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Taste of China deserves its neighborhood standing as a popular corner takeout joint. Four young Chinese cooks, all of them male and lacking all English except for street names and menu entries, labor grinningly over several woks and deep-fryers in a hole-in-the-wall space near the bustling 9th St.-Fourth Ave. Subway stop. The backlit takeout wall display shows obligatory photographs of (unappetizing) saucy meats, and a pile of takeout bikes rest perpetually against one plate glass window. Unexpectedly, the cooks turn out satisfying Americanized Chinese standards. Crispy piles of tofu are dressed in a sweet, sticky General Tso’s red sauce, tender boneless chicken and fresh heads of broccoli are lightly sautéed in a competent brown sauce, and blue-collar workers and hungover students alike stream in for speedy chicken wings (the addictively crunchy batter encasing them is twice-fried). Some dishes fall flat, like bland freezer-bag dumplings and stale-tasting iced tea, but for a go-to Chinese takeout and delivery standby in the Slope, Taste of China deserves speed-dial status. — Laurel Fantauzzo

Chicken with broccoli, $5.75; fried chicken wings, $4; General Tso’s tofu, $5.75