Noodle Bar Near Me on Forsyth Street: Spicy Village's Big Tray Chicken

Spicy Village is a 20-seat Henan noodle shop at 68B Forsyth Street, between Grand and Hester Streets, and it takes cash only, with no reservations and no tables for groups larger than six. The dish that fills those seats is the Spicy Big Tray Chicken, served over wide hand-pulled noodles. When someone around the Manhattan Bridge asks for a noodle bar near me, Spicy Village is a name locals give quickly, a short walk from the B and D trains at Grand Street.

The restaurant opened in 2010 under the name He Nan Flavor, according to the Chinatown food blog Mott Street Girls. The owners, Wendy Lian and Ren Fu Li, are originally from Fujian province, not Henan; they learned Henan cooking at a restaurant called Henan Feng Wei in Flushing before bringing it to Forsyth Street. Today the couple runs the place with their two children, which explains why the same faces take your order and bring out the trays year after year.

The shop's cult status grew through cooks as much as diners. Time Out and Mott Street Girls both reported a connection to chef Danny Bowien of Mission Chinese Food, and Time Out gave the restaurant a Recommended review in 2013. In 2021, Wendy's brother, Zeng Xin Lian, opened a separate restaurant called New Spicy Village, now listed at 289 Broome Street. The two are different businesses, so check which one your map pin points to before you walk.

Big tray chicken, known in China as dapanji, is a Xinjiang-style dish that travelled across Henan and the rest of the country. At Spicy Village it arrives on a large tray: bone-in chicken pieces and potatoes in a dark, oily sauce built on chili and Sichuan peppercorn, with wide hand-pulled noodles underneath that soak up everything. One tray is enough for two people as a main course, and three people can share it with a soup or dumplings on the side.

The heat is real but not punishing, and the numbing tingle of the peppercorns builds as you eat. Eat the noodles from the bottom of the tray early, before they absorb too much sauce and turn soft. Bones are part of the deal here, so expect to work around them. Because the restaurant is BYOB, many tables bring a few cold beers to cut the spice.

If big tray chicken feels like too much, the hui mei soups are the other Henan specialty. Hui mei, often spelled hui mian, is a lamb-based broth with flat, wide noodles that are stretched and torn by hand. Spicy Village serves a Lamb Hui Mei with vegetables and a Spicy Beef Brisket Hui Mei, both listed on the restaurant's long-running menu. They are lighter than the chicken tray and a good choice for a solo lunch when you do not want to commit to a whole tray.

Hui mian is to Henan roughly what a beef noodle soup is to Lanzhou: the everyday bowl of the provincial capital, Zhengzhou, where shops simmer mutton bones for hours and pull the dough into ribbons wider than a thumb. The noodles are supposed to be chewy and a little uneven, so do not expect the thin, uniform strands of a ramen shop. Spicy Village's version keeps that rustic texture, which is exactly why people who know the dish seek it out.

Smaller plates round out the table. The menu lists a pancake with beef, soup dumplings filled with pork, dumplings in spiced scallion sauce, and a cold cucumber appetizer that helps balance the chili. We are not quoting prices here because the only full price list online dates to 2019 and no current menu has been published by the restaurant. A 2024 Substack review put the big tray chicken at $21, well above the old menu, so assume the 2019 numbers are out of date.

Plan around three house rules. First, it is cash only, as Time Out and a 2024 Substack visit both note, so stop at an ATM before walking over. Second, it does not take reservations, so everyone waits in the same line. Third, groups are capped at six, according to the Infatuation. With only about 20 seats, a party of five or six may wait noticeably longer than a pair who can slide into any open two-top.

A review reposted on a fan site describes the room as busy at 6pm with a line forming. The calmer time to walk in is late morning; Google Maps listed Saturday hours of 10:30am to 10pm in October 2026. If the line is too long, Super Taste on Eldridge Street, a few blocks south, is a solid hand-pulled noodle alternative that opens at 11am daily.

Spicy Village faces Sara D. Roosevelt Park, the long strip of green between Chrystie and Forsyth Streets, which is a good place to walk off a tray of chicken; Google lists it as closing at 10pm. About ten minutes east on foot, Kossar's Bagels and Bialys at 367 Grand Street has been baking bialys since 1936. For a longer visit, the Tenement Museum at 103 Orchard Street tells the story of immigrant families who lived in these same Lower East Side blocks.

Spicy Village is at 68B Forsyth Street, New York, NY 10002, sometimes listed as 68 Forsyth Street B. The phone number is (212) 625-8299. Take the B or D train to Grand Street and walk north along Forsyth. Bring cash, bring your own beer if you want one, keep your group to six or fewer, and expect a short wait at dinner. Google lists a wheelchair-accessible entrance and seating. The unofficial spicy-village.com site is run by fans, not the family, so treat its hours and dish names with caution. Ask Karpo in the Karpo APP to find more noodle spots near the Manhattan Bridge.