Joe's Shanghai (Chinatown)

Joe's Shanghai, 46 Bowery

Crab-and-pork soup dumplings you burst on a spoon

⚠ Cash only

Budget

$70-120 for two

Address

46 Bowery

The Shanghainese restaurant that put soup dumplings on New York's map. The star is crab-and-pork xiao long bao: set one on a spoon, nick the skin and hot broth spills out. The menu is as thick as a book, with fish-fragrant eggplant, kung pao chicken, Shanghai-style noodles and Peking duck. Reviewers say it moved from a cramped old room into a big, tidy space on the Bowery. It doesn't take cards, which is why there's an ATM out front.