- My name is Prez, and I work at Thrillist.
Around these parts, I'm known as the 5 Dollar Lunch Guy.
Every episode, I'm gonna put you guys onto
the very finest New York grub for $5 or less.
Hey, a new mission, thanks.
Let's see what we got going on here.
Huh -- you're kidding, right?
You want me to go to a Michelin star restaurant
for five bucks.
That's impossible for most people.
Then again, most people don't have a Khushbu,
so I should probably call her.
Yo Khush, help.
- You gotta be quick, I've got so many meetings today.
Yeah, so I have a mission where I have to go to
a Michelin star restaurant for five bucks.
- Well, there's this Chinese restaurant called
Tim Ho Wan that's not too far from you.
- Really.
- It's actually one of the most affordable
Michelin-starred restaurants in the world.
- Are you serious?
- Almost everything on the menu is within your budget.
- Thanks.
All right guys, found a spot.
Yo, shout out to Khushbu for putting your boy
on for a second -- I thought she was messing with me.
But a quick search on Thrillest.com confirms it.
Today we're headed to Tim Ho Wan's in the East Village,
The world's cheapest Michelin restaurant.
It's five bucks somewhere -- let's go.
So these are the rules of "Operation 5 Buck Lunch."
It's gotta be good, 'cause nobody wants bad food for lunch.
No big chains, 'cause that's just too easy.
It's gotta be $5 or less.
And whatever I don't use today
rolls over into the next episode.
Hey, what is your name?
- My name's Andrew.
- Prez, nice to meet you.
Are you familiar with the Michelin guide
rating system for restaurants?
- I've heard of it. I've seen it, yes.
- Definitely, it's a big deal.
- OK.
- There aren't too many restaurants that get it.
- I know that it is the creme de la creme of ratings
when it comes to restaurants.
- OK.
Have you ever been to a Michelin star-rated restaurant?
- I have, in Sydney, Australia.
- Yes I have been to one.
- Where'd you go?
- I went to Tim Ho Wan.
- Hey!
What if I told you that you could
go to a Michelin star restaurant here in
New York for under five bucks?
- I would struggle to believe you.
- Now when you think about Michelin-starred restaurants,
you usually think big name chefs, high-end joints,
and cuisine-bending innovation.
But Tim Ho Wan's seems to be the exception to the rule,
and that's why I'm so excited about it.
Who would ever think a place with food
in our budget would be so lauded?
Fun fact: Edward and Andre Michelin -- yes,
those Michelin brothers who created a tire company --
created a map with hotel and dining guide,
which encouraged people to travel around the country
by car, which would lead them to wear their tires
out faster, and that's how the ratings system was born.
Now ya know.
Here we are, East 10th and Fourth, in front
of Tim Ho Wan.
Let's get in there, man.
Oh wow, this place is shwanky.
I mean, I wasn't expecting that.
When you say, "Hey, we're dim sum specialists
and all of our stuff is really cheap,"
I'm not expecting this level of shwank.
I mean, this is even like date-night material.
- Hi, how are you?
- Hello, hi, what is your name?
- My name's Tony.
- Tony, it's nice to meet you.
- Same here.
- This is my first time here, and for our
audience, what do people need to know
about Tim Ho Wan?
- Well, Tim Ho Wan is, as a whole, one of the
world's cheapest Michelin starred restaurant.
Everything's made fresh, made to order,
fresh products, daily products.
- You guys have a Michelin star, but you manage
to keep your prices so low.
- Well, every day, we search for the best prices
but not sacrificing the quality.
Dim sum should be served the best, highest quality of food.
- I see braised chicken feet with this
abalone sauce, a delicacy.
- A delicacy, that one.
- I've never had chicken feet before,
so I'm a little bit nervous.
- It's braised on the morning of, for like
four to five hours, so where the skin
and collagen is tender, it just falls
right off the bone; it's like a well-made rib,
but instead of rib, you use chicken.
- Wow, OK, I mean, I think
I'm gonna go with that then.
- Excellent, excellent choice -- it's one of my favorites, too.
- Yeah, for sure, thank you so much.
(techno music)
- Yeah, there we go, chicken feet.
- Thank you so much.
- You're welcome.
- Wow, so really quick question.
Things I'm scared of: needles, spiders, chicken feet.
Can you take my phobia away and teach me
how to eat this?
- Absolutely. You want to start with the fingers.
It's like a knuckle -- pull the knuckle right off.
- OK.
- And then you suck the skin and collagen right off.
- So, he said to, all right, those are just knuckles.
Suck around the knuckles.
If I had to describe this for somebody who's
never had chicken feet, it tastes exactly like chicken,
but it's like sucking the most succulent
and fatty parts of the chicken, and I'd say that this part
of the chicken foot, the kind of like palm-ish area --
God, how do I describe this -- is like the fattiest part.
Between this abalone sauce and the peanuts,
all of these flavors are incorporated very well.
Tony recommended that I eat it with a chopstick --
I'm not too great with chopsticks,
but let's see how this goes.
(techno music)
Like this way, hello.
Awesome, isn't this cute?
Look how cute this is, guys.
Look how cute these feet are.
The texture's a lot different.
It's like sucking the fat straight out of a chicken.
(techno music)
Now this abalone sauce is the whole body
of this flavor profile. It's savory, it's light.
I don't know, what can you get for five bucks?
You can get like, maybe like a handful of dumplings,
or maybe like a piece of chicken
or something like that. I mean we found like
a lot of gems, but I will say this is probably
one of the bigger portion sizes that we've
ever gotten on this show. For under five bucks,
I got, what, almost eight chicken feet.
That's a lot.
Oh, guys, this was incredible.
- So, how was everything?
- Everything was fantastic.
Listen Tony, thank you so much for opening
my eyes to chicken feet.
That was absolutely incredible.
- No problem.
- How much does that come out to?
- About $4.90, comes to $4.90.
- $4.90?
- Yes.
- Perfect.
- Thank you so much.
- Thank you guys, appreciate it.
All right, I'm gonna go wash my hands.
Today we learned that greatness
isn't always found in the $400 entree,
especially when our mission is something
that I never thought we'd see on this show, ever.
Michelin star.
You know what?
Shout out to Khushbu for putting us on to
Tim Ho Wan's in the East Village.
It's a real gem, and shout out to Tony
for helping me conquer my fear of chicken feet.
Really you guys, if you've never had chicken feet,
come here and try it.
It's really good.
Anyways, with that being said, today's mission
was an absolute success.
It's not a big chain, at least not in the US,
it's in budget, and it's damn good.
I gotta go.
It's cold out here, gotta get back uptown.
Peace.
(camera clicks)
Hey guys, thanks for watching my show.
If you guys have a suggestion of where
we should go next time, leave them
down in the comments below.
Are you a chicken feet kind of guy?
I mean, let me know where's the best place
you've ever had them, maybe I'll
check out your recommendation.
Follow us on Instagram @5dollarlunchguy.
I think that's it.
Follow, like, share, subscribe,
and I'll see you guys next time, bye.