Cafe Evergreen

Café Evergreen is like an expensive wine that I really like and shouldn’t buy because it’s overpriced but I end up buying it because I love it so much and hey, treat yoself.
Also, a girl’s gotta eat. Why settle for the other mediocre Chinese places on the Upper East Side? Café Evergreen offers pretty solid Chinese cuisine that is really fresh and well crafted.
Also you’re paying partially for the convenience factor of not having to trek to Chinatown or Flushing and also not having to deal with the grime and overcrowded sidewalks of those places.
With that being said, kudos to Evergreen for actually putting some effort into their ambience. It’s modern and elegant.
It’s also family owned, if you care about that sort of thing. They had a previous location on 69^th/​1^st for a few years but this location and new storefront is much nicer. The food is still just as good as it was years ago. Order the fried dumplings, har kow, shrimp with black bean sauce, salt and pepper pork chops, longevity noodle with shiitake mushroom, etc.
Actually, everything I’ve had here is good (albeit overpriced). I would order here every single day, for lunch and dinner if it wasn’t so pricey!

delicious gluten-​free dim sum. weekday afternoons are relaxed atmosphere, with good, attentive service. i travel out of my way to come here sometimes because they have several gluten-​free options that you can’t find at other reataurants, and it tastes v good here.

Used to use this restaurant years ago when it was in the sixties on first avenue I believe it is the same owner.
If you like 5 star food this is the real deal without 5 star prices. If you tastes run to the run of the mill greasy take out dives you may not be interested in the fine cuisine these folks provide
You will pay more than the dive prices but you get fine cuisine. Bravo great food without the haut attitude you get from the fancy places serving great Chinese cooking

Lunch menu is a good deal but dinner prices are high. Food is consistently good.

Ordered 6 party trays to be delivered for a hospital party and was extremely impressed by the service. Monique is very willing to be negotiable and will help cater to your needs. We ordered quite a spread for approximately 30 people, and because we were hospital employees, she lent us serving platters and warmers, which was then picked up by their delivery person after the party. Monique was very knowlegable and provided dish recommendations and reasonable pricing for catering. I actually shopped around a few other restaurants too, and found Café Evergreen to offer the best service and pricing in the area.
Highly recommended for catering.
Deduct 1 star because it was extremely oily/​greasy.

Good food! Good service!
Friendly waitstaff.

Five stars for the Dim Sums!!! As a native Cantonese, this is definitely the best Cantonese dim sum you can get on the Upper East Side！

Tuesday afternoon dim sum was good. Overall the food was good, the service was quick and attentive and I left satisfied. Their dim sum lunch sampler was very good– all their dumplings were delicious. They also had soup dumplings– that although not my favorite ever-​the restaurant is close enough not to have to go all the way to Chinatown to get a quick fix. Will definitely be back.

This is a solid choice for dim sum on the East Side.
The maitre d’s greeting is warm even though it is only my second time here. The cart arrives with the standard issue items. Shao mai, har kow, char siu bao, chicken dumplings, sticky rice, chopped spare ribs in black bean sauce, chicken feet. The spare ribs are meaty and delicious, the chicken dumplings are especially juicy and savory. The shao mai are the only disappointment. Chive dumplings, proffered from a tray, are small and attractive, I like them better than the ones at my local favorite, Aberdeen. Triangles of pastry filled with chopped meat are excellent. Shrimp rice rolls are good, but on the small side.
If your food snob friend from Hong Kong or Toronto has just flown in, by all means make the pilgrimage to Flushing or Sunset Park. But if you want a comfortable experience, with good service in pleasant surroundings, Evergreen will suit the bill.

I passed this place many times. Eventually, I decided to give a try them. They have a special light decoration of pupple and blue color. They have a good selection of menu. I tried steamed Aspagas seafood dumplings. Both combination match well and taste good. Then I had dry sauteed eggplant with string bean. It was pretty good too. I asked them to use less oil then it seemed to be too plain. As a Chinese restaurant, they are pretty good although I personally, feel most of Chinese food seem to be similar. The service was good.

Mediocre food at best, would recommend the Spicy General Tso’s Chicken and Spicy Orange Beef Lunch Special if anything. Salad was horrible, tasted prepackaged and frozen, soup was okay, definitely very starchy though, as most of the sauces in this place are.

Excellent! Have been eating Chinese since the early 1950s, wherein then there were only mostly Cantonese restaurants. This place is my best find on the Upper East Side in decades! Reminds me a bit of the 1950s –1970’s high end King Dragon on Third Avenue in terms of preparation, ingredients, and quality, though Dragon’s dishes were each priced in the mid $ 20s and that was 35 to 40 years ago!
And a most pleasing new design décor, and the place is not noisy. Can tell the owner has «Pride of Place,» and that includes the food quality, being an old school honorable Asian tradition that also gives honor to his ancestors as well as to his restaurant patrons.

You know this place is awful when you are writing your reviews real time. They delivered the food about 20 minutes ago. Wonton soup so was bland but I could let it slide. However the sesame chicken was all bread and mush. What a mistake. No wonder why the delivery boy was so happy at the door. He gave a very enthusiastic Thank You. Probably their only customer of the night. Save your money folks. Go elsewhere.

Came here last night for an early light dinner. First visit. I’m strictly gluten free, corn free, dairy free and sugar free all for medical reasons. What attracted me here was the gluten free menu.
The atmosphere was serene. Table settings are upscale but tastefully simple. Some relaxing music was playing very quietly in the background. The décor really helped. As it was just after 5 pm I was one of the only patrons. Extremely relaxing. Service was excellent. I had an order of the shrimp dumplings and the shredded duck rolls. Very good. The value was fair.
With all my food allergies I don’t mind the price as much as I focus on the food quality and ingredients. So, if you have food allergies this might be a great place for you to try.
I’ll be back.

Amazing. Much better than many known others, believe me I tried many.
Best dim sum, Pekin duck is great. We love the food at this restsurant, every friend we recommended the restaurant to asked to be taken there again

Mediocre at best. Decent food, way over-​priced, nice environment/​décor, attentive service.
Lunch special good value. not a lot of food but sufficient for quick meal. Dinner main dishes on the small side but food generally just OK — nothing special. Relatively high prices are not in line with food both quality and quantity.
May return in a pinch … other choices in area though.

My absolute favorite Chinese restaurant for traditional americanized dishes and dim sum. I try to eat here whenever I’m in the area. People who complain about the prices should probably buy a wok and stay home. Comfortable and clean there is no reason to go to Chinatown anymore.

GMO paradise here with Fake Chicken!
I cant believe what these guys are serving here.
I ordered chicken with broccoli, but what I got was not 100% chicken! It was rubbery and slimy and just nasty.
The eggrolls made almost entirely of cabbage with dyed red pork in it.
They should be ashamed to serve stuff like this! Go feed this to your family!

Our go-​to for dim sum. As good as or better than downtown!

Just had lunch at this place — this is the worst Chinese restaurant I have even been to in NYC in the past twenty three years. I ordered a pricey noodle soup and my friend ordered a chicken with broccoli. Both dishes were nothing but merely tastes of oil, msg and salt. I ate a few bites of noodles and dared not to touch the soup. The soup also carried some stuff from another dishes. The chef didn’t bother to clean out the wok in between dishes. The service is nothing to notice — I didn’t see one single smile out of five waiters during the whole lunch.
I am drinking lots of water right now to get rid of yucky after taste. Although it is only half block from me, I will never come back again or order deliveries. Even a cheap take out place does a better job than this place.

5 stars for Chinese food, you ask? Absolutely when you nail it on price and quality. This is not cheap Chinese but this isn’t absurdly expensive Phillipe or Shun Lee. With that said, the quality is high end but at prices are moderately expensive. Dim Sum is of incredibly high quality and it beats going downtown to dirty Chinatown. Yes, thus is a very clean well appointed restaurant.
Haven’t had a bad meal but here are my «go to» favorite dishes:
*Pea shoots in garlic sauce. My young kids love and crave this dish
*Crispy Prawn with aromatic pepper salt
*Wonton Noodle Soup with roast pork (not on the menu– ask for it. It’s a full meal)
*Hot and Sour soup is excellent; it is spicy
*Soup Dumplings
My favorite Chinatown dim sum in NYC is Oriental Garden. We never go to the OG anymore since we found Café Evergreen.

Mediocre at best. I decided to eat here given the good reviews. However, I was not at all impressed. Not the quality I was expecting for the price tag. Wonton soup seemed fresh but not a fan of seafood dumplings (where was the pork?) and nothing accompanying the broth. BBQ spare ribs were fatty, and while meaty, lacked flavor and a high price tag for the size. The dim sum soup dumplings were all flour and little pork and could have used more liquid. NOTHING near as tasty as you would find in chinatown. The brown rice was overstated. The biggest disappointment was the sesame chicken. It was all breading and slimy. I don’t understand how one could even argue that this is the best Chinese on the UES. Sorry. I will not be returning. I wish I could get a full refund!

Firstly the man who took our order made some uncomfortable remarks about how I’m on a diet based on what I ordered. (He did that more than once). Secondly, I’ve had much better Chinese food at my queens take out places so you won’t be seeing me again.

This is only based on a small takeout order of sesame noodles at midday on a weekend, so I should be a tad forgiving. Place looked promising, very busy and nice looking dishes at the tables. But boy, the sesame noodles were pathetic — and if a Chinese restaurant doesn’t care enough to do these right, they deserve to be called out. Dry, no vinegar or soy tang, no scallion, and a very modest glop of very dull sesame paste that was not enough for the modest noodle portion. Shame on them.

New location but still on the Upper East Side.
Clean, friendly, modern, expensive.
(We have only had dinner, not dim-​sum, over the years)
Service amazing. Food wonderful. Never had a bad dish, and for foodies, one can taste the subtle, special flavor combinations not found in other Chinese cuisine. (I asked, and they won’t divulge their secrets!)

It’s hard to believe all the hate this place is getting on Unilocal.Wake up call people, do you realize you’re getting authentic DIM SUM ON THE UPPER EAST SIDE? OK, maybe it’s not quite as good as the Chinatown places and a bit pricier. But, on the flip side, the place is clean and the waiters speak English well. I think this place is a gem and I hope it stays.
We randomly remembered about this place recently after not having gone in years, and fell in love with it again. The new location is a nice upgrade of the old space. They had pretty much all our favorites — shrimp/​beef/​etc in sticky rice flour pancake, shrimp steamed dumplings, and egg custard. The flavor was good and the service was lightning fast. We will be back!

Café Evergreen is extremely overpriced, especially in relation to the quality of the food they serve. The chicken here is the type that I typically loathe at Chinese restaurants — dark, chewy meat that looks highly questionable if you cut into a piece rather than simply eat the whole chunk. None of the dishes that include fried chicken pieces come crispy — they’re all soggy, and the sauces are nothing to write home about. I’ve had a beef dish as well, which was better, but not much.
At least the service here has been good, and hey, kudos to them for having a large gluten-​free menu (including GF dumplings). My girlfriend loves that, but it’d be nice if 3 – 4 TINY dumplings cost less than $ 7. Or if you’re going to charge that, throw 5 – 6 in an order at least.

We came today to meet up with a friend we hadn’t seen in a while. I’m so glad we took a chance and tried it out! We had dim sum — shiu mai. har gow, sticky rice in lotus leaves, fried shrimp rolls and soup dumplings. The shiu mai, har gow and sticky rice were my favorites. The shrimp had really good texture, the meat in the dumplings was tender and the sticky rice was really flavorful. Our picky, non-​meat-​fan of a toddler (I know) really liked the shrimp rolls and the bun part of the steamed pork buns. The insides were actually good; she’s just not a meat fan. I was disappointed by the soup dumplings. The wrapper was too thick, and while it was meaty, there was not a whole lot of broth in there.
I’d say this is a decent alternative to trekking all the way to Flushing or Chinatown. If anything, I will be back for the walnut prawns I saw on someone’s table on the way back to my seat from the impeccably clean restroom.

Never have I ever been so unimpressed by a dim sum restaurants — and let’s not forget, chinese restaurants definitely can get a bit shady, especially in NY.
I mean, I should have known right? Dim sum in the Upper East Side even though a 20 minute train ride can bring me to the mecca of all Chinese food? What was I thinking.
But hey, it was raining, I was feeling extra lazy, and I went for it.
Never again. First off, super super ridiculously overpriced. My boyfriend and I got 4 plates and the bill ended up being 30 bucks. AND, here’s the breakdown of the dishes
–Siu Mai: COLD
–Scallion pancake: Burned and cold
–Rice in Lotus leaf: Not bad
–Har Gao: RAW
Wait, what? WHAT? Yes. RAW.
My boyfriend bit into it and found that it was cold and so he spit out RAW SHRIMP. And when we brought it to their attention, instead of immediately taking it away, apologizing, and offering us something in consolation, a few minutes went by of multiple workers talking to each other about it, coming over and taking the plate away in silence.
What?
But they didn’t charge per person for tea, so… Yay?

My family has been ordering from Evergreen for many years, since it was at it’s former location. I have never even eaten in the new location, but whenever I am in NY, we get delivery.
Although I now live in South Florida, I grew up in NYC, so it is such a treat to get good Chinese takeout. Café Evergreen’s fare might be pricier and not as «authentic» as Chinatown (or even parts of Queens these days) but it quite tasty. It certainly is good enough to give me my «fix» after the vast Chinese food wasteland in South Florida.
Café Evergreen has many types of dim sum: Har Gow, Shrimp & Scallop, Shu Mei, Veggie, Pan Seared Pork, Shanghai Soup, etc. Evergreen has a great variety and they are all tasty & delicious ($ 6.50). Most of the time they are delivered steaming hot to your door.
I have tasted more of the menu than I could ever describe. I particularly love Evergreen’s veggie dishes. My favorite is the Dry Sautéed Eggplant and String Beans (12.50) soft eggplant and greens beans with massive flavor and just the right amount of heat. It also does not have gloppy sauce… perfection. I also like the Moo Shu Vegetable ($ 13.50…make sure they do not forget the plum sauce!)
Every shrimp dish we have had has been good. Tonight for the first time in many years we ordered Prawn with Lobster Sauce & Minced Pork. At $ 19.50, this was not the Shrimp & Lobster Sauce of my youth. These prawns were huge and the «sauce» was thick & delicious.
Tonight we also had Beef & String Beans which was quite good. This is not on the menu but you can ask for it.
Café Evergreen, can you please open up a southern location? South Broward County is beautiful in the winter…

Skip the lunch specials and all other dishes and go straight for the dim sum. Seriously. The dim sum at Evergreen gives the top Chinatown joints a run for their money. Granted, you won’t find Chinatown prices here, but it’s still worth every penny. Service was quick and friendly.
I would order all of the below dim sum plates again in a heartbeat. Our favorites (in order):
— cilantro shrimp dumplings
— green chive/​pork dumplings
— seared turnip squares
— scallop dumplings
— steamed, shredded duck rolls
— eggplant/​shrimp sandwich