{"id":979498,"date":"2026-08-04T06:14:29","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T06:14:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/979498\/"},"modified":"2026-08-04T06:14:29","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T06:14:29","slug":"review-lei-chinatowns-james-beard-winning-wine-bar-lives-up-to-the-hype","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/979498\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Lei, Chinatown\u2019s James Beard-Winning Wine Bar, Lives Up to the Hype"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lei<\/a> is a small, pretty wine bar tucked into Doyers St, Chinatown’s elbow-shaped, pedestrian-only stretch of storefronts. Owner Annie Shi built it as her first solo project after co-owning King and Jupiter, and the concept is straightforward: a well-stocked cellar in a vibey nook, plus a short food menu from chef Patty Lee, previously of Mission Chinese Food. Pairing wine with Chinese flavors in the heart of Chinatown\u2019s warren of restaurants and storefronts feels like a sharp calculation, and Lei executes with easy confidence.<\/p>\n

The room measures 700 square feet and seats 28, most of them ringing the perimeter; a communal table at the center handles bigger parties, up to eight. There’s not an inch to spare, but the room doesn’t feel cramped. This is what a properly intimate restaurant feels like, lighting tuned to pull focus toward the tables and away from the serving lanes. Staff outnumber what a room this size usually rates, and they move like a single organism: I watched someone turn to greet a walk-in mid-bus, holding a plate behind their back, passing it off to a coworker without a word. Recommendations and explanations come without the stiff recitation that usually accompanies them, giving the place warmth.<\/p>\n

\"Lei\"
\nPhotograph: Matt RussellLei <\/p>\n

The wine list is extensive but not overwhelming. There\u2019s a full list plus a short by-the-glass menu. Burgundy and Champagne, German and Basque whites and, further out, a low-intervention Chinese Cabernet. Shi curates it herself in concert with wine director Matt Turner. Many bottles are in the $60\u201380 range, so there\u2019s room to experiment. It\u2019s a setup sure to excite enthusiasts; for agnostics and casuals, it’s an unintimidating entr\u00e9e to a tasty glass or three.<\/p>\n

The flavors read unmistakably Chinese: a balance of sweet, salty, sour, umami. The kitchen is electric, so there’s no wok cookery\u2013those with visions of dumplings and stir-fry can find plenty of that nearby. These are Chinese dishes calibrated to a Western audience; a knife and fork are necessary for some. Tiles of crisp celtuce get briny depth from slivers of kombu jelly, but the veg becomes a dish with a heap of fried shallots and the pool of red vinegar in which the salad sits.<\/p>\n

These are Chinese dishes calibrated to a Western audience; a knife and fork are necessary for some.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The shao bing bread is reminiscent of a croissant in both shape and construction with lamination and an ooze of butter, but doesn’t carry much flavor alone; it does, however, mop up sauce. Speaking of, the sweet and sour beef short rib arrives coated in a deep-burgundy cherry-and-molasses sauce whose richness and spoon-coating consistency feel like a demi-glace, but don’t hold me to that. Braising leaves the hunk of meat tender, but a quick fry before saucing tightens the protein to give it texture. It pulls clean off the bone, but retains a pleasing chew. The aforementioned knife and fork are the way in here; the chopsticks are useless unless one hacks the rib into morsels before and digging in\u2014which, considering increased surface area means more sauce\u2014is recommended.<\/p>\n

\"Black
\nPhotograph: Julien Levy for Time OutBlack rice pudding from Lei <\/p>\n

Dinner closes on a black rice pudding studded with beans and orange rind, topped with vanilla ice cream and sticky toffee sauce; nothing stuns alone, but together it’s a satisfying, not-too-sweet finish with some nice texture. Portions run small but with proper server-guided ordering, nobody is at risk of leaving hungry.<\/p>\n

Reservations open two weeks out, and Lei was already one of the hardest tables in town before it won the James Beard Award for Best New Restaurant in June 2026<\/a>. Lei<\/a>\u00a0is open for dinner Wednesday through Sunday, 5pm\u2013midnight. Book ahead<\/a>, though the room holds some seats for walk-ins each night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lei is a small, pretty wine bar tucked into Doyers St, Chinatown’s elbow-shaped, pedestrian-only stretch of storefronts. Owner…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":979499,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,10633,405,403,65560,5226,5225,5228,5227,988,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-979498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-america","tag-categories-restaurants","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-news-drinking","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-restaurants","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117035774143019142","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/979498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=979498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/979498\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/979499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=979498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=979498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=979498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}