the typical mom and pop restaurant you see in any Northeastern Chinese/​Manchurian cities. Because there isn’t many Chinese immigrants from that area anyway, personally, I believe this school of cuisine is highly underrated, compared to dim sum or Sichuan.
Now with that in mind, it is really unfair to compare this restaurants to those Skewers stops in Flushing, because this restaurants offers so much more. I’m always surprised how authentic and old-​school the taste is and it literally brings my memories back to China in the 1990s. As it is set up in China, skewers shop is not your Michelin restaurants or the place you bring your girl to the first date. It is the comfort food, with cozy atmosphere.
You go there with your friends, Make sure you bring the drinks and have a good time there. That is what the «skewers shop» offers, just like the Japanese Ikazaya.

I’ve been here for a few times over the years. The quality of food here is good and consistent over time. Service is more like hit or miss. In my opinion, the quality of service provided by the waiters is much higher than the owner who serves as well. The last time we went there, the waiter cooked the skewers for us as he was not very busy at that time. I really appreciate his kindness and effort.

I went here with some friends. The skewers are decent. My favorite though is the honey covered sweet potato tempura（拔丝地瓜 –_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​-​). The waiters are particularly nice.

Been here quite a few times and its not bad. I’ve had a bunch of the skewers and they were good. The lamb skewer was good but no comparison with the cart in flushing Chinatown. Income here with the gf for the lamb soup which is delicious and absolutely worth the drive. Will be back especially during the winter months to warm up the body and soul.

If I can rate minus star I would. DONT COME!!! Super salty, high price, and bad service…
Do not let waitress to grill your foods, she will ruin it

Poor service, bad management! They have waiting list, but never really follow the order.

I thought I’d share a few tips:
1. If you’ve been to flushing and expect the same level of skewers as the street cart, you gotta lower that down. Food is decent, for for lamb skewer, flushing street cart next to Chase bank is the best.
2. Don’t let the waitresses take advantages jof you by following her recommendations. Food is a bit pricy here. We ordered a bunch of food but she kept selling some cold dishes so I thought it wasn’t enough. We ended up don’t really touch the dish she recommended but spent 114 before tip for two people who weren’t particularly hungry.
3. Lamb soup is highly recommended. Despite of everything, I may come back for that.

Great place to eat freshly grilled lamb, and lamb soup, all about meat LoL Do not recommend the chicken wings though, light to no taste at all. Overall it’s real, authentic Chinese grill. Will come back again!

Great selection and service. Had enjoyable grill here multiple times.

Ehhhh… my husband loved this place. Me, not so much so I’ll give them four stars since my husband’s a picky eater. Nothing spectacular. just plain ol’ meat on a skewer. I’ve had better in Flushing. Their side dishes (banchan) seemed pretty old so I didn’t even bother touching those.
And yes, the other reviews are very true. customer service isn’t the best so don’t expect to be welcomed with open arms. And yes. the ladies were seemingly nicer as we left the restaurant. Overall, their meat selections are huge and the quality is decent so I may be returning in the near future.

Since my last visit, they’ve made English menus, which makes things so much easier. The draw of this little restaurant is the Chinese style BBQ, where you grill your ordered meat skewers over a bed of charcoal that they place on your table. You then proceed to roll it around in some red spicy powder stuff they put on a saucer for you.
We ordered the lamb, beef, chicken, chicken hearts, and bacon wrapped enoki mushrooms. Service was good, the waitress cooked the initial stuff for us because she said the coals were really hot, therefore difficult to work with. Whatever, less work for me, and I still get the fun of watching.
Of everything we ordered, my favorite was the lamb. It’s a bit expensive for the amount of meat you actually get, but the experience is worth the price.

Really? 3.5 stars for this ?!
The food isn’t bad but it is definitely heavily overpriced for its quality.

Best BBQ ever! So happy found this place! Taste just as same as my hometown. Love here!!!

The food is unclean (I saw flies in the kitchen), and doesn’t taste good. The price is very high even compared to a nice Korean or Chinese restaurant in Manhattan. I was a total fool trying this place.
In all, this is the worst restaurant I’ve been to in new york. Normally the bad food is related to low price, but this one is totally opposite. My advice to potential customers, don’t even think about it, or you will feel gross even the next day.

What is with this place’s service? I’m convinced management’s responses (that the bad service was only due to the new waitstaff) to people’s negative reviews are just empty words, considering one of the workers from last night seemed like the manager or even the owner, and my date recognized her from the last time he was here half a year ago.
The woman at the front already seemed annoyed when we walked in just because we asked if we could briefly view the menu before sitting down. When we sat down to order, I asked another female worker what kind of meat was in their mapo tofu (since every mapo tofu I’ve ever ordered/​cooked in the past included some kind of ground meat) and she grumpily responded that there is no meat in mapo «tofu» as if I was dumb for thinking there could be meat in a tofu dish. Moving on to the food — lamb & beef skewers were bland but I would say it is still a decent portion for the price. I didn’t touch the chicken hearts but my date said they were tasty.
I almost always tip 18% lunch and 20% dinner as a standard and more if I really liked the service, but this was one of my only times I tipped 15% and even that felt unmerited. Service doesn’t have to be super friendly, overly friendly service sometimes even annoys me, but this place just puts a damper on your mood and appetite. And going off what another review said, honestly the only time you actually feel a tad bit of warmness coming from them is when they’re saying goodbye.

The food itself was pretty good. If you want korean bbq on skewers this is the spot.
We also ordered the mapa tofu and I liked it a lot, despite not being a fan of tofu in general (a little salty though).
The reason I’m giving it 2 stars is because the service was absolutely terrible.
They greeted us very coldly when we walked in, as if we had just interrupted something.
We thought it was BYOB based on old reviews, so we had some soju with us. They said they are no longer byob, and when we asked if it would be ok for us to just drink it this time, and if not we understand. We got a dirty look as she grudgingly said ok, but they never brought us any cups or shot glasses, so we just decided to drink it at home later.
We were the only table in there, yet they never checked up on us and we had to flag them down for every little thing.
The only time they cracked a smile (a very big one, at that) was when we were leaving.
Overall it was an unpleasant dinner and I won’t be going back anytime soon.

If the words lamb, skewers, and cumin make you giddy then you need to get over here. This is a DIY BBQ joint that you order skewers ala carte (choices range from lamb, beef, chicken to more challenging things like chicken heart and gizzard, and then back to nice things like mushrooms wrapped in pork, and marinated squid), and then roast them to your preferred done-​ness and then dunk into the spice mixture they provide to you in a heap on your plate. The spice mixture is like crack. It’s so good. It’s got some cumin and other spices that give the meat a wonderful taste. and the best part is that you smell delicious for the rest of the day.

I went here for dinner with boo and we had a fun time more so because of the novelty. The place is small and very casual. As soon as the burning wood is brought to the table it feels like you are sitting with your face up to a fireplace (makes sense right?) but it is like this the entire meal (sweating is not sexy if your on a dinner date!). The best part was the 1 minute blast of a/​c that came on after an hour of uncomfortable heat.
We enjoyed the lamb, enoki pork, tripe (after shaking off spicy sauce) and sausage (smallest sausage ever– 2 per skewer). The little plates of radish and things was very good also. Wasn’t particularly full after the meal and we spent over $ 20/​person with no drinks so it’s on the pricey side in my opinion. Not sure if they raised the prices because I didn’t see the prices other ppl quoted in their reviews (10 skewers for $ 12). Although the food was good I’m not sure I would go back just ’cause I didn’t feel like I got the bang for my buck but it was fun for a one time novelty experience.
Tips:
1) go here in the winter coz u will sweat
2) Bring cash for a discount
3) If it says «spicy» they mean it! (Holy hot sauce batman!)
4) if you are eating the bbq (why else would you go here?) you must order at least 20 skewers (most come in 5’s so it can get pricy quickly)
5) they serve barely water so order a drink if you’re not into that
6) be careful not to char your food (turn and turn and turn or use top rack)

Get ready to whip out your…
Google Translate app when you come to this northern Chinese, Korean-​influenced BYOB char-​grilled skewers restaurant.
The menu is entirely in Chinese characters so you’re going to need a handy app that lets you write characters on your phone and instantly translate them. Better yet, have a friend/​coworker who can readily read Chinese come with you!
We didn’t have that, so we spent a good fifteen minutes trying to decipher the menu. Be careful not to let the nice waitress try to take advantage of you by offering suggestions, which will just be the most expensive choices. (I know what you’re up to.)
Despite all the trouble with the menu, it was worth it to get our skewers. We got (and I recommend you trying to describe to the waitress):
— bacon wrapped enoki mushrooms
— thin pork belly slices
— straight-​up beef chunk skewers
— straight-​up lamb chunk skewers
— chicken hearts and liver (if you’re a little adventurous)
We also ordered some veggie dish that came with pork. (That one was good, but not worth $ 14.)
The fun part is grilling the skewers on the rack over the charcoal. For those who have been to yakiniku places like Gyu-​Kaku in the city, this is NOT like Gyu-​kaku. This is straight up turning your skewers over charcoal, and it is more rough and caveman-​like. BUT it is fun, and if you’ve brought some beer, it goes perfect with fresh grilled meat!
P. S. The fobs are going to be the toughest critics here shhh. They have the highest expectations but want to pay the lowest prices. *braces self for fob backlash*

Korean influenced chuar. Small place with real wood coals, vents, large menu.
Mild in flavor so if you’re looking for more savory, and in my opinion authentic chuar, you’ll have to season it yourself over the coals with cumin and hot pepper.
Get the bacon wrapped enochi and the squid — both delicious. The quail was quite good as well. The wings and lamb and beef were nothing special but perfectly fine, which is a shame. Not good kimchi on that day.
Overall, it’s hard to find a place with REAL wood coals and chuar offerings but I just wish it was better.