Pak Choi – One of Frankfurt’s most authentic Chinese food places

Pak Choi is undoubtedly a very authentic Chinese eatery. It is by no means the only Chinese restaurant in Frankfurt though and thus has good competition for the title of ‘most authentic’ or ‘best’. The scene ranges from slightly sketchy places at Niddastraße where the menu is mostly in Chinese, over cheap but extremely good places like the Sino-Malaysian restaurant at Münchener Straße, to the high-end Chinese restaurant in the Westin Grand hotel. I tried most of those places and had recently the pleasure of visiting Pak Choi as well.

There is not much information to be found on Pak Choi in the internet. It is located – who would have guessed – in the Bahnhofsviertel, in a side street off Münchener Straße. Either it is only recently opened or it completely missed my sight so far, but I now read about it in a food magazine where it made number 1 on the top list of Chinese restaurants in Frankfurt. Of course, I wanted to get convinced of that myself. Visiting on a random week day, we arrived at Pak Choi and it was extremely busy. Luckily, we still got one of the last tables available. It was absolutely packed with many different people – couples having a quick dinner, a large loud group of Asians, some hipster Germans who probably read that magazine article just as I did.

Despite it being so busy and contrary to some experiences in some cheap Chinese eateries, the service was very friendly. My wife ordered duck with vegetables and noodles and I got some spicy, deep fried duck with vegetables. We were starving, but the enormous portion that arrived then even scared me a bit. To receive such a large amount of food for that money is fair – even a bit too much. But it was not only a lot, it was also extremely good, very fatty, very heavy, but very yummy therefore. I got plenty of duck pieces and they were nicely coated in crisp breading. But the highlight was even the vegetables. Usually they are treated as mere random sides and you do not receive great quality. But here they tasted fresh and were not overcooked. Overall, it made a great impression and in the end, it does not matter if it is very authentic or not, it just has very tasty food.

Style: Casual eatery/Dinner

Cuisine: Chinese

Location: Bahnhofsviertel

Website: http://www.restaurant-ding.de/

Chez Ima – Oriental cuisine at Niddastraße

I finally managed to pay a visit to this interesting restaurant in the Bahnhofsviertel area. Chez Ima is operated by the same people that own Maxie Eisen and it is similarly trendy and hip. The restaurant is on the ground floor of a cool boutique hotel located in one of the sketchiest part of the Bahnhofsviertel, which is undoubtedly the unruliest, wildest, dodgiest part of Frankfurt. It is the ideal location for this restaurant, where the owners spearheaded the gentrification and hipsterfication of the area around the central station. Technically, we are here actually in Gallus, but the proximity of the central station and the red-light establishments only a few meters away make it part of the Bahnhosviertel area. As such, Chez Ima has to be reached by walking one of the sketchy alleys towards Niddastraße, which needs a bit of courage. Once one has made it passed the drug dealers and their clientele, homeless and drinkers, one suddenly finds oneself in a small hipster nucleus: some trendy hotels, bars and an art gallery – and among them is Chez Ima.

We came actually not primarily to eat at the restaurant, but to visit an after-work roof top party at the hotel. Those events are very popular and added even more to the hipster feel. I am usually quiet a fan, but this was a hipster overload for me. Thus, even if the view was cool from the roof – the skyline with its towers on Mainzer Landstraße was hit by the last rays of sun light after a warm summer day – we left fairly quickly. We thought, why not try out the restaurant, which I already heard good things about. And indeed, the menu was already very intriguing. The dishes on offer can be described as oriental – different creations influenced by Moroccon, Turkish and Lebanese/Levant cuisine.

I decided to go for a mixed plate of oriental treats called freestyle plate. The dish consisted of some classics like hummus, couscous and a nicely fresh tomato salsa. On the plate was also something what I think was a bulgur ball, some small pieces of meat and a cucumber dip. This came with some pita bread to wipe the hummus and mix the other ingredients. The only slightly odd ingredient on the plate was the pickled cucumber. With its sourness, which I usually like, it did not fit too good in this oriental composition. But overall, it was a great plate of food with the flavors being strong, the ingredients fresh and the visual aspect was also satisfied. My conclusion is that this is rightfully considered one of the most interesting restaurants in the Bahnhofsviertel. I would want to come back to try, for example, their lamb dish.

Style: Casual eatery/Dinner

Cuisine: Mediterranean/Lebanese/Moroccan

Location: Gallus

Website: http://www.imaworld.de/restaurants/chezima.php