NAN XIANG XLB / W 33 St
I went to the original Nan Xiang in flushing many years ago, and remember it being delicious. Delicate wrappers, flavorful filling, ladies making the xlb while you watched.
The “new” Nan Xiang seems like a completely different restaurant with only the name in common.
Our meal was generally fine, parts of it good, just not what I was expecting, I guess.
The soup dumplings were larger than bite size with a thicker wrapper than I recalled, but the wrapper and the filling were both tender. We also ordered vegetable dumplings, which were huge, and filled with bright greens, but not particularly flavorful.
You might have guessed we had a vegetarian eater… so we also ordered pan-fried vegetable noodles, which were very tasty. I also suggested the black fungus starter, which was new to my vegetarian friend, but very well received. The dressing was lighter on vinegar than I’ve had, but it was a good entry point.
We rounded out with an order of lions head meatballs — these were the deep-fried-and-coated-with-a-bit-of-sauce version, not braised. Very tasty, if a bit skewed to sweet.
The space is large and bright, the staff was very nice, and there was plenty of room so they did not mind that we lingered long after we finished eating, which we very much appreciated (we kept looking up to see if they needed the table back or wanted us to go, and they were happy to just leave us be, refilling water and tea both while we sat).
So if I had not been expecting something different, I’d have said this is a pleasant spot for a bite in the Penn station area that isn’t Korean.
Dim Sum Palace has an outpost right across the street, and there were two Korean places on the block that I want to try now — Hutaoli and Rib No 7 — anyone been to either?
