Joe's Shanghai

"“My apartment was literally five minutes away in a car. You can order their soup dumplings via delivery and they get to you still hot, or you can go there and eat them and they're just the best. They're best, of course, if you eat them in person. Those pork soup dumplings are heaven. There's nothing like a New York winter day getting those dumplings. I always burn the roof of my mouth because I can't wait. I’ve just got to eat them.”" - brennan carley

"The latest edition of Joe’s Shanghai is on Bowery, around the corner from the first Chinatown branch on Pell, and it occupies a much grander space, with multiple dining rooms arranged around a carryout counter. The soup dumplings — first popularized in the city in the ’90s at the original branch in Flushing — are as good as ever, served with or without a lump of crab, eight to a giant steamer. Other Shanghai delights include braised gluten, eel with chives, and fish fingers with seaweed." - Robert Sietsema

"Though in a different location back then, this is where it all started 25 years ago — the popularization of soup dumplings in New York City. There are other branches in Flushing and MIdtown, but the long xiao bao here are still the best, tossed helter skelter into the steamer." - Robert Sietsema

"Enjoy authentic dim sum at Joe’s Shanghai in Chinatown." - Travel + Leisure Editors

"New York City's Chinese and Chinese American populations total around 570,000, making this the largest concentration of Chinese outside the mother country. The first Chinatown in Manhattan dates to the 1870s, and while it continues to grow, it has also been joined by other Chinatowns, including one in Flushing, Queens. That is where Joe's Shanghai opened its first location, in 1995—though the two in Manhattan, on Pell Street in Chinatown and West 56th Street in Midtown, will be more convenient for most travelers. You can expect a wait for a table, and when you are seated you may be sharing it with strangers. The restaurant can be noisy, and as soon as you have finished your meal, you'll be encouraged to settle up and leave. In other words, people don't come here for the atmosphere or the service. Instead, the excellent and generous renditions of favorite Chinese dishes, especially the restaurant's signature soup dumplings, are the draw. The dumplings are served in bamboo steamer baskets and each one holds a pork or crab meatball in a hot broth, all wrapped up in a doughy package. It may prove to be the most flavorful moment of your trip to New York."