Chinatown just became cool again thanks to China Live.
China Live isn’t so much a restaurant as it is a marketplace. If that’s hard to imagine, imagine the setup of Eataly, which many of you have probably been to. Now take that setup and make everything Chinese. That’s China Live, and it’s awesome.
The space, nestled away in Chinatown, is unassuming from the outside but massive on the inside, spanning an entire floor. There are eight “stations,” each specializing in some sort of Chinese cuisine. Diners can sit close to a station of their choice or else sit in the main dining area and be served, which is what we opted to do.
The menu is much more diverse than any other Chinese restaurant I’ve ever been to. There are some familiar dishes, like Kung Pao chicken, and then reimagined versions of other dishes, like the Peking duck wrapped in a sesame hot pocket. And then there are dishes I’ve simply never seen before, like the soy panna cotta with honey and puffed barley.
Everything about China Live seems, well, alive. It aims to be a bustling part of the Chinatown community while bringing to light what Chinese cuisine is and can be. It’ll be exciting to see how the menu and space continue to evolve, and I wouldn’t be surprised if this time next year, it becomes a new culinary destination.
China Live
644 Broadway Ave
Open for lunch and dinner
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