Mapo Tofu was near my hotel during a recent trip to New York, and while it's probably not a destination for Chinese food when you actually love there it was great for me. I had the Mapo Tofu and hot tea during an extremely cold night and they were just the ticket--the right amount of spice and heat to warm me up and give me the will to go back outside!

It's not one of those super authentic Chinese restaurants you'd get in Flushing but still pretty good choice for Chinese food in midtown east. What to get here: mapo tofu; Eggplant with pork. Pork is very tender and eggplant is also delicious. Good sized portion as well. The servers are very friendly.

Schezuan place very close to grand central in midtown east with large, family style portion sizes. There is never a wait. The prices are 3-4 dollars more compared to Hunan manor across the street but probably due to the family style dishes. (Snow pea shoot veggie dish was $18.95 to give you an idea of what I mean). I have tried both numerous times and would say both are good but Hunan manor is better if you are looking for authentic Chinese food. (You will notice that most of the clientele at the place across the street are mostly Asian) The soups are very large and can feed two. They also have smaller bowl options but offer less variety for those small soups. Sounds weird but the intestines dish in a mini wok was AMAZING. Recommend: snow pea shoots which were fresh and cooked in garlic as well as the pork west lake soup. PS I didn't find the food spicy even though some say 3 pepper signs. Definitely worth a try if you like Chinese food and the service is fast.

Another decent Szechuan place conveniently located in midtown east! So our group of five came by after our alumni event not far away from here and just preferred something simple yet hearty. We shared the garlic fish (marinated well and I loved the strong garlic flavor!), smoked duck (a bit dry and skin less crispy) and the sautéed luffa. For some reason, our luffa was extremely bitter and we had to exchange for some other veggie dish. Fortunately our waiter was pretty considerate and helped us resolve the issue seamlessly. Try their Ma Po tofu, the signature dish as indicated by the name of the restaurant - the single best dish! Not too crowded at least on weekday nights, so no need to make reservation if you plan to visit during normal times.

Mapo tofu!! It's more like 3.5 stars place. MT successfully transformed a classic tear-driving spicy Sichuan dish to a savory but acceptably spicy one. While we loved every bite of it, everything else was good too. Zhangcha marinated duck is outstanding, the duck meat is savory and tender plus the skin is crispy. The service is good too. After we complaint that the squash is bitter, the staff immediately offered to replace it with another one with no charge. They also kept adding waters for us. Nicely transformed Sichuan food. Will come back.

Thanks to my fellow Yelper chica Shonnie H. for recommending Mapo Tofu to me. I speed walk over and order my take-out of Hunan Chicken without carrots and mushrooms along with Fried Rice and Wonton Soup. There was one seat that was meant for someone to sit and wait for his/her take-out which was for moi =) It took a bit as I was like the last person to get my take-out and speed walk back to my office which I had only 20 mins to devour my lunch. OMG the chicken were huge slices along with green and red peppers...mmmmmmmmm! I am glad that I got the Fried Rice because it was flavorful then the boring white rice. The Wonton Soup was pretty yummy and wish there was a little more meat filling and the broth was delicious. I was super stuffed and wanted to lick the leftover sauce from the chicken but too many hot pepper seeds mixed in it or mama's mouth will be on fire lol This is definitely WAY BETTER THAN Evergreen on 38 and the food tasted so fresh from the ingredients that they make to each order. Next time I am going to call ahead so I don't waste time waiting =)