Cheli - Flushing

Food 4 service 5 ambiance 5 Very good fish and good dim sums, nice atmosphere that feels like you are in Shanghai

Celebrated Lunar New Year here with some friends for dinner. Fortunately, our party of 4 had someone who lived close and was able to get our name down early. *Pro-Tip* Just because there are no Resy reservations left online does not necessarily mean they won't take a reservation in person. Still ended up waiting about an hour, but it was well worth it. We ordered the Stir-Fried Rice Cakes, Steamed Yellow Croaker, Che Li's Braised Pork Belly, Stir-Fried String Beans, and a Meatball Soup. Food portions were small but everything was delicious! String beans were not spicy and had a lovely balance of garlic, chili oil, and salt. The Rice cakes were light and warming. Porkbelly had a generous meat to fat ratio. I wish the sauce was a bit thicker but a pleasant surprise was the generous serving of quail eggs. (Ask for some rice) The Yellow Croaker was delightful and reminded me of a home cooked meal. The Meatball soup was refreshing but definitely should've been shared between 2 people max. Overall a good experience! Would recommend this as a celebratory meal or a nice date night, asmy biggest complaint was that the portions were small considering the cost per dish.

Came here on a Saturday afternoon and the place was packed. The interior was nicely decorated and had plenty of seating. We started off with the soup dumplings which were quite solid, the wrapping was the perfect amount of thickness and the broth was savory. The pork riblets had solid flavor to it but the sauce was just a bit too strong for me. The vegetables tasted fresh and the chestnut chicken was an interesting pairing. To finish it off, I really enjoyed the sponge cake as it had nice texture and was not too strong. Overall, the food was solid - for the price its portion was not too unreasonable. You are definitely paying for the decor and the service which was on point. Cheli is not a bad option for a meal but definitely there are a lot of other restaurants in the area that I would want to try first.

There's so much competition in Flushing, unfortunately Che Li does not scream out to me. The food isn't anything crazy and the flavors don't scream out to me. 4 stars because the service is impeccable and the restaurant itself is very pretty and unique. Like I said, the food is standard, nothing to rave about. The smoking chicken was sold out on a Friday early dinner so that was unfortunate. They did mention that they switch their menus quite a bit perhaps we got the end of a season's menu. Would I come back? Most likely not...there's just too many options couple steps away but I'm not bummed to have tried it.

Came here for dinner on a Tuesday with reservations and were seated pretty quickly. The ambiance is very nice - clean and super traditional in appearance, it really felt temple like with the decor. Service was okay, orders were taken pretty quickly and food came out fast as well. The menu had a good variety of dishes to share and everything was executed relatively well. The portions were a bit smaller than expected given prices, but other than that, everything was great. The pumpkin was really amazing honestly, I'd recommend that above everything else. Overall, we had a nice meal and wouldn't mind coming back again in the future. Thanks, Cheli!