My Favorite Cha Chaan Tengs
Plus, everywhere I ate last week & my current TV rotation.
If you’ve been following along on TikTok, then you know I had an aggressively mid experience at a wildly popular brunch spot earlier this month. Brunch is a tricky beast. By and large, I think it’s a waste of time and money—especially as someone who is mostly-sober and is never in it for bottomless mimosas. And it’s no big secret that just about everyone who has ever worked in the restaurant industry hates brunch.
But here’s the rub: I work mostly from home and I’m a morning person, so Monday-Friday I typically wake up early and make myself a nice breakfast. Pancakes on a Wednesday are not a rarity in my household. So there’s a very real appeal to getting out of the house first thing on a weekend morning and going out to eat. It’s a shift from my routine, a way for me to avoid the trap of sitting down at my desk with a cup of coffee and losing myself in writing. Which is my favorite thing to do, but is still, at the end of the day, work.
This is where the cha chaan teng, or Hong Kong-style cafe, comes in. The cuisine is a relic of World War II-era British influence in Hong Kong, sometimes known as “soy sauce western.” Dishes like Spam and macaroni soup, or HK-style French toast—which is usually deep-fried and filled with things like peanut butter, condensed milk, and pork floss—are good examples of the form.
Cha chaan tengs are inexpensive, cozy AF, and especially great for breakfast. So if I’m going to eat somewhere on a weekend morning, odds are I’m seeking out one of these. A few years ago, they were harder to come by, but new cha chaan tengs have been cropping up at a steady pace around New York City. Below, you’ll find a list of the ones I return to again and again (and my go-to orders), plus a few that I’m planning to check out.
My favorites:
M Star, 19 Division Street, Manhattan
A cash-only spot that’s always busy and a bit chaotic. Breakfast sets are served until 11:00 AM, and cost just under $8. My go-to is Set E, which comes with HK-style steamed rice rolls smothered in peanut hoisin sauce, a bowl of pork and preserved egg congee, and milk tea or coffee. If you’re ordering outside of the sets, get the peanut butter condensed milk waffle: two toasted Eggos with peanut butter, butter, and condensed milk, and the pan-fried soy sauce noodles.
Mabu Cafe 18 Doyers Street, Manhattan
Mabu has a few locations in Canada, and their Manhattan outpost instantly drew lines when they opened last spring. If you have the option, try to get a table downstairs where it’s a bit more themed and cozy. The food here looks designed to be photographed—you can get that viral Teddy Bear milk tea, and a variety of cute animal-shaped desserts—but it’s also actually delicious. I’ve never had a bad bite here, but my favorite dishes are the baked cheese w/ tomato sauce pork cutlet over macaroni, shredded pork with preserved vegetable and rice noodle soup, and the satay beef and scrambled eggs over rice.
S Wan Cafe 85 Eldridge Street, Manhattan
S Wan is tiny, with very few tables, so have a backup in mind or be prepared to take your food to go. You can still get breakfast sets for $7 or less here, like the $5.50 Set B, which comes with spam and macaroni soup, buttered toast or an egg sandwich, and a hot drink. The curry fish ball rice noodles here are $3.50, and one of my favorite quick, cheap lunches.
Kong Sihk Tong 43-35 Main Street, Flushing
KST also has a location on Bayard Street in Manhattan, but in my opinion, the Flushing location is far superior. The space feels like a diner where the Lo-Fi girl would hang out after school, and they make my favorite milk tea and HK-style French toast. Sweets and sandwiches are the things I like best here, but if I’m in the mood for soup, I’ll usually get the satay beef noodles.
Lucky Cafeteria 36-26 Union Street, Flushing
One of the quieter cha chaan tengs I’ve been to, this is a good spot if you want to linger for a while. The space is big and airy, the menu is huge, and breakfast sets will run you around $8. My favorite things here are the HK-style rice rolls and the deceptively simple pineapple bun with butter.
Like Cafe 6205 18th Ave, Brooklyn
Like Cafe in Bensonhurst has a lively atmosphere, a delightfully chaotic menu, and all-day breakfast sets for around $7. You can get sandwiches here either on soft milk bread or sweet crust/pineapple buns, and they’re some of the best in the category. They also have things like “Hong Konger Borscht” and various spaghetti-centric dishes. Expect a wait on weekends.
Kowloon Cafe 2365 86th Street, Brooklyn
Another busy Bensonhurst spot, Kowloon Cafe is the a good choice if you want big sizzling skillets of saucy meats served over rice or spaghetti. Their club-style sandwiches are also great.
Next Up:
Sing NYC 182 Bleeker Street, Manhattan & Tangram Mall, Flushing
E Noodle 5 Catherine Street, Manhattan
Mahjong Cafe 135-15 37th Ave, Flushing
The Legend Cafe House 8140 New Utrecht Ave, Brooklyn
Everywhere I ate in last week’s video:
Taco Bell, Kingston NY
La Cabra (East Village)
Awash Ethiopian (Carroll Gardens)
Kong Sihk Tong (Manhattan)
Snack on This:
I got a LOT of questions about the cat-themed stationary store I went to last week! It’s called Niconecco Zakaya, it’s amazing, and yes, they have an online store.
I’m currently on a six-day (!!!) break from writing, so I binge-watched the entire first season of The Morning Show. Heed the content warnings, but this is a train wreck (the good kind) from which I was physically incapable of looking away. It toes a line of extremely real and completely absurd that I have not encountered in any other show.
And for something completely different to watch: Pokémon Concierge! It has everything: a soothing theme song by Mariya Takeuchi, an incredibly relatable exhausted millennial (human) protagonist, and the absolute cutest rendition of Pokémon in any form of media to date.