August Gatherings

"August Gatherings, a high-end restaurant in Chinatown has expanded further south in Manhattan with the equally-luxe Cantonese spot: Yao." - Emma Orlow

"August Gatherings, temporarily closed due to kitchen renovations, is another prominent example of revamped Cantonese cuisine utilizing distinguished ingredients." - Robert Sietsema

"August Gatherings has been serving the best Cantonese food in Manhattan for quite some time—it's elegant and creative and extraordinary. There are two dishes that really blow me out of the water. First, the wild octopus and bone marrow fusilli, which is a wok-fried take on Michelin-starred Marea's signature pasta. Second, the oven-roasted Angus short rib is a fall-off-the-bone short rib slow-cooked in goose fat, flash-seared in a wok, and served with oyster sauce and broccoli." "

"This largely overlooked Chinese haute cuisine spot, located on the western stretch of Canal Street in Chinatown, offers many tofu options, such as freshly made bean curd with foie gras, and baked eel in spicy tofu. A specialty of the house is a mainstay of Huaiyang cuisine supposedly invented by a Buddhist monk named Wensi. The recipe involves laboriously hand-shredding tofu and placing it in a consommé made by boiling chickens, ducks, and ham. The result is an extremely agreeable soup with the tofu behaving a little like hand-pulled noodles." - Robert Sietsema

"August Gatherings, serving premium Cantonese fusion cuisine, closed in March and reopened in August. The restaurant faced challenges with limited outdoor seating and high commission fees from delivery platforms. By creating WeChat groups, the restaurant reconnected with former customers and now has 7,000 loyal customers across 15 groups, accounting for one-third of its orders each month." - Tony Lin