Joan reported that furniture was being taken out over the week-end.
Me and My Egg Roll was always more of a take-out place than a sit down restaurant. A few years ago, it added Vietnamese sandwiches and bubble tea to its menu, but it was clear that its best days were long over. But it had been a fixture here for so many years. Will you miss it?
I think the only people that will miss it are the high school kids that get out for lunch and people with no taste buds and low standards for food. Probably one of the worst meals I had ever had. I just hope this doesn't turn into a Italian Restaurant or overpriced hipster bar....
ReplyDeleteSolid Italian restaurants are far and few in this neighborhood.
DeleteBully here...
ReplyDeleteThis is very sad, although it seems they are not being forced out by a rent hike. I'm a relative newcomer to the neighborhood, but I enjoyed the food here immensely. For about $15 Mrs. Bully and I could each get a bahn me and a large wonton egg drop soup to share. They also fried their own noodles, which cannot be said for some of the other Chinese takeout places nearby. We used to frequent Me and My Egg Roll at least once per month and it will be sorely missed. I saw the door ajar behind the gate this weekend but I was hoping they were just on vacation. Looks like it's time for the Bully to move on soon...
Will definitely miss the family. Such nice people. And kick ass spare ribs!!
ReplyDeleteFor no frills Chinese takeout, I think Ting Hua just down the street is great and capable of filling the void. It'll be interesting to see what will replace this. It's a pretty big corner. Do they have garden access on 2nd (potential outdoor seating for a restaurant)?
ReplyDeleteIt looks like the Carroll Gardens Market in the old Mastaleone's space might have shut over the weekend as well. They've not been open for the past 2 dsys.
ReplyDeleteThey will not be missed; I am amazed that they lasted this long. I tried them only once, about 28 years ago, and it was the worst chinese/italian food I have ever tasted! Moo Goo Gai Pan with tomato! Hoping it won't become a bank or nail salon.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised Me And My Cockroach stayed open for so long. I ate take-out there once 14 years ago and remembering throwing out 2/3 of it.
ReplyDeleteIt was nice to get fresh rice on the way home but no, I won't miss this subpar restaurant.
ReplyDeleteIt will be an overpriced hipster bar or another yoga spot..can't have to many of those OR another nail salon...
ReplyDeleteThis is the best named Chinese restaurant ever! We always smiled when we passed, though I have to admit we never crossed the threshold to eat there. I wonder if they will open up the façade...
ReplyDeleteThis might be the only neighborhood in New York without a good Chinese restaurant. It would be great if we got one.
ReplyDeleteTo “anonymous 11:16” I say you are a sad person waiting to be the first to comment and you have no idea what you are talking about.
ReplyDeleteIf you ordered one meal and didn’t like it then you probably ordered wrong. And by the way you also managed to trash two other great types of establishments and offered absolutely zero in the pay of positive ideas.
And to you folks who tried this place once 28 or 14 years ago, well you probably really just need to get out and try a lot places again especially if you want to be taken seriously as nasty foodie critics.
I have lived in this neighborhood for 12 years and as much as I love the Dovers and the Frankies and all the other new wonderful places pushing the boundaries I love this place as well. Families and late workers and those school children you mentioned (amongst everyone else in the neighborhood) were able to get a meal or a snack that was totally tasty and fresh at a very low price.
Quite frankly I do not believe you have ever been there yourself or you would know that this is not bland Chinese fare.
You should have tried the pork fried rice – not white rice in with soy sauce with frozen peas and carrots and a couple of tiny pieces of hard pork – this was fresh well seasoned fried rice with juicy chunks of pork and vegetables and fried egg – does anyone remember fried egg in Fried Rice? Well if you went to Me and My Egg Roll you would – Or what about the Egg Drop /Wonton soup – Not just some gelatinous mixture you are forced to eat in most sit down places – but good wontons in a soup with fresh greens and pork. And the Boneless Spare Ribs – sweet and succulent, the Fried Chicken Wings – If you never tried them you have surely missed out – dip them in some of your blue cheese and hot sauce from home and you had a winning snack at any meal or during any game.
And the owners – they were always there to greet you with a smile, round down your check or let you slide if you were short and were thrilled when you came back every time.
They were a true Mom and Pop place that cared and would cheer with you for whatever team was playing on TV.
Me And My Egg Roll, Your style of establishment will be truly missed, your genre of food will be truly missed and most of all YOU will be truly missed!!!
Exactly exactly exactly
DeleteHere in 2024 and still miss it :)
DeleteSorry to see it go. Everyone was very nice and the food was pretty good. MME was a fixture for so long. It is just another sign of a changing neighborhood. Remember when community fixtures go, you loose part of the social fabric of a community. Hopefully, a bland generic -- one of 20 of the same stores/bars types on Court won't replace it. I bet it will be a bank -- lol
ReplyDeleteMe and My Egg roll will be missed, especially for those of us who remember Ronald Reagan the actor before he became a politician and Columbia Street as the main commercial strip of the neighborhood before everyone moved up to Court Street. For many in Carroll Gardens who still make up what it means to be a neighborhood and community, not just a place to live and commute from, Me and My Egg Roll was the first and only place to get Chinese fare for many years. You could not beat their spareribs, egg rolls or many other dishes anywhere in Brooklyn.
ReplyDeleteHowever, more than the food is the people, character and diversity that was embodied by the restaurant, like many of the other places in Carroll Gardens established before 2000. Where else but in Carroll Gardens would you find a restaurant bold enough to be named “Me and My Egg Roll”…a name that embodies both the enterpernial spirit as well as the humor of life.
Unless you have lived your whole life here you would not know that many of current big name velvet roped restaurants of the area would not be open today if it were not for their owners getting their first jobs as delivery boys for Me and My Egg Roll. That also goes for a number of Doctors and Lawyers along Court Street.
The restaurant for me and my family was also a place where you did not have to deal with pretension or high prices which have become too common place. For us, Me and My Egg Roll was always a great Friday night or Saturday retreat for a large working class family who enjoyed home cooked meals every other night of the week and looked for something different. What is more amazing is that after 34 years a working family could still do this in their neighborhood midst Manhattan bar transplants and overpriced organic beer which ignore the diversity which truly exists here in Carroll Gardens.
Behind it all, making up that great diversity, was the working class family that has stood guard over the restaurant for 34 years. Much of the beauty of “mom and pop” and “local” is knowing the owners of a business, watching their families grow and prosper as a community does and connecting as a larger network of neighborhood family.
While I am sad to see Me and My Egg Roll close I will forever hold the memories of the people who made and preserved this neighborhood deep in my heart understanding that things come to an end.
There is also bitter happiness in the end of this chapter, as it is a sure sign of the completion of an American dream. Unlike the recent closings of other long-time businesses, this s not a story about rents going too high or family members fighting. For the Italian immigrants and children of immigrants who first established the restaurant 34 years ago and the Chinese immigrant family who has faithfully run it for that entire time, their work here is done. They have invested their time and energy, worked hard and prospered and are able to retire knowing that life is better for the next generation of their family who no longer have to stand in front of a hot oven for hours frying rice, but instead can now look forward to calling for takeout like the rest of us!
Beautifully written, Anonymous. Thank you.
ReplyDeletewhatever you say. It was crap. odd that you never saw them take trash out, eh? where did it go?
ReplyDeleteI never ate there, but I have a lot of friends who swore by their Vietnamese sandwiches. Judging by the dismissive and snotty attitude, I suspect Anon 11:16 is the type who loves being seen standing outside of Buttermilk Channel for 45 minutes waiting for brunch, because, you know, TimeOutNY loves it or whatever. Believe it or not, you can still get great food for under $10 and without a reservation in NYC (I laugh when I see the sign in the window of the new small restaurant near me that says "Cheap Date Night - $75 steak and wine for 2"). Sadly, these places are disappearing - but at least Me and My Egg Roll's departure is due to retirement after a years of success and not on their landlord's terms.
ReplyDeleteCan we be real, this place was a front right? I hardly ever saw anybody in there. The food was terrible, hands down the worst Chinese food I've eaten in New York.
ReplyDelete1/6 9pm= Sounds like you are gonna be mad when the rub and tub massage parlor a few doors down closes too.
ReplyDeleteThe Bahn Mi was SO delicious as were the spare ribs (extra crispy). So sad this place will be gone, but happy the owners get to enjoy so well deserved time off after many years of hard work!
ReplyDeleteBut really, very sad. It's unusual to find a great, old school Chinese takeout place these days...
Jack Ravio i was their garbage man. Picked up the trash every night. Use to eat there for lunch qhen i went to 142 which is now BCS.
ReplyDeleteI went to BCS they used to offer a pint of rice with sauce and chicken for 1$. We called it Dolla Rice, i used to have a dolla rice and an arizona for lunch during middle school. WILL BE MISSED
ReplyDeleteMe and My Eggroll was:
ReplyDeleteGreat, then...
OK. then...
Very Good, then...
great again. Then...
Not-so-hot, then...
Stinky. Then...
Very Good, then...
See the pattern?
Has anyone asked/found out if the family was just tired of owning the business? They owned the building? Sold for multi-millions???