Home Chinese NYSF First Look: Moo Shu Grill

NYSF First Look: Moo Shu Grill

(credit: NYSF)
(credit: NYSF)

We’ve got some good news and some bad news. As we told you earlier, Fishing Shrimp is no longer around. However, they have been replaced by the Moo shu Grill truck.

In fact, they are using the actual Fishing Shrimp truck, and the same people are behind it – Thomas and Diana Yang, the sibling team from Bian Dang. In case you were not aware, they were behind Fishing Shrimp too.

As the name implies, the truck serves a variation on moo shu pork, chicken or beef. You can get a single mooshu for $4, but we went for the combo of 2 moo shus and a side of veggie lo mein for $8.

That’s a pretty good deal based on the numbers, but it all comes down to whether the food is worth it. Let’s see.

(credit: NYSF)

We asked which two moo shus they suggested, and the answer was pork and chicken. Guess we’ll try the beef another time.

All the moo shus come wrapped in a thin tortilla or pancake that’s warmed on the grill for a few seconds before being filled.

Each moo shu contains cilantro, cucumber and daikon, as well as 2 sauces – spicy mayo and hoisin sauce.

pork mooshu (credit: NYSF)

The pork is described on the Moo Shu Grill menu as 5 spice pork. We love 5 spice powder, and could taste it mildly on the piece of pork we tasted separately, but it wasn’t very strong.

Once we bit into the complete package though, it all worked. The spicy mayo, sweet hoisin, meaty pork and juicy cucumber went very well together. In this case, the whole was definitely better than the sum of its parts.

chicken mooshu (credit: NYSF)

The chicken was grilled a little crispier than the pork, and was described as Taiwanese basil chicken on the menu.

While we enjoyed the fillings and the chicken at Moo Shu Grill, the basil was not noticeable at all. Maybe a basil leaf in the wrap would work better.

The mooshu wrapper was thin, but pliable. It stretched but didn’t break, even when we thought it might towards the end.

Two mooshus was a decent amount of food for lunch, and the side of veggie lo mein put it over the top. No chance of being hungry in the middle of the afternoon with 2 mooshus and lo mein.

The lo mein was good. We wouldn’t have wanted a full meal of it, but the lo mein was fine as a side dish. The noodles were eggy, and a few were even crispy from being grilled. There were a few onions in the dish, but not a lot of other veggies.

(credit: NYSF)

We know Mooshu Grill is very new, and still working things out. Our suggestion is to have a heavier hand on the spices on the meats, and to add a few more veggies to the lo mein.

They could also drop the “veggie” and just call it lo mein. The “veggie” part raised our expectations on the amount of vegetables that we thought would be in the dish.

The value is good with 2 mooshus and lo mein for $8. Hopefully they will add a tofu option and maybe one or two other options.

You can find Mooshu Grill on twitter here or on our  Mobile Munchies twitter feed. Today they are on Varick by Vandam.

Their current menu is here, but these types of things can change as the truck goes through its growing pains.

 

 

 

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