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This nearly hidden lunch spot is packed with primarily Chinese immigrants every weekday from 11am to 3pm...or until the main courses sell out. The Formica tables and grimy linoleum floors seem daunting, but once you push to the front (and pantomime your order to the non-English-speaking staff), you're rewarded with abundant white rice, a vegetable, and your choice of roast duck, roast pork, or soy sauce chicken. All the entrées have sharp, distinctive flavorings, but spice-sensitive eaters beware, as the MSG may be too intense for some. Excellent vegetables—fresh broccoli, mushrooms, peppers, and string beans— round out the plate. Fearless eaters are also in luck: Steam-table selections extend from oxtail or preserved taro root to large, fried head-on shrimp and whole fried fish. The tiny restaurant also features almost 30 types of buns, with fillings from sweet coconut custard to spicy, savory shredded pork. — Timothy Cooper

At dinnertime it's deserted here, and they've run out of most of the food that's worth ordering. Stick with lunch.

Roast pork, $6.50 per lb.; soy sauce chicken, $4.50 per 1/4 lb., vegetable fried rice, $4.50; coconut custard bun, $0.60