Late-Night Cantonese Noodles and Roast Meats on the Bowery

Great N.Y. Noodletown holds down the corner of 28 Bowery, where Chinatown's late-night crowd lands after a shift. The room is plain, the tables turn fast, and the kitchen runs from nine in the morning until eleven on Friday and Saturday nights. Regulars come for the roast meats hanging in the window, the lacquered duck and crackling pork belly carved to order and stacked over rice. Ginger-scallion lo mein arrives tangled around sweet lobster, and the salt-and-pepper squid lands blistered and gold with sliced chili. Portions run generous, the tea stays hot, and the check lands gentle. More than three thousand diners have logged a rating here, and the counter still fills with cooks, cabbies, and night owls trading notes over noodles. Come hungry, sit close, and order the specials chalked near the register.