Nyonya - review

Nyonya - 194 Grand Street, between Mott & Mulberry

Located in Chinatown area, on Grand Street between Mott and Mulberry. Good food, quick and attentive service, good prices. The atmosphere was bustling and comfortable, all wood and bamboo, many tables well spaced out (i.e., you're not sticking your elbow in your neighbor's side or having to rub your ass against their unfortunate plate as you squeeze by to use the loo) and, as mentioned above, the service was extremely attentive, as evident by the handful of servers who sort of stood around in a loose cluster by the wall. We were there around 1pm and I was surprised it was not more crowded, but I had seen it more crowded at dinner time in prior visits.

The food for today was the Kueh Teow Thong (flat noodles soup) under the Noodles in Soup section of the menu. It was typical comfort food to me, at least with what I grew up with - flat white noodles, a clear lightly flavored broth, topped with chopped scallions, nicely cooked shrimp and shredded chicken. I had let it sit for too long as I was working on other food, and before we knew it the noodles had puffed up, having soaked up a good majority of the broth. This is the kind of dish I could eat without thinking, or at least while thinking of other things. My fellow diner/spouse had his staple favorite Nasi Lemak under the Rice Dishes section. It came out on a green rectangular platter, rice ball in the center, surrounded on all four corners with different meaty, saucy dishes. All the meaty dishes were very tasty, some hot, some cold, some spicy - watch out for the chicken dish that had random rib bone fragments still attached to the meat. I accompanied my lunch with a Tiger beer (I had a rough morning) and my spouse was good with the complimentary tea.

They cleaned up rather quickly (after waiting patiently for us to finish picking at the remains), and plunked down the bill with no offering of dessert - a shame. Maybe there is no dessert during lunch time? We left a $20 on the table, which was enough to cover the cost of lunch plus tip.

OVERALL - More pros than not - good food, good prices, good service, good environment. If there are any cons, just beware of the many paged menu and large variety of offerings. A good staple restaurant, though!