Le Sia

"It’s been a while since I’ve been back to East Village Chinese seafood spot Le Sia, and it was every bit as good as I remember. This time, I opted for snow crab legs and crawfish with rice cakes in numbing and spicy sauce ($43), and boy was it hot. Each ingredient soaked up that umami-laden sauce, and eating became a push and pull between wanting to suck out more crawfish and crab meat and needing a break to let my mouth cool down." - Eater Staff

"Tina Chen, Yang Liu, and chef Zac Zheng’s Le Sia is one of the city’s best places to eat shellfish, period. This is where diners come for spicy piles of crawfish ($15 per pound), snow crab ($28 per pound), whole lobsters ($30), and, best of all, Dungeness crab ($35). Patrons don plastic gloves and eat with their hands. Any night here is a special occasion, and even more so for solo guests who tackle these succulent crustaceans by themselves." - Ryan Sutton

"Shellfish is the star at this new Chinese bistro — opened in spring 2018 by owners Tina Chen, Yang Liu, and chef Zac Zhang — where crawfish, crab, and shrimp come doused in a choice of six sauces. The most popular of them is “13 flavors,” an umami-rich blend of clove, star anise, angelica dahurica, nutmeg, ginger, fennel, black cardamom, Sichuan peppercorn, dried tangerine peel, cinnamon, and galangal. Throw on a bib and get a pound for seafood feast, but also don’t miss the slew of skewers, typically a street food." - Serena Dai, Stefanie Tuder

"The founders of Chinese-Cajun seafood restaurant Le Sia are planning to expand from the East Village to Midtown and near Columbia University in Morningside Heights, another locale with lots of Chinese international students." - Jenny G. Zhang

"Le Sia is the Spicy Shellfish Destination New York Deserves. The East Village Chinese crawfish boil is a fiery, messy crustacean celebration, where Dungeness crabs, lobsters, and crawfish are served in a heady garlic and oyster sauce or a gravy of tingly Sichuan peppercorns. With their '13 flavors' sauce and affordable prices, Le Sia stands out as an accessible seafood spot in New York, offering a variety of shellfish platters and grilled skewers in a simple yet vibrant setting." - Ryan Sutton