Description

If only healthy food always tasted this good. At Charles Chen's eponymous restaurant on the edge of Chinatown, everything is prepared according to strict health and dietary guidelines. Among other things, this means no MSG; filtered water used for cooking; low salt; and no smoking in the dining room.

Diners in the shabbily elegant main room choose from among a menu that's heavy on mock meat, vegetables, fish and chicken. (No pork or beef is served, and Chen also serves only brown rice.) Start with a steaming bowl of the house-specialty wonton soup, or pan-fried vegetable dumplings. Moving on, many chicken- or fish-eating diners choose the "long life chicken hot pot," which features a chicken breast prepared with Chinese black mushrooms, carrots, lotus seed and ginseng; or the tilapia in ginger sauce.… Read More

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