Those who braved the Chinatown masses for a meal on Christmas Day deserve a rousing "bravo" today—it was a madhouse down there. While some non-Chinese restaurants (like Kutsher's and Mile End) offered up special Chinese-influenced menus for the holiday, it seemed like every person who didn't leave New York for the weekend decided to head toward Canal Street instead.
Gothamist wanted dim sum for brunch, so we rounded up a dozen of our closest friends for a meal at old-school cart-pushed dim sum palace Golden Unicorn. There were hundreds of people crammed into the floor-level lobby, waiting for a woman with a microphone to call table numbers. We waited for over 90 minutes for a table, which was nothing compared to nearby dim sum emporium Jing Fong, which literally had a line out the door.
One of the most redeeming factors of dim sum, however, is the instant gratification: once we finally made it up the elevator to the third-floor seating area, our table was instantly surrounded by women with carts, eager to drop piles of dumplings and buns upon us. A few roasted pork buns and chicken feet in, it was all worth it.
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