Poon Kee – Delicious Hong Kong Snacks in Chinatown

Poon Kee is a tiny restaurant located on Monroe Street in the southern outskirts of Chinatown far away from the hustle and bustle of the main part of Chinatown. It specializes in Hong Kong style snacks such as steamed rice noodles and fish balls. I found it by accident walking around Chinatown when I noticed a long line coming out of Poon Kee I figured it must be good if there was a long line coming out of some random place that is far from the main part of Chinatown.

The restaurant has about 3 stools to sit on and most of their business is take out. There is no decor to speak of and there is a fairly consistent line coming out of the place with basically 100% Chinatown locals. The place reminds me of the type of old school places you might find in Mong Kok in Hong Kong, which is a busy district in Hong Kong that has places like this. I recommend coming here before 1pm because if you don’t they start to run out of their most popular dishes. The ladies are pretty nice actually, but they’re usually so busy that they don’t have much time to talk.

On to the food:

Tripe:

This is honeycomb tripe and radishes stewed in a broth that has star anise (ba jiao) and five spice (wu xiang fen). The tripe is very clean tasting and has a good chewy, but soft texture. The radish is very tender and soft. The broth they stew it in gives it a great flavor and they top it with a sriracha sauce which definitely kicks it up a notch. This was really good, it tastes very similar to the type of thing you would get in Hong Kong. Assuming you like tripe, I highly recommend this. 8/10

Fish Balls:

I’m pretty sure these are homemade because they have the good texture that you don’t get when you have frozen processed fish balls. Fish balls in and of themselves are fairly plain tasting, but with the sauces they are very flavorful. They top them with sesame sauce, a light sweet soy sauce, sriracha sauce, a little oil and sesame seeds. These are also very good and taste like what you can get in Hong Kong. 8/10

Dry Shrimp Rice Noodle:

This seems to be their most popular dish. It is rolled up steamed rice noodles topped with sesame sauce, a light sweet soy sauce, sriracha sauce, a little oil and sesame seeds. While they aren’t cooked to order like Sunlight Bakery, I think they are actually better and probably some of the best steamed rice noodles I’ve had in New York. I noticed some people ask for them with fish balls and they put them all in the same container. These are also really good. 8/10

Overall, I really like Poon Kee and it’s probably one of the more interesting and authentic restaurants in Chinatown. I highly recommend checking this place out.

Address:
39 Monroe St (between Catherine St & Market St)
New York, NY 10002