RedFarm
RedFarm folds every wrapper and every filling in house, one pleat at a time, inside a landmark 1828 brownstone at 529 Hudson Street. The dumpling that made its name is the Pac-Man shrimp. There is a dedicated gluten-free dim sum list, which the restaurant says few Chinese kitchens in the city run.
Why go
The West Village room is the smaller of the two doors, and the format is dim sum plus a short list of larger plates, with Peking duck the one to plan a table around.1 Dinner runs seven nights and lunch only lands at the weekend, so a Saturday brunch here is a different meal from a Tuesday dinner. Vegetarian and vegan options run right through the card too.
Order this / avoid
- Order: the Pac-Man shrimp dumplings, then whatever else is on the dim sum list. Peking duck if there are four of you.
- Avoid: booking the wrong door. The Upper West Side room is a separate, larger space near the Beacon Theatre and it carries its own menu.
Good to know
- The door: this page is 529 Hudson Street in the West Village, near Bleecker Street.
- Who cooks: the restaurant names no chef on its own pages, and I have not found a review of the kitchen.
Verdict
could-visit — Bring the table nobody else can feed. A group with a coeliac in it, a vegetarian, and somebody who has already decided on Peking duck is a hard booking anywhere in the Village, and this kitchen takes all three without asking any of them to eat a compromise. That is what I would use it for, and it is not what I would book for a dinner of two.