Bo Ky
Chinese restaurant · Chinatown ·
Teochew cuisine with duck, noodles, curry chicken, shrimp rolls
Teochew cuisine with duck, noodles, curry chicken, shrimp rolls
"The city’s premier Teochew restaurant has occupied a prominent storefront on Bayard since 1990, serving Chinese food with Southeast Asian flair. There’s a version of pho using pork instead of beef, notable deep-fried shrimp rolls, and a fish noodle soup in which the noodles are actually made of fish. But the flagship of the fleet is “country style duck,” in which the quacker is braised rather than roasted, and quite a contrast to the other ducks of Chinatown." - Eater Staff
"A quick-service, lower Manhattan stalwart with roots in the Teochew community, the menu revolves around classic Vietnamese staples enjoyed broadly across the country — phở, bánh mì, and chả giò (crispy-fried spring rolls)." - Nat Belkov
"Chiuchow (or Teochew) is a city in eastern Guangdong with its own dialect — and a population that has been dispersed throughout Southeast Asia and beyond. This results in the wonderful hybrid cuisine that you’ll find at Bo Ky, a restaurant serving the unique menu since 1986. Find Vietnamese and Cambodian soups, in addition to Cantonese, as well as a braised duck quite unlike the roast ducks found elsewhere in Chinatown." - Robert Sietsema
"You’ll find some of the best phở in Chinatown at this 1980s-era restaurant, which specializes in the regional cuisine of Teochew. All of the soups are under $11, and you have your choice of flat noodles or thin egg noodles. The clear broth in the special beef noodle soup—which comes topped with a heap of fresh herbs—is a textbook example of how to do something simple and very, very well." - will hartman, neha talreja, bryan kim, willa moore, carlo mantuano
"At 80 Bayard Street, near the corner of Mott Street, I pass a faded white facade with Chinese and Vietnamese lettering that marks Bo Ky, currently owned by Hung Ngo, whose father founded the restaurant around 1990. It's a Teochew-owned Chinese spot whose menu reflects the Teochew diaspora—mixing Vietnamese, Cambodian, Malaysian and more purely Teochew dishes—and the menu includes deep-fried shrimp rolls with a shrimp mousse wrapped in tofu skin (wrinkly and wonderfully squishy) and a fish noodle soup with noodles made partly of fish. The standout is the Teochew duck: birds hang in the window with marinated chestnut-brown skin that looks different from the bronzed ducks elsewhere, a recipe sometimes associated with Singapore hawker stalls. Described on the menu as country-style duck ($18 for half), it reveals at first bite a pleasantly rubbery skin and flesh that is moist and full of lacustrine flavor; rather than the lacquered-crisp skin of Beijing-style roast, this bird is braised in a thick soy sauce with star anise and other spices to maximize flavor and a softer texture. The half comes sliced with sweet-pickled vegetables and a small saucer of vinegar laced with fish sauce, and there is so much duck in a half bird that you can share it with three or four friends — now I can't pass the corner of Mott and Bayard without craving it." - Robert Sietsema