Just Eat It: Nom Wah Tea Parlor

This weekend, at the recommendation of an epicure who shall remain anonymous, I headed to Nom Wah Tea Parlor on Doyers Street for dim sum with a small group of friends––most of whom had never tried dim sum before. Located on a quaint street in Chinatown, Nom Wah has been a neighborhood landmark for generations, first opening in the 1920s as a bakery and tea parlor and earning its culinary stripes with delicious lotus paste and red bean pastries. However, despite its popularity among the Chinese as a social club for neighbors to convene, gossip, and play cards, Nom Wah’s business began to decline.

In 2010, long-time owner Wally Tang bequeathed Nom Wah to his nephew Wilson, financier-cum-restaurateur, to renovate and bring back some of Nom Wah’s original vitality. The renovation process took over a year, and when the restaurant fully reopened in February 2011, the public’s reception of its menu and warmly lit look-and-feel has been remarkably good. My friends and I were no exception. Although some dishes were better than others, we'll be back again soon.

As usual, I over-ordered, but here’s a list of favorite dishes from Nom Wah Tea Parlor:
- beef cheong fun (rice rolls)
- scallion pancake
- chicken feet (it’s good, don’t grimace)
- cheong fun with fried dough (no, it’s not overkill)
- house special roast pork bun
- turnip cake with oyster sauce
- Chinese greens in oyster sauce
- shrimp and snow pea leaf dumplings
- pork siu mai dumplings
- pan fried tofu with peppers
- har kow (shrimp dumplings)
- sticky rice in bamboo leaf.

NOM WAH TEA PARLOR
13 Doyers Street (between Bowery and Pell Sts.)
New York, NY 10013
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