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Jing fong chinatown maps11/11/2023 ![]() ![]() When the sprawling room wasn’t filled with diners seated at round tables sharing dumplings and roast duck, the space was often used to host large weddings and events. Jing Fong, which opened in 1978 and moved to its former, two-story home on Elizabeth Street in 1992, was largely recognized as Manhattan Chinatown’s largest dim sum hall. “We’re still going to be casual, but we’re trying to go more toward that direction without being overbearing.” A short menu of new dishes - crispy crab fried rice, silky egg tofu - are geared toward sit-down service, while some items, including the lava buns, which are now dyed black with squid ink, have been tweaked ahead of the opening. “We’re not trying to be a refined restaurant,” he says. The restaurant’s menu of crispy chicken and pan-fried noodles has mostly stayed the same, though some items have been tweaked in a bid to slightly “modernize” this latest version of the decades-old establishment, according to Lam. RED : The Ahwahnee Dining Room | Yosemite National Park | įor now, dining will likely look closer to an evening meal at Jing Fong on Elizabeth Street, where customers ordered from menus and orders of har gow were steamed to order, rather than plucked from roving carts. The restaurant’s team of dim sum carts may return to the floor in a limited way - “maybe three or four of them,” he says - and possibly on weekends only. “We want to do carts in some way,” Lam says, “but given the size of the space, we’re not sure if it makes sense yet.” ![]() Indoor dining could follow as early as next week, Lam says, though don’t expect dim sum carts at the start. Jing Fong will open for takeout and delivery to start, as its kitchen staff - almost all of whom worked at the previous location of the restaurant - settles into the new space. “Did people come to Jing Fong for the food, or because the vibe is so awesome?” He’s about to find out. What used to be a multi-sensory, possibly hours-long dining experience - arriving early, or otherwise waiting in lines of Disney proportion riding an escalator upstairs keeping one eye on the room’s roaming dim sum carts - is now mostly about the food. “We have the same sign here, but we took out the word ‘big.’”Īt around 100 seats, the new restaurant isn’t small, but it’s a far cry from its former 800-seat home on Elizabeth Street. “The sign used to say, ‘Jing Fong Big Restaurant’ in Chinese,” according to Lam, the restaurant’s 37-year-old, third-generation owner. The restaurant, considered Manhattan Chinatown’s largest dim sum hall, is now operating out of a considerably smaller space, where much of the menu and furniture has remained the same, but the signage out front has been lightly edited to match the new digs. This Post: Jing Fong, Once Manhattan Chinatown’s Largest Restaurant, Returns at LastĪlmost a full year after Jing Fong permanently closed its dining room, the famed dim sum spot will return on December 8 at 202 Centre Street, between Hester and Grand streets. “It’s not really a banquet hall, but we want people to still feel like they’re in Jing Fong,” he says. ![]() ![]() Nearby, two stone dragons and a golden phoenix - formerly stationed at the entrance of the dim sum restaurant and on its second floor, respectively - serve as reminders for its four decades on Elizabeth Street. “Does it feel like Jing Fong to you in here?” It’s one of the first things Truman Lam asks, standing in the restaurant’s new, considerably smaller dining room on the edge of Chinatown and Soho. ![]()
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