Legend Bar & Restaurant

Fresh and flavorful food, plenty of options, generous portions, reasonable prices.
This is a must-​try Szechaun restaurant in the Chelsea/​Village area. The place is quite large so it’s usually easy to get a table even during peak times. The service is lackluster and the staff is not very helpful or attentive.
The menu is pretty authentic and you’ll find some interesting items to choose from. Get adventurous! There’s also a secret hot pot menu for ‘real’ Chinese people that may be worth trying if you’re with a group and willing to cook your own food.

Pretty spicy Sichuan food. I got a huge bowl of braised fish filet and vegetables in soup for a little over $ 20. Almost couldn’t finish it…

Nothing against the service here. I saw an ad recommending this place as «celebrity’s favorite», excellent food. Blah blah… So i decide to check in. Gotta say this place is only a little better than those fast-​food-​like, very Americanized Chinese restaurants. Everything here is so greasy. It is those food I would only eat to stuff my stomach. I did not enjoy much of it.
P. S. We had diarrhea afterward

So, we had stopped into this place because we had heard about it being very good, traditional Chinese (Szechuan, specifically) food. While I am not arguing against it being traditional, we had a very bad experience. I ordered the Szechuan sea cucumber dish. I had asked if there was any meat, or pork specifically, as I know this is common in Szechuan food (seafood is the only meat I eat), and the waiter said no. The dish comes out and there is a mountain of minced pork in the dish. I tell the waiter and say to make it again with no pork (like I had asked). He takes it away and I await the dish I had requested. He brings it out. It looks fine; no pork as far as I can see. I am almost done with my dish and I notice still a few bits of minced pork in the dish. It is as if the chef added a few bits to spite me, thinking I wouldn’t notice or something. Whether out of spite or on accident, this place needs to get its shit together because that is completely unacceptable.
Also, the company I was with had ordered General Tso’s tofu, which turned out to be very sweet (i.e., not spicy, as this dish should be.)
If you like traditional Szechuan food (i.e., don’t care about your health), this place is fine, and that’s fine if you don’t; some people have high metabolisms and to each their own and all that stuff, but I made a (simple) request, which they didn’t get right the first time nor the second. And instead of taking my dish off of the bill (as is customary), they just gave us a «discount» (6 dollars off of our 70 dollar bill.) Needless to say, I will not be coming back here.

Great Szechuan food! I love the pickled fish soup dish

The noodle soup seemed not too fresh and the flavor was lackluster. Dan Dan noodles were similarly disappointing. I’d suggest going somewhere else for Szechuan food.

Very authentic traditional Chinese food and experience. I ate here with a friend from Hong Kong and she ordered everything in Mandarin– dumplings in chili oil, asparagus scallions and chili peppers, and duck rolls. Asparagus dish was probably my favorite. Portions are large and served family style. There were only Chinese patrons which is always a good sign. Will definitely be back soon!

This gem in Chelsea, NYC left me very impressed! Legend had delicious, authentic Chinese food, along with beautiful ambience and excellent service. I ordered the Beef Chow Fun, and I highly recommend it! It’s aways one of my go-​to Chinese dishes — wide rice noodles, scallions, bean sprouts, and stir-​fry beef with a dark soy sauce. The décor is also impressive. The restaurant is very spacious with two floors and a modern design.

As someone who likes things spicy, but not overly spicy, I found this place perfect. My SO however found the place TOO spicy. It actually worked out for me, as I was able to enjoy ¾ of our meal to myself!
The dan dan noodles, the won tons in chili sauce and the cumin lamb were all delicious. Prices were pretty high, though it is Chelsea, so I guess that’s what you would expect.

This isn’t my favorite Szechuan restaurant, but it is… my least favorite Szechuan restaurant.
I moved right around the corner last year, and as I passed by on weekends, the place always seemed so full of people and bustling, which made me really excited. Perhaps I set my expectations too high, because after dining in with my parents on a Saturday lunch, everything we ate was just not good. Beef tendons were way too overgreased, and the eggplant and seafood casserole was way overcooked and mushy. The chengdu diced chicken was actually decent, but it was mostly peppers than meat, which was very disappointing.
Service was decent, but very unresponsive near the end of the meal, and it took about 15 minutes to get the check. Given that the restaurant was more or less empty, it was confusing. Also, we were seated in the corner, far away from the front, and the leather from booth seating for our table had been ripped and replaced with duct tape. Upholstery is expensive, I get it, but it’s not a good look, when the seating is legitimately uncomfortable. With the prices they’re charging, you’d think that they could afford to replace it.
Afterwards, I decided to give Legend another try for takeout, focusing on more standard dishes like dan dan noodles and string beans, as well as the vietnamese banh mi. Hard to mess that up, right? The dan dan noodles and string beans were both very mushy, and the banh mi was overtoasted and the insides were dry, even for my tastes. Not only that, it took a 45 minutes for them to prepare it, and I was sitting in their restaurant for about 30 minutes. I get that it’s busy during the lunch hour, but it’s not like we were ordering very intricate dishes, by any means. Woof.
The time you might be able to get a good value is for lunch, but I think Grand Sichuan Eastern or even Hot Sichuan are much better for lunch specials, mostly because they give more food and have more variety. Heck, I would even pay the delivery fees for Han Dynasty than go to Legend. The crowds of people on Friday nights still confuse me, so maybe I’m missing something? Nonetheless, I think I’ve given up trying to give Legend a chance to redeem itself.

My husband and I have ordered here many times. I turned the other cheek for the occasional black hair but last night there was a fingernail! We called the restaurant and they refunded our shrimp dumplings. Big deal on a $ 65 food bill. This place is disgusting and knows nothing about customer service.

Delicious Chinese food. I’m sure you can get better in Chinatown but this restaurant is exceptional
I’ve been there countless times when I used to work in the area so I’ve tried many different dishes. Some I’d recommend are the ma po tofu, Kung pao chicken, and cellophane noodles. Those were the dishes I ordered most frequently and they taste great
Try to go around noon for their lunch menu. Really good deals, many dishes under $ 10 with soup and rice

Stopped by on a Sunday and were pleased to find that they have a lunch special regardless of day. Hubby got the general tso’s chicken, I got the mapo tofu. We also tried the dan dan noodles and the scallion pancakes. Nice service, lots of room, very clean, no wait, but only average food.

This place is pretty good in terms of getting some dishes that are normally found in Chinatown but as far as taste goes, it’s nowhere close to as being good as Chinatown.
The staff is friendly but very slow when it comes to having your order ready. On some occasions, I’ve stopped by when it was empty and placed an order to go — staff were nowhere in sight for a couple of min and they told me it would be ready in 10 min but took 20.

I will never come back again!
Services is alright.
Food is average but no seafood only shrimp
Environment =disgusting! We saw 2 large cockroaches while we were eating! One was on the floor, we killed it! The other was climbing on the wall! Gees!!!

Pretty decent. Just that, could you not order anything cooked with ketchup? That’s not really Chinese food. Really not Chinese food.

As a predominantly downtown Manhattan eater, Legend has become my go-​to for Sichuan food when:
a) I don’t feel like trekking uptown to 39^th Street
b) I am hangry and need certain food portion assurances
c) I am plotting for leftovers for the next day
I always, always order the Sichuan Cucumber as an appetizer/​side. It’s the best thing to help cool the burn of the inevitably spicy mains I order here. The challenge is curbing your group from downing all the cucumbers before the mains even arrive. I have been known to order a second round of this dish.
I choose my mains almost always to be unbearably and purposefully spicy. Everything, from the Sichuan Spicy Ma Po Tofu with Black Beans to the Dry Spicy, Tasty Diced Chicken with Ginger and Peanut, to my favorite Boiled, Sliced Beef in Hot and Spicy Chili Sauce… it’s all doused in chili oil and bombarded with dried chili peppers. It hits the spot and you leave with a mouth that’s near-​numb and tingling from the combination of umami and spice.
Another great feature of this restaurant is the sheer quantity of food delivered to your table. You can feed three people with one entrée if you really want to. My husband and I usually enjoy leftovers for at least two meals the next day.
For those with a less adventurous tolerance for spicy food, there is still plenty on the menu for you. Just please don’t order something dull like fried rice or lo mein. Legend has a lot more to offer than that.
Bottom line: Spicy food lover’s reliable go-​to

Absolutely shocked at how good the food was here… I’ve read some of the other reviews so maybe just maybe we got lucky or they were having a really good day. I could definitely see that given the size of their menu…
First– if you order Thai or Vietnamese food from this Szechaun restaurant then you have no one to blame but yourself if you don’t like the food.
There are way too many items on their menu for everything to be good (doubt if one chef could master all the specialties of the huge Sichaun province alone, let alone multiple countries). We stuck to a handful that were recommended by the staff and the Chengdu dishes which I’m assuming is where the chef or owners are from.
I’ve had many, many different versions of dandan noodles (which is not a favorite dish of mine by the way) but this one («Chen-​Du» style) was my favorite. Totally loved it.
The cold, spicy beef tendon was absolutely perfect– just spicy enough to warm you up but without the tingly taste in your mouth and the uncomfortable burn.
The Chen-​Du pork dumplings in spicy oil were tasty, but there wasn’t enough pork and the dumpling was too thick. Still enjoyed this dish but it was not my favorite.
Noodle soup with preserved vegetable and shredded chicken– WONDERFUL. This is a soup I could eat every day. Granted I love that sour vegetable taste in just about anything, but I think this broth was so delicate and the noodles so flavorful (and plentiful) that this dish was special. Not a lot of chicken here but it didn’t need it.
We also ordered stir-​fried pea tendril in a garlic sauce. I’ve had this a hundred different times probably in a hundred different restaurants. This wasn’t the freshest (it’s winter after all) but it was the best I’ve had. It had a really interesting taste that pushed things to the next level.
Finally, the tea-​smoked duck (Zhangcha duck)… I was once told by a Chinese native from ChengDu that this was a dish made for Americans… ridiculous, as if Americans prefer roast duck (plus I’ve had this dish in China and Hong Kong). Case-​in-​point my dining partner didn’t like it because it tasted over-​processed. As for me I haven’t had this dish, this good in many years. Wasn’t overcooked at all which is usually the problem. Totally successful.
Top this off with a $ 5 lychee martini or two (or three… happy hour every day until 8PM!) and the fact that this place is is my ‘hood and maybe you can understand my excitement.
Not the cleanest place and we didn’t eat in the basement, but the service was quite good. Hopefully we didn’t just catch them on their one good day. We’ll keep you posted…

The food was fine but it was so hard to communicate with the servers.
It seems this restaurant allows smoking…

A coworker introduced me to this place and I was hooked! The prices for Sczechuan is standard for authentic Chinese dinner but it was still on the pricier side. We were impressed with their soupy pork dumplings, although without the napa cabbage, the wrapping rips and that yummy, golden juice spills out :-(The chengdu fish soup with chilies and pickled veggies is so amazeballs but spicy! The fish is tilapia and I don’t know how I feel about eating that in the near future but for what it was worth, a good piping hot satiating bowl. We also ordered the cold sauced eggplant to cool our palette down. I brought the hubs at a later time and he ordered spicy cashew chili chicken, which at first we weren’t too sure about, then with a slow burn, really took to it! Great local Chinese smack rt in Chelsea!

My date and I had dan dan noodles and spicy dry chicken with glasses of pinot (origin unknown)
The dan dan noodles were well cooked and dressed with the succulent fatty juice of the ground pork.
Delicious but a quite greasy. Imagine Ramen without the broth.
We requested a sharable sweet and spicy dish from the szechuan menu, and were recommended the spicy dry chicken. Spicy, yes. Dry, absolutely. It was definitely cooked spot on, but no sweet. It was also fried.
This paired with the noodles, we were both craving a salad or something fresh after. No fortune cookies but orange slices were a nice touch.
I can understand how this restaurant is highly recommended. I would come back and order some veggies on the side.
Servers were attentive and the atmosphere was traditional Chinese restaurant style. Possibly more attention to detail than needed.
Surprisingly, we had to ask for chopsticks.
We left feeling full but not healthy in the least regaurd. (Possibly our fault). Too much spicy and fried food made me feel like I had a dragon in my belly which gave me fire breath.

I have only had the Dan Dan Noodles from Legend Bar & Restaurant, and it was my first time having Dan Dan noodles, so bear this in mind when reading my review.
I thought the dish tasted fine. The noodles were slightly overcooked, but still maintained the bouncy (?) consistency and texture. The sauce wasn’t too spicy, which I much preferred since I don’t like spicy food. The noodles were topped with seasoned, minced pork and a little bit of Chinese cabbage — wish there had been more green! All the oil sank at the bottom, which was kind of disgusting. The potions were on the larger side, especially considering the price of the dish (only $ 5.50).
I will probably want to try dan dan noodles at another joint to get a better perspective on how Legend Bar & Restaurant compares to other places.