NYCReview
photo credit: CheLi
CheLi
Included In
Take a moment to picture the anarchic realm of St. Marks between 2nd and 3rd Avenues. See the puffing clouds of blueberry vapes, the exodus of NYU juniors toting packs of pore-minimizing face masks, and the folding chair in front of Mamoun’s where a man dressed like the year 1983 asks if you’re interested in adding CBD to your falafel.
Now, imagine the opposite: the peaceful chortle of a waterfall, friends clinking Tsingtao bottles under indoor thatched roofs, wafts of beautifully smoked fish and braised pork slick and glossy in a caramelized soy sauce. CheLi, a serene, banquet-style Shanghainese restaurant, exists just a staircase away from the belly of St. Marks, but you’d never know it once you’re inside.
New York has plenty of places to eat Shanghainese food with a group (you could walk 50 steps from CheLi and ride off into the sunset with a bunch of xiao long bao at The Bao). Even still, we can’t think of many restaurants overtly spotlighting food from the Jiangnan region surrounding Shanghai — an area known for its seafood-dominant cuisine that incorporates plenty of sugar, soy, and Chinese rice wine from the Zhejiang province.
Our favorite ordering method at CheLi relies mainly on fish and crustaceans, like meaty Atlantic blue crab soaked in floral Shaoxing wine and sticky slices of carp that are marinated and fried until they taste smoky. But there’s plenty of delicious pork to be eaten, too — the stacks of red braised pork belly coated in a dark soy sauce, in particular, are requisite ordering. And don’t leave CheLi without trying some pillowy-fried tofu bites. Lightly dusted in mala spice and black sesame seeds, each cube crunches then squishes. We’d sneak a plate of these into a movie theater.
photo credit: CheLi
A night at CheLi could just as easily zhuzh up your average weekday as it could your next big group celebration. The energy feels festive, even on random Tuesdays in the wintertime when everyone silently wishes they lived on a different coast. Once you see the room, it won’t be hard to understand why: the place is decorated to the nines. You’ll sit underneath a hay-thatched roof with lanterns and fake dried pork sausage hanging from the wooden beams above.
Bring a couple friends for your next group dinner, whether there’s an occasion to celebrate or not. Just be aware that this place gets busy and only takes reservations for groups larger than five. (We’ve happily passed hour-and-a-half wait times at Sake Bar Decibel around the corner.) Follow our food rundown for a compilation of all of the hits we’ve tried during our meals here. Once your table is overloaded with the platonic ideal of sweet, delicate seafood and savory pork, you’ll be all set up for one of your favorite NYC Chinese meals in recent memory.
Food Rundown
photo credit: CheLi
Smoked Fish
photo credit: CheLi
Fried Tofu Bites
photo credit: Hannah Albertine
Braised Pork Belly
Wine-Soaked Atlantic Blue Crab
photo credit: Hannah Albertine