I met some Chinese friends — who had lived in my building — for dinner at the Han Dynasty on Third Avenue. It was their favorite Chinese place in the hood before they became hipsters and moved across the river to Williamsburg, Brooklyn. They still return for their favorite dishes.

Han Dynasty has two locations in NYC and five more in Philadelphia and NJ with, from what I heard, more to come. My friends — who are from Philly — say that this Third Avenue location gets the spice right consistently. I didn’t understand what that meant until I inquired about the red numbers in parenthesis on the menu after each dish. That number indicates the dish’s spice level — a number from (1) mild to (10) quite hot or incredibly fiery. My friends said we’d be ordering (3), unless the menu suggested a lower spice level….and we like spicy food!

I let them do the ordering. We started with a three level of the Sichuan spicy Dan Dan noodles ($8.95). That pasta comes with minced pork, scallions and lots of chili oil and Sichuan pepper. I’d recommend that and also both deep fried entrees, including the triple flash fried, dry pepper style fish with long hot and dry chili peppers ($17.95); and the delicately battered tempura salt ‘n pepper style shrimp ($20.95), served on a bed of shredded lettuce and minced pepper and onion. Both are crisp, not at all oily.

Han Dynasty had quite a heavy hand with the addition of the Sichuan chili oil to the stir-fried chicken with cabbage, garlic, and celery came ($13.95). I should have watched my friends, who more carefully served themselves that oily dish leaving most of that sauce in the serving dish. Live and learn!

We also sampled the the cumin-crusted, stir-fried lamb ($18.95) with bell peppers, dry peppers, and onions; the mapo tofu with minced pork ($11.95) and — a real favorite — the fresh pea leaves with garlic ( $14.95). Sadly the pea leaves aren’t always available.

We left with enough take-out (AKA leftovers) for more than one additional meal, as portions here are hearty. I’d recommend Han Dynasty.
– bonnie

BonnieBOTB

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Han Dynasty
East Village
90 3rd Avenue
New York, NY 10003
(212) 390-8685