YongChuan

"This new Lower East Side spot is one of the rare restaurants to represent food of Ningbo, with dishes including smoked fish, winter melon, taro soup, and crawfish dumplings, Ningbo style yellow croaker fish rolls, and cumin lamb." - Nadia Chaudhury

"YongChuan is a lone restaurant in Manhattan focusing on the delicate dishes of Ningbo, a port city in the Zhejiang province, south of Shanghai, writes Eater critic Robert Sietsema. Chef Xing Zhong Qiu’s menu also features some Sichuan cooking, meant to pair with the restaurant’s French wine list. Former Eater critic Robert Sietsema reviewed the restaurant recommending dishes like spicy crawfish dumplings, Ningbo-style smoked fish, and taro soup." - Emma Orlow, Eater Staff

"This ambitious new restaurant — anomalously located deep in the Lower East Side — centers on the cuisine of Ningbo, where hunks of fish are smoked and lacquered with sauces, soup dumplings are shaped like nuclear reactor towers, and taro root transformed into a thick satisfying soup dotted with pork cracklings. Under chef Xing Zhong Qiu, the elegant dining room is filled with good smells, and vegetables like bottle gourd and winter melon are imbued with flavor and transformed into rich dishes. The wine list is mainly French." - Robert Sietsema

"YongChuan is a two-month-old restaurant that opened on the Lower East Side at 90 Clinton Street, just north of Delancey, the lone restaurant in Manhattan focusing on the delicate dishes of Ningbo, a port city in the Zhejiang province, south of Shanghai. The chef Xing Zhong Qiu has created a menu that also dabbles in Sichuan fare, along with dishes from Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Hunan. The staff is helpful and you can dine well for $75 or so by ordering one more dish than the number at your table. Order from a mostly French and Italian wine list with reasonably-priced selections. I recommend a white varietal from Piedmont’s Cortese grape ($17), light and slightly flowery, and tasting of wet stone. Here are a few recommendations from a recent visit. Blazing red dumplings stuffed with crawfish taste of Louisiana and should be dunked in the black vinegar provided for a delightful contrast of dark, sour, and spicy flavors. $15 For this dish, squash is paired with dried scallops and Jinghua ham. The former imparts a salty and fishy flavor, the latter — China’s most prized ham, made in an inland city to the southwest of Ningbo — adds a note not unlike bacon. Best eaten hot, the dish arrives with a chafing dish flame underneath, and when the vegetable is gone, spoon the broth like soup. $26 Sea bass in subtle greenish broth pairs with slippery oyster mushrooms in this house special. Even with a forest of rattan peppercorns on top, it's not terribly spicy, and doesn’t tingle like Sichuan peppercorns unless you crack them with your teeth. This is the rare dish where you can regulate the heat as you eat it, according to how many rattan peppercorns you pull off. $49 Chunks of firm and bony skin-on fish are smoked and coated with a soy mixture. The sweet, smoky, and fishy flavor is divine. $18 Stinky winter melon isn’t as fragrant as stinky tofu, but it does have a mild fermented flavor and a slight sourness. Served cold with tiny red chiles, it’s the most crisp and refreshing appetizer imaginable — a clean contrast to stir fries and rich stews. $12 This soup makes the tuber the star of the show, creamy and lumpy in a delightful sort of way, flavored with tidbits of crunchy pork skin that shine like gold nuggets. This could become your favorite Chinese soup, shutting out wonton, West Lake beef, and sweet-and-sour soups. $25" - Robert Sietsema

"With gold mesh curtains, glass bricks, and striking round light fixtures that resemble celestial bodies, YongChuan looks kind of like a high-end sauna from the future. This sleek Lower East Side restaurant specializes in the seafood-centric cuisine of Ningbo, near Shanghai. Besides exciting regional delicacies like cold, deep-fried “smoked” fish, YongChuan also serves playful fusion-y bites, like impeccably crisp, swan-shaped puff pastries, and some great Sichuan dishes, like mala prawns that achieve just the right balance of crunch and give. Come to YongChuan for an unstuffy but still elegant-feeling special occasion, like a group chat reunion when someone’s visiting from out of town, or a double-date birthday dinner.  Ideally, you should bring a few friends to sample widely from the stacked menu, and for a particularly memorable centerpiece to your meal, consider the Ningbo Eighteen Cuts. This signature raw crab dish must be preordered a week in advance, but for a celebration, it’s well worth it. photo credit: David A. Lee photo credit: David A. Lee photo credit: David A. Lee Food Rundown photo credit: David A. Lee Platter This selection of cold appetizers is a great introduction to your evening—we especially love the crisp Ningbo fish with XO sauce and the century eggs with charred chilies. photo credit: David A. Lee Crispy Swan-Shaped Pastry No mere gimmick, the swan puffs are, in fact, delicious. Each order comes with two savory puffs, filled with juicy grilled eel, and two sweet, filled with durian. (Both are great, but the lightly funky fruit is the one you’ll still be thinking about days later.) photo credit: Molly Fitzpatrick Spicy Crawfish Dumplings These glistening, ruby red beauties have a bouncy filling and are especially good when doused in the lightly smoky house chili oil (which we’d encourage YongChuan to start selling by the jar, please). photo credit: Molly Fitzpatrick Mala Prawns Crispy, hot, and extremely snackable. The mala soft-shell crabs are also good, but the prawns are uniquely difficult to stop eating. photo credit: David A. Lee YongChuan Fried Rice Find room for this excellent fried rice—crispy sausage, bright scallions, and great wok hei—on your crowded table. photo credit: David A. Lee Half Duck YongChuan makes a lovely duck, sliced tableside, with crisp skin and juicy meat. For a group of four or more, it’s a great portion size to enjoy alongside the many other dishes you’ll want to try here. photo credit: David A. Lee Lobster Porridge Don’t order it expecting a thick congee. This is a different style of porridge—a thinner soup with intact grains of rice. The broth is sweet and well-seasoned, but given that this sizable tureen serves four to six, we’d advise you to allocate your belly room differently (at least on your first visit to YongChuan) in favor of smaller dishes and greater variety. photo credit: Molly Fitzpatrick The Ningbo Eighteen Cuts This signature Ningbo dish features flash-frozen female crabs from Zhouzan with melt-in-your-mouth flesh and sweet red and orange roe. They’re sliced into 18 pieces and served raw in a gingery, slightly boozy-tasting sauce." - Molly Fitzpatrick