Photo (modified): Ilya Kapovich
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After months of buildup, signage installations, and steady food-world chatter, one of the Upper East Side’s most-anticipated Chinese restaurant debuts of the year has quietly opened its doors. There’s no grand opening yet, no reservation system, and no fanfare — just walk-in service, a soft-opening menu, and a kitchen run by a chef who has spent multiple years on the James Beard Award semifinalist list.
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The restaurant is Cafe Mandarin, now serving at 1239 First Avenue at the corner of East 67th Street. The roughly 40-seat dining room began its soft opening earlier in April, with hours running Monday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. According to the restaurant’s website, walk-in is currently the only way to grab a table.Cafe Mandarin marks the Manhattan debut for the team behind O Mandarin, the regional Chinese destination that opened in Hartsdale in 2017 and has since expanded to Long Island. The group is led by Chef Eric Guo — a multi-year James Beard Award semifinalist for his work at the Hartsdale flagship — and owner Peter Liu, whose restaurants have drawn a steady stream of national press attention.
The soft-opening menu leans into regional Chinese cooking — Sichuan, Hunan, and Mandarin classics — alongside an extensive dim sum and dumpling lineup. Among the standouts: chicken truffle soup dumplings wrapped in squid ink dough, jasmine tea-smoked duck, Mandarin braised pork belly with Japanese pumpkin, a Famous Chengdu Fish Soup featuring fluke fillet and Chinese sour cabbage, and a thousand-layer tofu listed under chef’s recommendations. Pricing on most mains lands in the low-to-mid $20s, with appetizers and dim sum starting around $10.
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The opening lands in a stretch of the Upper East Side where Chinese restaurants of every stripe — from fast-casual chains to regional specialists — have been rapidly multiplying. Eater reported on the project last November, citing Liu’s plans for dumplings, duck, Sichuan hot pots, and fried whole fish in the Manhattan space. The Hartsdale flagship, meanwhile, has earned attention from writers including Esquire’s Jeff Gordinier, who has singled out O Mandarin’s dan dan noodles and thousand-layer tofu, and Forbes critic John Mariani, who has praised the restaurant’s ambitious approach to regional Chinese cooking.Have a news tip? Send it to us here!
