Earlier this year, we went to Jue Lan Club, a restaurant located where the Limelight used to be that serves upscale Chinese cuisine in an incredible setting. This place is huge and we only saw the main dining room that was beautiful, especially the murals on the walls that added to the aesthetic of the place.
The menu there is quite overwhelming, with specialty dishes marked with a crown. But there are so many that ordering each of them would be a gargantuan meal. They have classic Chinese dishes like the Spring rolls that you can either get vegetarian, with duck or lobster (we had the former), their crispy scallion pancakes that are exactly what the name says and some of the best we had, or vegetable dim sum. But, an elevated version is their edamame dumplings that were served with a truffle miso broth giving a delicate touch to a very tasty dumpling.
Of course, I could not not try some of their non-vegetarian dishes and started with their honey maple glazed spare ribs that, although not falling off the bone were delicious, smothered by this superb glaze that had a nice sweetness to it.
And then, for the entree, I went for the Jue Lan Lo mein that is one of their specialties made with lobster, shrimp and chicken. This is one of their signature dishes that I highly recommend: with lots of protein, the lobster being the elevating element, it was really tasty and I had to restrain myself from not eating the whole dish that can be shared.
But I wanted dessert also and after much hesitation, we decided to go with their warm apple donuts that were served with vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce. What you would never guess about these donuts is that they are like a croissant bread pudding stuffed with an apple cinnamon filling. Quite big, they were piping hot, slightly crispy on the outside. I highly recommend this!
I should mention their cocktails: I got their Smoky Samurai that is one of their signature cocktails made with Hibiki Suntory whiskey, homemade Demerara syrup, angostura bitters, an orange peel for decoration, that was smoked with apple wood chips.
Overall, we had a wonderful meal at Jue Lan Club: the food there is amazing and I cannot wait to go back and try some other dishes that seem fantastic!
Enjoy (I did)!
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Jue Lan Club - 49 W 20th St, New York, NY 10011