CHELI MANHATTAN 浙里

New York City’s Best New Restaurants Of 2021

"New York has plenty of places to eat Shanghainese food with a group, but restaurants spotlighting food from the larger Jiangnan region around the city of Shanghai are a bit harder to find. CheLi is one such place, and it makes random Tuesdays in the wintertime feel celebratory. At this restaurant on St. Marks Place, you’ll sit underneath a hay-thatched roof at a table full of meaty Atlantic blue crab and sticky slices of fish that are marinated and fried until they taste smoky. In all likelihood, your meal’s soundtrack will include a serene waterfall gurgling a few feet away and groups of six clinking Tsingtao bottles in the back. Once your plate is overloaded with the platonic ideal of sweet, delicate seafood and savory pork, you’ll be all set for one of your favorite NYC Chinese meals in recent memory." - hannah albertine, nikko duren, carlo mantuano