"Unlike its faux-rustic parents CheLi and Szechuan Mountain House, Blue Blossom leans into Midtown glitz. A bar serves elaborate cocktails, like the Blue Blossom that looks like Windex but tastes like flowers. It's a great option for a group meal in the area, with a long, crowd-pleasing menu that mixes and matches regional specialties, as well as twisting its Shanghainese and Sichuan cuisine DNA in dishes like mala beef xiao long bao. Go ahead and follow crispy-skinned Peking duck with the excellent sour-and-spicy fish soup. Just save space for the crispy black buns gushing with salted egg yolk lava." - bryan kim, neha talreja, molly fitzpatrick, sonal shah