Nan Yang

One of the least recognized places in Chinatown but one of the best and most delicious places down here! Absolutely love the food and service! The food never disappoints me and it feels like every time I come, the food just keeps getting better and better. I’ve ate here about 3 to 4 times and I’ve got to say, this is my favorite place to dine at in Chinatown (and I have eaten at pretty much every place in Chinatown!)
Let’s start off with the House Special Tofu Salad. This is one of the most delicious dishes on this menu. It consists of a bed of fried Japanese silk tofu, topped with a spicy julienned mango, lettuce, and red onion mixture. The combination of the hot bursting fried silky tofu and the cold refreshing mixture of the mango is probably the most creative and flavorful combinations and sensations ever created. I know that you are probably thinking that I am over exaggerating this review but… I’m not. The food here is THAT delicious (well thats just my opinion :) Besides the tofu salad, I also ordered the Nasi Lemak. The Nasi Lemak was wonderful, new, and unique. It consists of a clove studded coconut infused sticky rice with: curry chicken, toasted peanuts, fried mini anchovies with a spicy malaysian sauce, and a hardboiled egg. I researched facts about this dish and it is considered the National Dish of Malaysia and I can definitely tell why. Then for dessert, I ordered the black glutinous rice dessert. This dessert is actually off menu so you would have to ask. It is a 糖水 (it basically translates to ‘sugar water’ but I refer it as ‘dessert soup’. This is definitely a must if you are looking for something sweet, unique, and coconuty!
Overall, I give this restaurant 5 stars because of the delicious food and polite service. Also it’s open till 4 am so if you are looking for some late night munchies or you’re just having cravings for something unique, DEFINITELY dine here!

Award winning noodles — this spot is most excellent. White people! Order your chicken curry WITH BONES! Lobster party? Absolutely. It’s BYO, so bring your whales. 2am? Perfect.

If I could give no stars I would… the restaurant smells horrific and awful customer service. I ordered Nasi Lemak which is a Malaysian dish and they served me stale anchovies, tough meat and a microwaved disgusting sticky old rice. I paid the bill and walked right out.

We came here on 1÷10÷15 for dinner.
While looking for a good spot to eat with a couple of my friends, we decided to end up here at Nan Yang. I think this place was a Malaysian restaurant but it felt like a Chinese restaurant. I think I might be too used to NYC’s décor to tell what kind of restaurant it is. Whatever it is, the place was EMPTY. There was a lady looking outside the window. I could almost say I felt sort of bad with almost no one there and there’s no going back after you open the door. There was two other people there but they look like they were already done eating and just lounging around .It was kind of weird talking out loud since the restaurant was empty and we almost felt like we were eating at someone’s house and it definitely smelled like someone’s house. They also have karaōke upstairs which I thought was sketchy.
We ate our own dishes and as of today, I forgot what we ate. I’m not going to talk about the quality of food because while we thought it was good overall, we also wished there was more. We ended up still hungry and went to get other things. The owners (I’m assuming, there’s only two people at the store) speak Cantonese and they were talking about us in the background (I only heard a glimpse of it, it was something about what we were eating and hopefully not something negative…) We also ended up talking randomly about their lobsters at the tanks. We were talking about prices and how to cook them. Hilarious stuff. For $ 61 + tip for the 7 of us, not much damage done.
Otherwise, check the place out in CT.

This is a new addition to the Chinatown neighborhood! My friends and I attempted to have dinner at Banana Leaf nearby (10^th and Arch). There was about a 30 minute wait for a table for us, so they suggested their sister restaurant on 9^th and Race. Nan Yang has essentially the same menu as Banana Leaf, just in a new and clean location. This place didn’t have the same character and charm as Banana Leaf (we’ve been going there for years), but they were very friendly and quite attentive. Because Banana Leaf is so busy, you often lose the attention of your servers, so thus was a plus. Another plus, it’s BYOB!
We ordered the following: Pad Thai, Chicken curry, Chili Chicken Indian Style, Thai Basil Chicken, Mee Siam, Steam Fish in Black Bean Sauce, and Nasilemak. Everything was pretty good and stayed true to what we would have expected from Banana Leaf. My friend said that the Indian Style Chicken was «unnecessarily spicy,» which is almost what you’d expecte from this dish. My boyfriend and I enjoyed the steamed fish. They made it spicy just like we asked. The Nasilemak was very underwhelming. It essentially was fried rice instead of the coconut covered dish it should have been. Overall, it was a good experience. I’ll definitely be back to try it again another night.

Singaporean food here– The menu was very similar to the menus at nearby Banana Leaf and Penang. Which makes sense since they share an international maritime border.
I usually order roti canai when I see it; its the perfect, rippable, savory appetizer. I was really loving the dipping sauce here, it was bold and slightly sweet. The roti was thicker and less delicate than what I have had at the local Malaysian counterparts .
Duck salad, with pineapple, red onion, and cashews was pleasantly tangy, but I would have preferred the duck pieces to be crispy and less fatty. Really, I’d be happy if all salad with duck in it just contained the skin.
The sambala spicy chicken came as sauce-​less, spicy, fried chicken nuggets that created just a slight, pleasant mouth numbness.

A welcome addition to Chinatown, especially since it seems like every new place is a Szechuan restaurant. Variety is key, people!
Having just returned from a vacation in Singapore, my boyfriend and I noticed this opening on Foobooz and ventured in to see how their prawn mee soup matched up to our recent experiences. We came with three other people and ordered almost 10 dishes, including the prawn mee soup, Hainan chicken with rice, fried squid, pearl noodles, chinese spinach, the Triple Delight yee men, fried pork chops, roti canai, and spring rolls for the little one.
The group loved the fried squid and the triple delight yee men (basically pan-​fried Singapore noodles with veggies) — both dishes were spicy and flavorful and were demolished pretty quickly.
The prawn mee soup and Hainan chicken were good but not amazing. The seafood taste in the prawn mee broth was a bit overwhelming and hard to finish.
The remaining dishes were satisfying as well, but nothing to write home about. Overall, it was a solid meal that left us all full and happy. Can’t wait to go back!