Such a cuuute spot with a wine-bar menu built on sentimental Chinese foods and flavours. One of the harder reservations to get these days, but it’s worth going in person to ask for one—they’re often happy to sneakily save you some of the space usually reserved for walk-ins.

The chilled celtuce, one of their signatures, is a crisp yet familiar combination of textures and flavours, bringing back memories of tending to the stemmy plants in my mom’s community garden plot and the (not as tasty) stir-fries we used to make with just salt, wood-ear mushrooms, and maybe some overly scrambled eggs.

I loved how the sesame shao bing, a crunchy and chewy layered flatbread, is elevated in execution but not in composition, its minimalism a rebuttal to the soft and fluffy brioches and sourdoughs you’d usually find.

Similarly with the sweet and sour short ribs it pairs perfectly with, a large cube of beef standing in a pool of glossy glaze. The simplicity in each bite manages to elegantly belie the technique involved in caramelising the sugar, reducing the sauce, and whatever they did to keep the meat so tender?

I think my only criticism is on the Sabre chopsticks they use—they’re very aesthetique but so clumsy to use!

But maybe that’s part of the charm.