CHINATOWN, WTF?

What the fuck has happened to Chinatown?  Michael and I went  to Ferrara's on Grand Street last night to pick up our usual Easter bread.  Even though we found a great parking space, we decided to leave and go to Chinatown for dinner instead of Little Italy (which really does not have good Italian food anyway).

So...After finally finding a spot in Chinatown, we went to our favorite (and only) restaurant...Wo Hop (upstairs).  And they are closed for renovation.  Downstairs is always too busy and has different hot and sour soup anyway. Hop Kee on the corner is wildly expensive, as are almost every other restaurant we checked out.  We looked at at least ten different menus and found prices such as:  $10 for fried rice, $15 for the average chicken or pork dish, $18-25 for the average seafood/shrimp dish, even $6 for soup (not those big bowls full of noddles either).  What happened to the regular priced places?  Have they all gone the way of the tourist, the juror, the court employees and the hipsters?  Pissed me right off!

We even sat in a place, had tea, read the menu and then left because the prices were outrageous (we did leave $5 for the tea though).  We finally ate at a small place with reasonable prices but below average food.  Can't even remember the name of the place, but the guy sitting across from me had a gun under his shirt (that was exciting-probably undercover or off-duty).

So, the deal is this:  Eat Chinese food as take out in Forest Hills or sometimes go to Flushing to Joe's Shanghai. 

Happy Easter!