Business at Chef Wang New Sichuan Cuisine of New Hyde Park received a shot in the arm last Sunday after being praised in a New York Times dining review.
“Chef Wang has a way with vegetables,” Times reviewer Joanne Starkey wrote. “A cold appetizer of cucumber logs in a smooth scallion oil was refreshing and the hit of the meal one night.”
Starkey said the scallion pancakes were the “best she’d ever eaten” and described the restaurant’s Singapore-style mei fun dish as “moist and flavorful,” deeming it as “one of the best” out of all the Chinese restaurants that offer it. She also went on to praise the tender shredded duck and whole tilapia in red sauce, calling them “Sichuan winners.”
The restaurant, which opened up in February, is headed by owner and executive chef Ding Gen Wang. Wang also owns Legend Bar & Restaurant, which has three different locations in the New York City area — Legend 88, Legend 72, and Legend Upper West.
Ricky Zhang, a cashier at the restaurant, said that the review in the Times definitely helped to bring business to the restaurant this past weekend.
People came from all over — from Flushing to Farmingdale — to come and try the food after reading the positive reviews in the paper, he said.
“It was packed,” Zhang said. “We had more than we could handle. We even had to put people on waiting lists.”
Zhang said the restaurant was pleased with the timing of the review coming right around Father’s Day, as this generated even more business for the restaurant.
Prior to this weekend, June had been a slow month for the restaurant without the college students from Hofstra University and Adelphi University coming in for meals, he said.
“We usually get a lot of foreign exchange students,” Zhang said. “The Chinese international students will come in because there aren’t many authentic Chinese restaurants around here. Right now, we’re busy from about 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., but once the students come back it will start getting busy as early as 5.”
He said that Wang saw the opportunity to open a restaurant in New Hyde Park after recognizing the existence of extensive Chinese communities in Great Neck, New Hyde Park, Garden City and at the two universities.
Wang’s experience with cooking began at age 18 back in Chengdu, where Zhang said the chef began his career by working in the catering business.
After following his master chef for about five years, Wang began to get some of his own experience with cooking. His cooking proved to be popular amongst eaters, leading him to continue on with learning new cooking styles as he moved on from Mainland China to Hong Kong, where he learned about Cantonese cooking.
A few years after moving to the United States about 20 years ago, Wang opened up Legend’s first location.
Zhang said Chef Wang New Sichuan Cuisine had a dead period of about six months, which was changed after the Times came in and gave it favorable ratings in its dining review.
“It blew the business up,” Zhang said of the review. “They’re now doing 10 times the amount of business than they were doing before.”
Zhang said popular dishes at the restaurant include the little juicy pork buns, along with the hunan beef and pine nut fish.
The menu serves a variety of dishes, including sushi, sashimi, poultry, beef, and fish. It also includes sections for lunch specials and healthy eating.
Zhang said customers who came in this weekend after reading the review told the staff that they thought that the food was “really good.”
During his time at Legend and Chef Wang, Wang has added many dishes to his menu just by speaking to customers and asking about what they would like to see.
When the chef gets to work each day, he goes out and buys ingredients for dishes that his customers have requested in advance to their visits when speaking to the restaurant’s manager, Richard Chao.
“Everything is similar to other restaurants, except we make dishes according to what the customers say they like,” Zhang said.
