New Midtown Chinese spot has the best dumplings in town even better than Din Tai Fung
If you’re looking for dumplings to celebrate Chinese New Year, which begins tomorrow, run, do not walk, to the new Blue Blossom (108 W.39th St., Midtown).Its various and varied dumplings — soup-filled, roasted and fried — are the best collectively of any place I’ve been.
They reflect the skills of partners Wang Lin Qun and his wife Fang Fang, who earned kudos for their CheLi on St.Marks Place in the East Village..Blue Blossom is an eye-pleasing, 200-seater on two levels supposedly inspired by the “traditional Chinese concept of qinghua,” its website says, referring both to the color blue and blue-and-white porcelain seen on every table.
Although fine for partying, it’s uptown-comfortable with a mix of upholstered booths and banquettes, round tables and a cozy front bar.The smaller mezzanine is more intimate and better for couples.Unlike Shanghai-focused CheLi, Blue Blossom offers dishes from other Chinese regions.The illustrated twenty-page menu can seem daunting at first glance, but it’s easy to follow and six of the pages merely announce categories.The first three display the main reason to go: the dumplings.
They come out of a small open kitchen window where a single chef — unlike the army behind glass at much-in-the-news Din Tai Fung near Times Square — somehow turns them out with remarkable efficiency and attention to detail.Start with the “signature” bao platter ($14 for seven), a colorful array of soup dumplings that taste as good as their candy-like hues suggest.The white-skinned one in the middle is a skillful rendition of the classic pork-and-crab blend.
One with black skin harbors fragrant black truffle, while a green dumpling is unusually filled with a mix of pork and cheese.They were all umami-rich, the fillings freshly prepared inside medium-thick skins.
They’re as tasty as those at Din Tai Fung, and they’re significantly larger and more satisfying.Warning: these soup dumplings don’t merely squirt — they...