Lee Garden topped the crummy choices for Chinese food in Bushwick.

There are many tens of Chinese restaurants in Bushwick and for the past two years I wouldn’t step foot into a single one. The cornstarchy sauces and greasy vegetables are bad, but it’s the funky soft chicken and questionable hygiene that made me swear off the cuisine entirely. But I began to wonder: might there be one diamond in the rough, waiting to be exposed? To answer the question I would have to lift my ban on ghetto Chinese food and hit the street.

 
Check out some of the nastiest facades in Bushwick. Click to open.

An hour’s internet search later, I was crisscrossing the neighborhood from one likely candidate to another, with a host of runners up in between. From the beginning, things looked bleak. I peered into window after greasy window, my stomach lurching every time I thought of placing an order. Fei’s Wok, on Troutman and Knickerbocker, was the least inviting — its crummy brown façade screamed stomach ache. Take a walk by this place; you will be amazed that people actually eat here.

Ten windows and three hours later, I was ready to call it quits. I even stopped into Sicily’s Best to ask some of the neighborhood veterans if they had any recommendations, and all I got were headshakes. But it just didn’t feel right to give up without having eaten anything, so I had to just pick one.

Elections were held and Lee Garden beat out the competition as the representative for all the bulletproof-glassed Chinese restaurants of Bushwick. I selected it for its vicinity to my apartment, convenient location at the DeKalb L subway station, heavy foot traffic, and relative cleanliness.

 
Green beans and chicken from Lee Garden. Click to enlarge.

For ten minutes I scrutinized the menu, trying to psych myself up, and was impressed to find a special “diet” menu that included things like steamed chicken, broccoli, shrimp, and scallops — but no brown rice. I ordered the non-diet chicken with string beans ($5). Lunch at Lee Garden ends at 4pm, an hour later than most in the neighborhood, but I was still thirty minutes too late for the free soup on the side.

Happy that my mission would soon be complete, I trotted home, put the food into a bowl to dress it up a bit and started eating. The green beans were fresh and crisp, but the overpowering taste of vegetable oil threatened all inherent health benefits. The chicken was eerily soft and the rice was just regular ol’ white rice. Ultimately, Lee Garden was okay, but not good enough for me to lift my personal ban. We all have to set our own standards.

So I didn’t find a pearl, but maybe you have. I’m sure there are plenty of horror stories out there, but let’s hear the gems, too.

Lee Garden
121 Wyckoff | 718-497-7661
Price: $2-$10
Mon-Sat 11am-11pm, Sun 12-11pm
Delivery: None


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