This unlikely restaurant,
which appeared among the
jumble of noodle stands and
cafés along St. Marks Place just
months after the end of thecovid
lockdown, is the brainchild of
chef Qiling Wang and his pastry-
chef partner, Fang Fang, both of
whom grew up on the delicate
Hu-style cuisine originating in
the old “water towns” that dot
the canals and riverways outside
Shanghai. With its old-fashioned
tables and thatch-covered dining
nooks filled with families up from
Chinatown and groups of students
chatting in Shanghainese and
Mandarin, the room feels like it’s
been transported, more or less
directly, from some elaborate
food court in the outer suburbs
of Shanghai. Chef Wang’s menu
includes easily the best xiao long
bao of this dumpling season along
with interpretations of regional
delicacies like small plates of
braised pork belly, smoked fish
and duck, and “wine soaked” blue
crab from the Atlantic scattered
with flower petals. As one of
my daughters pointed out, you
could spend weeks exploring
these savory dishes, but save
room for Fang Fang’s desserts, in
particular the soft, pillow-shaped
Song-dynasty steamed bun,
which is brought to the table in a
large steamer basket and cut in
pie-slice-size wedges like some
ancient, ethereal form of angel-
food cake.➽Ignacio Mattos has
dabbled successfully in many
different genres and cuisines
during the course of his
big-city career, but the
beauty of this impeccably
realized Milanese- (or
Roman- or Florentine-) style
café, which opened a couple
of months ago among the
great gray towers of
Rockefeller Center, is its
unique combination of
quality and versatility. It’s a
glittering Italian cappuccino
parlor, a pastry and panini
shop, and a first-class bakery
all rolled into one, though if
you want to experience the
deeper pleasures of the place,
take a seat in the covered
“Terrazza” at the leisurely
Italian lunchtime hour of,
say, 1:30 p.m. and begin
working your merry way
through the all-day café
menu. You’ll find tangy
eggplant caponata and
ribbons of 30-month-aged
ham from Parma meant to be
devoured with squares of
just-baked focaccia. The soupof the day could be a Tuscan
brodo made with country
beans or shreds of cabbage
with crumblings of pork at
the bottom. The vitello
tonnato might be the finest
example of this much-
abused dish that you’ve
tasted in years. And if it’s
Friday, go for the tender,
crackly skinned house
porchetta, which the chef de
cuisine, Maxime Pradié,
seasons with clouds of fennel
pollen the way the great pork
masters do in Tuscany.Lodi 1 Rockefeller Plz., at 49th St.; 212-597-2735
Pork sausage
at Lodi.50 new york | january 3–16, 2022
CheLi
19 St. Marks Pl., nr. Second Ave.
646-858-1866where to eat