Spy C Cuisine
Chinese restaurant · Forest Hills ·
Sichuan & Hunan dishes with smoky wok hei and spicy tingly flavors
Sichuan & Hunan dishes with smoky wok hei and spicy tingly flavors
"Relaxing murals of flowering trees decorate this Forest Hills restaurant, where you can expect a soundtrack of elevator music. But the very last thing the food here will do is put you to sleep. Spy C Cuisine lives up to its name, with assertively spicy, wonderfully tingly Sichuan food. If you love eggplant, you owe it to yourself to try their super-silky, mortar-and-pestle-smashed celebration of the vegetable. They also serve a standard menu of Chinese-American takeout staples, but while there’s a time and a place for orange chicken, it’d be a mistake to miss out on things like melt-in-your-mouth pork belly or mala spicy shredded beef." - neha talreja, hannah albertine, diana kuan, molly fitzpatrick
"Come to Spy C Cuisine for the best Chinese food in Forest Hills, on par with some of our favorite Sichuan spots in the entire city. The ambience at this Austin Street restaurant is calm and relaxing, with murals of delicate flowering trees painted on the walls and an elevator-music soundtrack—but their assertively spicy food will wake you right up. Our must-order dishes include the luxuriously silky mortar and pestle-smashed eggplant, and the fall-apart fish simmered with soft tofu and chilis that build slow heat." - molly fitzpatrick, will hartman, bryan kim, matt tervooren
"Come to Spy C Cuisine for the best Chinese food in Forest Hills, on par with some of our favorite Sichuan spots across the city. At this Austin Street restaurant, calm and relaxing murals of delicate flowering trees decorate the walls, and the soundtrack is elevator music, but the very last thing the food here will do is put you to sleep. Spy C lives up to its name, with assertively spicy food—including some wonderful tingly things achieved with sichuan peppercorns. And If you love eggplant, you owe it to yourself to try their super-silky, mortar and pestle-smashed celebration of the vegetable. They also serve a standard menu of Chinese-American takeout staples, but while there’s a time and a place for orange chicken, it’d be a mistake to miss out on things like melt-in-your-mouth pork belly or mala spicy shredded beef. Food Rundown Crispy and Spicy Cucumber Salad Sweet, garlicky, and bright, this cold dish is a refreshing palate cleanser as you bounce between all the other dishes on your table. photo credit: Molly Fitzpatrick Mortar & Pestle Smashed Eggplant & Peppers Your server will work the mortar and pestle right in front of you, leaving the eggplant luxuriously silky. You’ll be supplied with tongs to serve yourself, but a spoon would work just as well—these nightshades have been alchemized into something like a savory jam. photo credit: Molly Fitzpatrick Crispy Spicy Shredded Beef This dish pulls off so many irresistible textures at once—chewy, crispy, crunchy—with a satisfyingly smoky mala heat. It’s difficult to stop eating, even long after you’re full. photo credit: Molly Fitzpatrick House Special Braised Pork Accompanied by enjoyably bouncy little shiitake mushrooms, these sticky-sweet, tender chunks of pork belly melt in your mouth. photo credit: Molly Fitzpatrick Slow-Simmered Fish With Chilis And Soft Tofu So soft, so silky. Every aspect of this dish has obviously been treated with care, especially the fall-apart, gently cooked fish. The numbing spice builds with every bite, rolling down your tongue like a thunderstorm. photo credit: Molly Fitzpatrick" - Molly Fitzpatrick
"Out in Forest Hills, Spy-C, a Sichuan and Hunan restaurant from chef Tom Lei that opened in 2018, has gained a legion of fans beyond the neighborhood; they’re ordering the cucumbers for starters, a dish that seduced Thomas Lo—an anesthesiologist who went to culinary school and cooked in restaurants—who apparently fell in love with Spy-C’s food." - Melissa McCart
"At Spy C in Forest Hills I learned how Tom Lo first encountered his partner: after a 24-hour hospital shift he stumbled in and ordered the number two special — General Tso’s chicken with pork fried rice and an egg roll — but it was the cucumber salad that stopped him cold; he remembers thinking, “this is the best cucumber salad I’ve ever had,” and feeling compelled to meet the chef. That tongue-tingling cucumber preparation later reappears on Chi’s menu and serves as a throughline in their cooking." - Daniel Meyer
