Lei

The best new restaurant in America in 2026 turned out to be a wine bar on the bend of Doyers Street, with the cases stacked to the ceiling and the tables spilling into the alley. Annie Shi and Patty Lee took the James Beard for it in June. Start with the chilled celtuce under shallots and red wine vinegar, which the MICHELIN inspector calls essential.

Why go

The kitchen is as small as the room and the guide's point is that neither wastes an inch. It comes out as modern Chinese cooking: fried whiting with seaweed, scallops with lily buds and ginger, hand-rolled noodles under braised lamb.

Shi named it for her older sister, who died in 2004 when Shi was fourteen. Her father is from Shanghai and her mother from Dalian, she grew up in Rego Park and came into Manhattan's Chinatown to shop, and this is her first room outside her partnerships in King and Jupiter.3 6 Patty Lee cooks it on an all-electric kitchen, and the rule she works to is that they serve no dumplings and no roasted meats, because the master chefs up the block already do.6 3

Order this / avoid

Order: the chilled celtuce. The guide's word for it is essential.1
Order: the hand-rolled noodles with braised lamb, if you want one thing on the table that eats like dinner. Lee built that ragu off the Uyghur lagman at Kashkar Cafe out in Brighton Beach.3
Order: the shao bing, layers laminated with an oil-and-flour roux and served straight out of the oven with a slab of cold butter pushed into it.3
Avoid: the preserved-radish omelet. The kitchen is too small to whisk eggs to order, so it arrives as a pre-made tortilla, and Ligaya Mishan found it stodgy on her visits.3
Do treat it as a wine bar. That is what Annie Shi built: Eater records her intent as a place to stop for a glass before or after dinner somewhere else on the block, and Ligaya Mishan reads the room as an exemplar of the form rather than a restaurant with a short menu.6 3

What locals & experts say

Ligaya Mishan, reviewing it for The New York Times on 6 January 2026, a Critic's Pick at two stars: the wine list is abundant and thrilling, balancing adventure and esoterica with respect for one's elders.3
MICHELIN Guide New York, read 3 September 2026: In the beating heart of Chinatown on Doyers Street, Annie Shi's little wine bar is a gift to the city. The inspector adds that this talented team doesn't waste a single square inch of space, and that includes the kitchen, which turns out smart, thoughtful modern Chinese dishes.1
Laura Ratliff, Time Out New York, 16 June 2026: Lei won Best New Restaurant, one of the evening's most coveted awards at the James Beard Awards in Chicago, and she reports the room has become one of the city's hardest reservations to snag thanks to its Chinese-inspired menu paired with a famously encyclopedic wine list.2
Nadia Chaudhury, Eater NY's Northeast deputy editor, filing a dining report on 13 November 2025, on how to eat here: Solo dinners or small group hangs where people aren't mega-hungry — most of the menu is portioned on the smaller side.5

Good to know

Booking: essential.
Prices, November 2025: the celtuce ran $15, the cat's ear noodles $27 and the eight-treasure pudding $16.5
The list: Matt Turner is the wine director, and the room made the James Beard Foundation's own Best New Restaurant semifinalist ballot in January 2026 before it won in June.3 8
Standing: Ligaya Mishan kept it on the Times' 2026 hundred best, at the paper's two stars.4
If the celtuce is gone: Eater's own map of the city's thirty-eight points at the scallops with shiitake and chrysanthemum capers, and at Lady Edison Jin Hua ham with fruit.7

Jeff's take (his words)

Note: "James Beard award best new restaurant 2026." That checks out against the June 2026 awards.

Verdict

must-visit — Twenty-four seats, so book it or take a stool and drink. The servers pour half-glasses at half the full-glass price, which is the cheap way through a list this deep.

Lei.

Lei