Lei Wine

It feels like the conversation between old Chinatown and new New York, sitting somewhere between a neighborhood wine bar and an inventive Chinese kitchen. Every dish is rooted in tradition while stepping confidently into new territory. The plates are made for sharing, and by the end of the night, everyone reaches the same conclusion: get the short rib and do not skip dessert. The scallop crudo is an immediate standout. Thick, buttery slices offset by earthy shiitake and chrysanthemum capers for salinity. The fritto of montauk whiting takes a heavier route. The fish remains fairly moist beneath the crisp coating, while the fried seaweed contributes crunch, salt, and oceanic depth. Then comes the sweet and sour beef short rib, the dish you'll remember. Fork tender meat from the bone, glazed in a balanced sauce that's sweet and tangy. Alongside it steamed rice with taro provides subtle sweetness and a welcome upgrade from standard white rice. To finish, the rice pudding topped with sticky toffee is creamy, chewy, caramelized, and impossible to stop eating. Creative spots often forget comfort, and comfort spots often forget creativity Lei manages both.

Lei is a wine bar serving Chinese cuisine. I love the concept, but I walked out not loving the restaurant. It has too many issues, everything shy of perfect. But then again, Lei has only been open for a year. I think the place will be amazing in two years once they’ve sorted out all the kinks. First, the awesome parts. The wine list is amazing. Lei is not about having some big names at a high markup. No, Lei’s wine list features interesting, great quality, less well-known producers with a modest markup. Unlike most wine bars, Lei will open only a few bottles each night to sell by the glass, ensuring that every glass you get tastes fresh and at its best. They love wine, they want to make wine more accessible, and they want people to try new bottles to fall in love with. Also, get the eight treasures sticky rice pudding dessert. Simply delicious. Now, the less-than-awesome parts. The biggest issue for me is the food. The cooking style is minimalist for the sake of minimalism. It lacks complexity or harmony, both with itself and with the wine. It’s like you start with the wonderful Chinese cuisine, and then you pluck out everything that makes the cuisine so great until you’re left with something akin to salmon with asparagus over rice, or a “lunch of suffering”. Take the celtuce dish. So beautiful to look at. Until you take a bite and realize that it’s just fried shallots and vinegar with nothing else going on flavor-wise. So one-dimensional. While this might make for a refreshing amuse bouche, it absolutely does not pair with wine, just acid on acid with no contrast. Same with the cheung fun. It’s disjoint spring greens flavored only with soy sauce. Sure, it has more premium ingredients, but frankly cheung fun carts make tastier food. It was too lean to contrast with wine, and the soy sauce would pair better with with Asian spirits rather than wine. The ham with fruit was just oily with nothing done to make the ingredients shine. For a wine bar, it’s surprising how little consideration there was for how the food will pair with wine. Start with cheung fun, but think about what kind of sauce will bridge it with the wine. Minimalism is hard to do right. Really hard. Much harder to develop than a recipe with dozens of ingredients. Let’s take a look at one of the most legendary minimalist artists, the perfumer Jean-Claude Ellena, whose compositions are often compared with watercolors. He can create beautiful compositions with only six ingredients when forty would be more typical. How does he do it? By ensuring that each component has a role to play, creating “illusions” through pairings and contrasts that are greater than the sums of their parts; think about how the Coke syrup is primarily vanilla, lime, and cinnamon, but nobody thinks of these components when drinking Coke. Everything must blend and transition seamlessly with no rough edges poking out. Each composition must go through so many iterations until it feels right. At Lei, that is clearly not the case. If JCE’s work is like watercolor, Lei’s cooking is like crayons, where it is impossible for colors to blend together like oil pastels do. The components simply do not blend nor harmonize. There were also errors with the wine service, something unexpected at a wine bar. My bottle of Californian chardonnay arrived at fridge temp, much colder than the “correct” serving temperature, dulling its aroma and flavor. And I understand that it’s cramped because it’s NYC and rent is sky-high, but the extremely loud music just makes the space feel even smaller.

Been to Lei Wine Bar twice now and have enjoyed my experiences! The atmosphere is my favorite part as its comforting and cozy but the playlist keeps lively so you can feel a vibrant energy when you walk in. The wine list is bigger than expected and has something for everyone's palate. Since it is a wine bar initially my expectations are aimed toward simple food but the kitchen at Lei is doing anything but that. Highly recommend the chicken and short rib, you wont be disappointed.

Beautiful meal. Usually I’m skeptical about Chinese fusion, but everything was executed perfectly at Lei. The celtuce had a delightful crunch, which was paired nicely with a rich, but light and slightly tangy sauce. The Cabbage with yuba and morels was also very warming and had a great depth of flavour without being too heavy. We also ordered the shao bing, which, while simple was delightfully crunchy and paired nicely with the slab of butter inside. The mains, however, were the real star of the show. Many come for the sweet and sour beef short rib, and I will say it’s a must order. It pairs wonderfully with the side of rice, and it is very tender and flavourful. The Hand-rolled cat’s ear noodle with lamb braised in cumin and tomato was also very special. The noodles come out perfectly al dente, and the broth is, again, rich and fragrant without being overbearing. Surprisingly, I also really liked the Eight treasure rice pudding with sticky toffee. It was a great twist on a traditional Chinese dessert, and the slightly salty caramel paired with the ice cream and sticky rice was a nice conclusion to the meal. The wines on offer were also excellent, especially the dessert wine. We tried a South African straw wine, which was very very special and unique. Overall one of my favourite meals in New York as of yet. Very innovative, very hard to book, but very worth it.