Sing NYC

"If you're in the West Village, you could take yourself to this cha chaan teng chain and have a perfectly good meal in a neon room. But then you’d be missing out on the two-person combos for around $50. Each one comes with an appetizer, two entrees, a dessert, and two beverages. So bring a buddy for well-done renditions of Hong Kong-style cafe food—we like the fried shumai, slippery eggs with Malaysian curry chicken, beef pasta with black pepper sauce, and french toast covered in ovaltine powder and strawberry ice cream. But, if that buddy is your kid or a niece or nephew, beware. The warm ovaltine drink comes with an adorable bear-shaped ice cube that melts under the hot pour, potentially creating a damaging core memory. photo credit: Will Hartman photo credit: Will Hartman" - Will Hartman

"Sing, a chain of Hong Kong-style diners, or cha chaan teng, has a new location in Greenwich Village (in addition to Sing Choi Kee in Flushing). It’s a bright, neon-lit space, and the menu features all sorts of slippery egg dishes, milk teas and other drinks with little bobbing teddy bears in them. If you can't decide between the soups, pastas, noodles and desserts, they also have various set meals. " - Will Hartman, Willa Moore

"Sing Choi Kee is a new cha chaang teng in Greenwich Village, targeting NYU students. The cafe, which opened about a month ago, features a modern twist on traditional Hong Kong cuisine, with a gleaming white interior, neon lights, and playful beverages. The menu includes unique dishes like 'slippery egg' rice meals, noodle soups with rich ingredients, and a variety of snacks. The cafe is known for its pineapple bun and yuenyeung, a thick and foamy mixture of tea and coffee." - Robert Sietsema

"Sing, a Hong Kong-style cafe, serves foods found at cha chaan tengs, including pasta with tomato sauce, “slippery eggs” over rice, sugary bears that dissolve into drinks, and fried pineapple bun sandwiches. Most items on the menu cost under $15. The cafe chain started overseas in 2020 and now has 16 locations in China, plus one that opened this year at the Tangram Mall in Flushing. The restaurants are owned by Rice Noodle Inc." - Luke Fortney

Most prominent are four “slippery egg” dishes ($14) that feature a mountain of rice blanketed by an omelet laced with milk and cheese, which glows alarmingly yellow. The one I tried had a breaded chicken cutlet on top with a Malaysian-style coconut curry gravy on the side. Noodle soups are another strong point. Using soft rice noodles, these deploy a mellow chicken broth and fill it with multiple ingredients, focusing on beef or seafood. The most expensive is abalone and seafood rice noodle soup ($20) featuring what seems like an unusual selection for a fast food joint: squid, shrimp, mussels, and fish balls, in addition to actual abalone, once a luxury product but now being farmed along the Fujianese coastline. This soup is briny and fortifying, but I left wishing I’d ordered the spicy beef noodle soup instead.