Yi Lan Halal Restaurant

I’m a big fan of this unassuming, halaal, western Chinese restaurant.
I’ve come here several times, though it’s a bit of a trek. Yes, the service can be frustrating, but I find the staff warm in their own ways. Ordering can also be a bit tricky if you don’t speak the language.
The food, however, is interesting and delicious. Generous portions, great flavors, good quality meat, reasonable prices.
My favorites are the cumin lamb, cilantro chicken, and chicken with fried pancake.
I also enjoyed the warm and comforting lamb hotpot (reminds me of desi paya). I haven’t tried the lamb shumai but the lamb dumpling was good– hard for me to eat more than two though (and they come in a batch of twenty I think).
Their expansive menu is filled with dishes I’ve never heard of but want to try.
I definitely recommend this restaurant for both halaal keepers and adventurous eaters.

when I was eating in this place. I saw her (owner) put something back to plate after it drop on the floor. Nasty dirty place

If I can give less than 1 star I WOULD. My family and I went to have lunch on my birthday. When we walked into the restaurant, there was only one other table there already eating. We were the only other table there. As we sat and waited for our food to arrive, other customers began arriving. ONE HOUR LATER we realized we were waiting way too long for our food and all the other tables were already eating their entrees. The server then brings out one of our friends entrees and we assumed they finally finished cooking our food. But after that we waited ANOTHER 15 MINUTES and no other dishes were brought out! So then I asked the server what happened to the rest of our dishes and she replied «we got busy I have to serve other tables». WHICH IS OUTRAGEOUS. we got there before every one else and they didn’t even begin cooking the rest of the entrees yet. We waited another 5 – 10 minutes and still it was not done. By then we just gave up and paid for one of the dishes and left. The owner or the server or whoever the lady was that was serving us was so rude and did not even apologize. IF YOU ARE NOT OF CHINESE/​KOREAN/​VIETNAMESE DECENT DO NOT COME HERE. They only cater to people of their own kind FIRST.

I’ve been here twice and I got the dumplings and lamb with chili pepper both times. The food I’d give a 10. But, the service is lacking. I’d rate that about a ⁷⁄₁₀. The food is cheap and very tasty. I’d recommend take out.

The food is alright and the quality really depends.
BUT! HEY! CAUTION! LISTEN! PLEASE! I’am Being Very HONEST!
As all the complaints could come into one solid review. They offered the worst customer service I experienced in my life time so far. They curse away their customers! They calling all the dirty words in street. I’am so confused, pissed, shocked about them. Is this restaurant were opened for a money laundering operation or whatever so? I felt like I was treated as a captive. «Aaa, yo, Eat what I serve you!» That’s their attitude.
Thugs! Thugs! That’s every single pissed customers’ praises to them.
Do not go there if you are not a wanderer just for TO BE FED.

A LOT OF YELLING GOES ON HERE. I tried to have a meal, but the manager was speaking on his speaker phone (shouting so he could be heard in China?) and the kitchen staff was shouting, constantly, for half an hour to each other. IMPOSSIBLE TO HAVE A CALM MEAL HERE. They need to learn that they have guests, and they are in the hospitality business. I would never go back.
The food was good, but the atmosphere was HOSTILE TO MY DIGESTION. IF Unilocal OFFERED A BIGGER FONT, I WOULD USE IT!!!

Totally unacceptable management philosophy. Their conspicuous advertising of «we offer Chinese crêpe (or Jianbingguozi in Chinese) all through the day» has been in front of store for ages, so I decided to give it a try. The cashier acted so weird after knowing my order would be «just two crepes to go», and told me it’d take more than 20 min. I said ok, paid then left. Oh man, how I wish I had taken that hint. Half an hour later I came back, nothing was given to me but six single bills. They had to cancel my order due to some blah-​blah inexcusable reason as they explained. I mean, if you were unable to offer something, why did you advertise it? If you weren’t sure about something’s availability today, why didn’t you double check with the chef team before lying to customers? Well, Thanks a lot for adding up to my come-​hungry-​leave-​hungry experiences.

Lunch specials are a good deal. Good amount of food at a cheap price. Good service. Food tastes great. Good deal if you are looking for a simple but tasty lunch or dinner.

You won’t find better Chinese food, or worse service than at this place. Takeout recommended

Food is OK but over salted. Lamb dumplings were decent but overall quality of the meat here is not good.

I have never thought Chinese eat Halal too although I do know there are a ton of Muslim Chinese in China. I always thought Halal is a middle eastern thing. How ignorant of me!
Anyway, husband and I trekked all the way up to this tiny restaurant just to see what Chinese halal restaurant is all about. Based on the menu, they still have plenty of popular dishes you can find in other Chinese places. I am not sure if they processed the meat any differently.
We ordered things that look unique and interesting to me. One of them is called Homestyle Lamb. I know the name doesn’t sound unique or interesting but believe me the Chinese version does! It is actually a lamb omelet! I was surprised it is pretty good and unique. Never thought to ever combine lamb with eggs.
The lamb dumplings is also quite tasty. There are 20 in an order for merely $ 6. this is the first time I have ever had lamb dumplings and I really enjoy them. In addition, we tried their braised beef with dry bean curd. It is another unique dish but the description is not quite fitting. Nevertheless, it is a comfort food dish for sure. For vegetable, I ordered the sauteed loofah and it is very good.
Overall, I enjoy the food and they give you huge portions. This is a great alternative to your typical Shanghai, Sichuan or Canton cuisine.

On this rainy afternoon, I had a hankering for some comfort food. Something on the noodlish-​side. While I eat ‘non-​halal’ white meat, I still find an added assurance knowing that I’m eating halal Chinese food — worth a 20 – 30 min drive in the rain along the LIE for me! After reading the Unilocal mixed reviews, I decided to take a leap of faith and go.
Seeing the extensive menu, I decided on Lunch specials, Sesame Chicken and Beef with Chile Pepper, and Lamb dumplings. Because I was feeling noodlish, I asked if I could substitute the white rice and soup for chicken noodles. I got an enthusiastic ‘yes!”. I was like, wow — ok. So I asked for a chicken chow mein noodle with the sesame chicken and the beef chow mein with the beef.
Total — $ 28 — when it should have been $ 16. Turns out that she charged me for full chicken/​beef chow meins. I pointed out her mistake and said it was too late b/​c they made it already, so she gave me $ 6 back instead of $ 12. I wasn’t going to argue further. I just figured, ok whatever — no biggee — I’ll just have the leftovers for later.
The food, bleh. The beef tasted as if it was doused in black pepper. The sesame chicken was ok. Dumplings, ok. The noodles were totally tasteless. Not even Srirachi sauce can save this food!

I live around this area, but never really spotted this restaurant until just recently. What interested me the most is that it’s HALAL Chinese food, a very rare gem in this area. I’ve been subjecting myself to haram Chinese food for far too long from New Kissena Chinese Restaurant.
Well anyways, I go in here and the first thing I see is a very attractive, young, Asian girl (hopefully 18, know whatimsayin? ;-)). First thing I ask her is if the food is «haram», and she responds, «yes» with a cute smile on her face. Well, now that I know their not Muslim, know nothing about what halal or haram mean, and just put «halal» on their sign to get more customers, I continue to make my order. I order their «sauteed chicken and shrimp» and take it to go. Once I get home and open it up, I see it came with some white rice, which is cool, however, the chicken and shrimp is far from «sauteed», it looked more like it was smothered in oil…
I mean, whatever, I eat it anyways, it wasn’t bad, wasn’t good either, but I was hungry as hell from benching 400 lbs at the gym so I ate it up. The problem came 5 hours afterwards when I was awaken from my sleep with extreme pain across my abdominal area. Now, I haven’t had diarrhea in many years, and when I did, it never came close to this… I felt like I was gonna die. I was in the bathroom for half an hour crying like a little bitch, cursing Yi Lan Restaurant and praying to every god there is for forgiveness of any sins I might have committed that have led me to this moment.
After nearly dying from diarrhea, I immediately start searching for lawyers online to sue this place, but to no avail… If you want to die from food poisoning, come to this place. I will not be coming back to this place, and will stick to New Kissena Chinese Restaurant. It’s not halal, but at least their food is clean and tastes amazing. I give Yi Lan Restaurant one star because of the cute Asian chick ;-), if anyone see’s her, tell her to holla at me, but tell her to keep that shitty ass food away from me…

As a halal restaurant, this is a great place to go with people who normally can’t eat half of a chinese menu because it has pork in it.
Specifically, the lamb shu mai is amazing. The other stuff we had like Lamb Xinjiang style was ok but not great. Definitely, come here for the dumplings.

It’s a dream come true to my family. We love Chinese food, but can’t eat chicken or beef coz its not Halal. Finally, this is a place that serve both Chinese AND Halal food. Awesome.
Their food is a bit different than typical Chinese food, but I find it great variation. The portions are huuuuuge and the price is very cheap.
Just to explain what is Halal food, here is a summary. To be Halal food, the animal has to be slaughtered using a very sharp knife applied to the neck, while covering the animal’s eyes (this way the animal is not panicking before death). The use of the very sharp knife, is so that the animal dies instantly and does not suffer, so its all about being merciful to the animal. It was also proven that when the animal is killed in any other way, the animal will panic and her body will generate poison that will go into your body.
Also, when killing the animal, the name of Allah (sw) is mentioned as blessings. Finally, when the animal is killed, it will be cleaned of the blood, so that it is clean.
Finally, if you are wondering, there are more than 25 Million Muslims in North West of China. They are the biggest minority in China. Islam entered China through trading and not with the sword. As a matter of fact, Islam entered most countries in the world through trading/​merchants, and people simply knowing Islam and realizing the beauty of it.

Solid, standard, by no means exceptional. Appreciated as it is authentic halal Chinese. Imposters seem to predominate this particular market. (overall, not necessarily in Flushing.)
Humble, respectable. Certainly does not warrant trashing.

I really liked this place. By the waitress’s suggestion, we got their prime stuff — which was Cold beef tripe in hot chili sauce, Lamb in red chilis, Seafood Tianjian noodles. Something like that.
They were all excellent. And the menu is huge, so I’m sure there’s lots more great items too. The place is nice and fun when there’s a lot of people in there. And the beers are $ 2.50. The food makes you want to drink more because it’s salty and spicy.
Staff was accomodating, nice, and smart. I would definitely go here again — it would be a perfect place for a birthday party.

I’ve ordered lunch from Yi Lan twice now and I can officially declare that I will not be returning there ever again. Yes, the lunch specials are at a good price, $ 4.95 with rice and soup. But if you look around Flushing, that’s the norm all-​around for lunch specials.
First, the food is not great. Dear old General Tso would be pretty disappointed in Yi Lan. It should be an easy classic for any Chinese take-​out, but somehow it is flavorless and dry. Co-​workers say the food is usually hit or miss, sometimes good and sometimes way off.
Secondly, the cashier always shortchanges you on orders. (All of my co-​workers who order there confirm this.) Okay, I’d tip you if I felt I received great service, but it would be my choice. So please stop rounding up to the nearest dollar! When I addressed this on my second (and now last) group order, the cashier rolled her eyes and begrudgingly gave me my actual change.
Thanks to the bad service and mediocre food, I hereby declare Yi Lan forever erased from my work lunch menu Rolodex.
That is all.
PS. It is a B-​grade restaurant.

I went to Yi Lan on the recommendation of Village Voice/​Chowhound/​Edible Queens. I was not disappointed. We walked into a packed restaurant and had to wait half an hour. The staff was supernice about the wait, taking down our number, and then joining two tables together so our wait was shortened. The food came out very fast too.
We had the ox tongue and tripe in peppery sauce for our appetizer, a cold dish that was one of my favorites that night. The members of our party who were hesistant about eating organ meat were won over by the kick in this dish.
In the entrees, the best we had was the paradoxically named dry bean curd with shrimp — the bean curd was incredibly tender and succulent. Highly recommended. The hand teared lamb was an interesting dish, a hearty lamb broth. The tiny dates in the broth were a welcome addition. The lamb dumplings were delicious, and addictive. I’m not sure what kind of offal went into the stir fried cake, but entrée had a restrained, comfort foody kinda taste. I wasn’t so impressed by their veg dishes: potatoes in special sauce and stir fried snap peashoots. I felt that they were somewhat bland. The Kung Pao chicken was more of a standard chinese dish– but well executed.
It’s great to have a halal chinese restaurant in Flushing, and that too with great food and service. I can’t wait to come again so I can try their 8 treasure tofu, homestyle lamb, sea cucumber, and the other dishes that are being touted by the blogosphere.

A halal Chinese restaurant? Say what? Yes that’s right. Halal Chinese. The Muslim Chinese population (the Hui people) number about 10 million and is concentrated in the western industrial frontier of China. Thought to be descended from the Muslim merchants who reached China via the Silk Road, the Hui have continued eating halal food to this day. As a testament to the diversity of Flushing, Hui Chinese immigrants also live among the larger Chinese community there. You know all those BBQ meat skewer carts in Flushing? Even though China consumes more pork per capita than any other country, you’ll notice that they do not serve pork. That’s because they’re operated by Hui Chinese and pork is not halal.
It was during an early Sunday night when I decided to finally walk into Yi Lan to give it a try. The restaurant was completely empty, with one waitress standing by, and a TV mounted on the wall playing old Chinese music videos. I do not know anything about halal Chinese food, or what dishes are unique to Hui Chinese, other than those meat skewers. From the look of Yi Lan’s menu, the offering doesn’t seem at all different from a typical central or northern Chinese restaurant, other than the complete lack of pork. I also don’t know how strictly Yi Lan follows hala standards of food preparation and ingredient restrictions. But I have to assume part of the reason this restaurant opened was to cater to the Hui Chinese community, and possibly to the non-​Chinese Muslims that live in Flushing — though I’ve never seen anybody but Chinese people eating there.
I couldn’t decide what I wanted and I wanted to try something unique. I asked the waitress for a recommendation and she told me to try the cumin lamb, which is written as «lamb with chili pepper» in English on the menu. Really? Cumin lamb? I mean, the dish is delicious, but there are at least a dozen other places to have that dish within a five-​block radius in the downtown Flushing area. Well, ok, it wasn’t too big of a deal since I like the dish. Sure enough it didn’t take very long for my food to be ready. Now I have to admit that I’ve since began judging a dish like cumin lamb with other cumin lamb dishes I’ve had in Flushing, and I have to say that the way it is made at Yi Lan is just average. Great on spiciness, but nothing about it made it stand out. It wasn’t especially more savoury or tender. I suppose I could say that it was just right.
Near the end of my meal, on the TV mounted on the wall, Priscilla Chan started singing an old but iconic Cantonese song, and the waitress followed in the singing quietly while sitting by the counter near the door. I plan on going back and trying other dishes at this restaurant, and next time I’ll find something on the menu I haven’t tried before.