Sky-High Prices? Bad Reviews? No Matter: Mr. Chow Powers On

Fine food, of any culture, was never cheap. Unfortunately, the average pale-face has a view of Chinese food that it is supposed to be cheap. However bad that view is, expensive but poor Chinese food is worse. There is nothing wrong with spending $200 on a large crab, $50/lb for fresh live large shrimp, etc. There is something very wrong with performance food in general; it ruins the whole point. Having spent a lot of time in Asia eating a wide variety of cuisines and dishes, I can't imagine wasting the time to chow at Mr. Chow. Flushing probably has far better food.

Junk food. Very expensive junk food.

The equivalent of this place in China would be a so-called American steakhouse that offers Spam filet.

Dinner at Mr Chow's is like being an extra in a show. If you don't understand that, you don't get it.

Seem likes Chow is to restaurants what Warhol was to art - incredibly overpriced so so products sold to people who need an ego boost or people wanting access to celebrities / the "in" crowd.

Dear people who have a thing about being in the proximity of celebrities,

Since they don't care about the food which by all accounts is terrible, presumably they themselves are there to get into the proximity of even more famous celebrities than themselves.

Calling Mr. Chow a 'Chinese Restaurant' is ridiculous. Dining there is equal to the finest in Beijing, Shanghai, or Hong Kong. The restaurants are elegant and the Peking Duck is unparalleled (and supposedly illegal). In an era where fine dining is becoming almost extinct, Mr. Chow is a standout and beyond criticism.

In a world in which overt discrimination, even by class, is not accepted, high prices for bad food are the elite's means for being left alone to admire themselves.

There's a surcharge for the ability to be pretentious.

I don't know why, but I feel a little depressed about the horrible taste of most rich people.

I find most rich people think we don't like them because we are jealous, but it is actually something very much opposite to jealousy: more like contempt and disbelief as they lean ever harder into a funhouse-mirror world of silly, gauche pleasures.

It actually bothers me that I have such strong feelings of disgust toward the excesses and gullibility of the rich. There really isn't any other group of people that I have such strong negative feelings toward.

Having said that, I know there are good, well-balanced people who happen to be rich. It's just that this seems to be they minority of rich people.

Never been and don't plan to. But the critics here seem to forget that a restaurant isn't necessarily a place where you go to eat. Sometimes you go for the theatre.

The dishes in the photos look really unappetizing. Look for a entirely Chinese clientele, speaking Chinese, for a good Chinese restaurant.

Sounds like a Chinese version of Sardi's.

There are intelligent people in other parts of the world that laugh at what goes on in the US, with its culture of self absorbed foodies, rappers, and the monied class of talentless celebrities. There are also people in the world, and in the US, that go hungry everyday, so it's always a bit difficult to swallow stories of shallow celebrities paying hundreds of dollars for marginal food and ego inflation. Places like Mr. Chow's will always survive, as the world has no shortage of troubled people seeking a false sense of importance and a propping up of their fragile egos. One day, people might learn that true happiness derives from wanting less, not more, and from acts of altruism (such as helping feed the hungry), and not greed for food, sex, cars, and recognition. If we adopt a more compassionate life, we give our children a chance to grow into adulthood divorced from this American culture of greed and delusion. We give our children a chance to learn that happiness comes not from what we have and what we desire, but from what we do in life that is caring, kind, and beneficial to all in our communities.

Since no one other than my friends and family would recognize me on sight, and since I'm not a celebrity gawker, I think I'll give it a pass -- especially as there are so many excellent, reasonably-priced Chinese restaurants in NYC.

Mr. Chow is a man with a Warholian obsession with celebrity in an era when everyone is a celebrity in their own orbit. He would be wise to treat everyone who walks in as if they were a famous rapper. (I was practically ignored because a party of 15 nearby was the focus of the entire staff. I didn't even recognize who the allegedly famous person is) The focus in his restaurants is obvious celebrities, not food. Meanwhile, famous people go wherever they are told to go, no loyalty. New Yorkers with money are loyal. He oddly doesn't understand this. I first ate at his place on 57th Street in the 80's and it was good and glam and I was impressed. The place in Tribeca is shockingly bad, the food uneatable actually. I've sent food back, and the second time I was there, begrudgingly finished a meal that my dinner companion agreed, was pretty bad. The staff seems as if they were employed as livery cab drivers the day before. I'm not sure they even understood when I asked for something, hence having to ask once again. The place is lit like the set of a Kubrick movie, lights under tables..., all this forgivable if the food is great, but it's very much not great. I know the best Chinese in New York, but I won't fully say here because it will be ruined if the word spreads. It's on the Upper East Side.

I'm fairly certain you are not supposed to actually eat the food, no more than you are to open a Warhol Brillo box.

I'm one of the sons of Mr. Chow Beverly Hills' original fans. In the late 70's, we dined there every Sunday night and loved it. Minced squab, seaweed, spicy beef, Gambler's duck, and Chicken Joanna. How wonderful that all our favorites are still on the menu 40 years later! Even better, as mentioned in the article, several of the servers are still on their feet continuing the proud tradition. Shout out to Tio! I don't care what the reviews say the food there is consistently good, and often, outstanding! Long live Mr. Chow! Long live Tradition!

This article encompasses everything that's wrong with the dining industry today. Shame on Chow and others of his ilk...

Chinese restaurants with a bunch of white folks eating there is usually not a good sign.

Dunkin donuts of chinese food. for people who don't know or like chinese food.

Will they heat up everybody's breast milk?

There's Chinese cooking, there's Chinese cuisine, and there's Mr. Chow's.

Who says that celebrities have any taste in food just because they are some kind of celebrity?

Celebrated turning 40 in the upstairs, private room at Mr. Chow's in Beverly Hills. How bougie can you get. Still ...loved the food and the celeb sightings.

I'll just stick with the Steely Dan song "Glamor Profession" and make my own Asian food when I feel like it.
Ambience, crowds and overblown prices just don't do it for me. Never have.

Mae West surrounded by a bevy of beefcake in mid 70's Beverly Hills Mr Chow. The lighting was gorgeous, the vibe perfect. The perfect party.

would go to BH location in the early 80's: the most chic experience: beautiful interior, jacqueline bissett with alexander gudonov, etc.
was friendly with the hostess, nadia and tina chow. i was 24 and thought everything was possible, then :)
a kid from the valley; so happy to be on the other side of the hill.

Mr Chow is the Chinese Cipriani, serving passable, overpriced food. The draw? You will be surrounded by other people with money.

Never terrible and never very good.

We live a block away, downtown. Avoid it like the plague. He's spouting bull to the writer. Peanut noodles are not Beijing cuisine, especially not when laced with butter. Nothing tastes authentically Chinese there. Oh. And I like my food hot, not cold from sitting around in the kitchen too long.

I first went to MR CHOW, 57th street in 1978 or 79.I was with my first boyfriend and a buch of friends all of whom we knew from Studio 54, and hosted by Andy Warhol. We sat at table 19, the celeb table up top by the bar that looked over the whole room. They had chinese screens that they put around 4 tops on the main floor to give some privacy. There was Diane Von Fursteberg eating dinner at a table next to her x-huband Egon , with a male date, Bill Blass with some upper east side ladies. It was very exciting , and the food was actually good(from a 19 years olds point of view). Loved the fried seaweed(allegedly fried bok choi) which was not on the menu. Years literate was the hip hop crowd that took over in the 90s. It has been a while , but the best memories are best kept that way. I will not be dining at MR CHOW again.

Being an old Restaurateur, I Say good for him! Not that I ever agree with serving sub-standard food, but who's the fool here? He seems to have been around decades longer then most. People, talk with your wallets.... DON'T GO!!
There is an old adage.... Sell the Sizzle

Never heard of the place or the person. Sounds awful.

How very sad.

having dined at Mr Chow in NYC and in Miami Beach I can say there are many finer places to dine and to see and be seen.
Fortunately, there are also many places to enjoy "Chinese" cuisine, at a MUCH more reasonable price, many rated in the mid 20's by Zagat, many in Queens!

Indeed. Unremarkable food at remarkable prices.

If you want to pay exorbitant prices for bad food just to look cool, have at it. I will go just down the street to my favorite Puerto Rican place, have a Cubano or skirt steak and the best black beans on the east coast, for under $20, leave feeling delightful, and not stress over whether someone sees me there or not.

The Shanghai Grill in Beverly Hills has been the go to Chinese Restaurant for most local residents since Benson Gong passed away many years ago. Mr. Chow is just a very expensive home away from home for wealthy visitors from the other cities where he's set up business.

Humph! once in Beverly Hills in the late 70s. More recently once in NYC. The prices were obscene, the food was so-so and the service toward the bottom of so-so. I won't do it again, ever. I promise.

I like the fact that his daughter is named China. That would be like me naming my son United States.

Easily one of the worst restaurants, Chinese or otherwise, I have eaten in and as the article states, pricey as all get out. Reminded me of my first childhood Chinese meal which was egg foo young which required a serious dose of soy sauce to have even the slightest hint of taste to it.

If you want terrific dumplings in the city head to Shanghai Joes in Chinatown and at about 1/10th the price. If you want Peking duck the way Peking duck is supposed to be prepared, head to Red Egg or just about anywhere in Chinatown and don't be swayed by the NYC Dept of Health rating of "B". That's simply because Chinese tradition requires the duck and other meats to be hung in the open air and the health dept says that's a no no.

I get it, yet another see and be seen spot in NYC, but must good food and a hot spot be mutually exclusive??

Sounds like a good place to avoid.

All this proves that the a few celebs and their "wanna be" followers are idiots. I'll be happy to go the Chinatown for real duck, and heaping plates of good food in a ambiance of diner tables and a check which does not require a second mortgage.

This just confirms my long-held suspicion that rich folks love bad food. It gives them something to complain about, since they can't complain about being broke or hating their jobs like the rest of us do.

Long, long, long ago I had a great meal at one of the Mr. Chow's. Wow, what a light revelation! Years then passed before I had a chance to go again, to the Mr. Chow's in London. Awful, horrible experience. The restaurant was overpacked (why? how?). The food was completely forgettable. Heavy. Unimaginative. Could have come from any Chinese takeout joint. Every time the waiter served the table behind us, one of us got bumped by him. It didn't help that the table was full of drunk, loud, obnoxious bankers. The overall noise in the restaurant was an unmuffled roar. Conversation was impossible. What a terrible meal. Never again.

A cameo in Steely Dan's "Glamour Profession" says it all:
Meet me at midnight
At Mr. Chow's
Szechuan dumplings
Now that the deal has been done

I ate at Mr. Chow's once when they opened in Malibu, and once was enough. For starters, they made us wait more than 30 minutes past our wait time with out apology or compensation (usually a fine dining restaurant will offer a drink or comp one of the appetizers if they make you wait this long). But the food was the reason why I won't go back which I would describe as unremarkable, in some cases downright disappointing and surprisingly bland. There is no problem getting a table now, they always show availability on Open Table. In L.A. there are much better choices in this price range.

First time eating at Mr. Chow's was 1981 - E. 57th . Pure theater! And good food. The service is always excellent. Perhaps the prices are too high, but every once in a while it's fun to splurge!

This is singularly the worst restaurant I have ever been to. The zero rating from Bruni is well deserved.