Mission Chinese Food

Here is the secret: go for lunch! No lines and walked right in to get a table. Excellent waiter who really loves his job and was very helpful. Probably ordered a bit too much but it takes a lot to drag me all the way down town so I figured it was worth it. I loved the egg noodles, the eggplant and the kung pao pastrami, while not really my thing, was very good and interesting. Original chinese food that is really inspired even if I did not exactly love everything. I will go back for sure...for lunch.

Too hyped. Food is hit or miss. Doesn't deserve immense praise it's getting. I don't have a need to return now that I've been. Had Smashed Cucumber-1 star...diced cucs w/peanut sauce drizzled. Very boring. Fresh Rice Noodles-2 star...not as interesting as it reads...Beijing Beef Pancake-2 star...boring...Stir Fried Pork Jowl-4 star ...now this was tasty. Would get again. Salt Cod Fried Rice-3.5 Star...chinese sausage gives an xtra .5 Kung Pao Pastrami-3.5 star...tasty meat. VERY spicy...Thrice Cooked Bacon-3 star...only good

Awful, just awful.... after waiting 2 hours for lunch, the food was so spicy that we couldn't taste anything - The Ma Po tofu was over the top with Szechwan peppers and no other flavor, the beef pancake was doused in hot sauce, the rice noodles were so gelatinous that they couldn't be pulled apart. We didn't finish one dish and didn't take anything home - if it was that bad the first time, who would want it later. Hot spicy sauce masked the taste of incredibly mediocre food. Unfortunate experience as I have been there and raved about it - that's why we waited such a long time.

From the small dishes menu we got Beijing Vinegar Peanuts with salt, vinegar, smoked garlic, and anise (a flowering plant in native to the eastern Mediterranean region and Southwest Asia. Its flavor is similar to licorice, fennel, and tarragon). We also got Red Braised Pig Tails with root beer, sweet and sour pineapple, and celery leaves and Howard’s Peanut Noodles with pickled mustard greens, ginger, spinach, and peanut sauce. Frankly, I don’t even know what to say about the food other than it was amazing. The peanuts came out first and were a little intense, but in the best possible way. I’ve never had pig tails before and didn’t know what to expect. They came out and at first we thought they were the wings, but then we took a bite and they tasted like ribs… like pork… so then we knew they were the pig tails. The sauce was very interesting and different, but also in best possible way. And then we tried the peanut noodles. Wow. I hadn’t even wanted to order these at first because there were so many other more interesting items on the menu, but Dave said we had to, and I cannot tell you how glad I am that we did. This was by far my favorite dish of the night and definitely the best peanut noodles that I’ve ever had. From the large plates menu we got the Kung Pao Pastrami with peanuts, celery, potato and explosive chili and the Chongqing Chicken Wings with explosive chili and crispy beef tripe. The chicken wings came out first and between the fact that we love wings AND we had just read about Mission’s wings on GrubStreet NY‘s list of 9 most exciting wings, we couldn’t wait to try them. The wings didn’t have any sauce on them but just had a ridiculous rub and came on a plate full of chilis. I took one amazing bite, and then another…. and then my mouth was on fire like it had never been before. I must have eaten a chili or something, but I was in pain. Actually, I thought I was going to die for a few minutes there. Dave thought I was out for the count, but somehow after a few minutes of torture, I came back. And just in time for the kung pao pastrami, which was ridiculous.

The food here is totally over rated. The pastrami is nothing special and the liang fun is really poor. On the plus side, the chicken wings are very tasty and the sweet peas and salt cod rice are both pretty good. The buckwheat noodles advertised as stir fried are in so much sauce everything is a soggy mess while the lotus root is flavorless. If you want rock n'roll Asian food, other places do it much better!

Went last night at 5:30 ten minute wait service was very friendly ordered mapo tofu chicken wings and bacon with rice cakes. All dishes were delicious but only if you can handle the spice it's pretty hot. Cool vibe in back. $60 bucks for three dishes and a couple of drinks not cheap but not subpar. Portions were pretty large; would go back

Very disappointed. the chicken wings, bacon rice cake, mao po were all too salty to the point of bitterness, not even worth the free beer.