After watching a tapping of Stephen Colbert and seeing Tom Hanks (yeah) and also seeing Prince Harry (boo) where after his interview, he came towards me and asked my name and shook my hand and “said, loved your energy”. I decided to go for some dinner.

I went through my Google Maps for some saved locations to eat at, and this place tickled my fancy. It was pretty quiet when I arrived, as it was 9 pm once I got there. What attracted me to this place was their Xiao Long Bao. They had different types, and you could get six individual versions in one basket. So I had to order that, and I also decided to order the Spicy Beef Tripe dish.

Firstly the Spicy beef tripe. This dish is cold, and if you have never ordered beef tendons, you should try them and don’t be so pretentious about different cuts of an animal. The tripe was soft and slightly chewy (cooked perfectly), and the beef was super tender. I loved the spice and vinegar flavour of this dish. The seasoning also goes well with just cucumber or bean sprouts. I did ask for a bowl of rice to go with this, but they didn’t serve just plain rice here (go figure for a Chinese restaurant).

The Xiao Long baos arrived a bit later as maybe they made them to order at that time of night. I decided to try the original plain pork one first, and they just blew me away. The soup and flavours were so good. I then went for the chicken, which was so good, and both went well with the black vinegar and thinly sliced ginger. Up next was the gourd xiao long bao, and this was my least favourite. It tasted a wee bit hearty, and although it was nice didn’t do it compared to the others. Up next was the crab and pork, and that was also good. There was the scallop and pork, and this was my favourite. They use a bit of dried scallop mixed with the pork, which gives it a more distinct flavour. Man, it was so good. Then finally, was the truffle, which I purposely left last as I thought it would overpower everything else, and it certainly did.

Overall an excellent place to dine. It was clean and had good service. I loved the option of trying their different xiao long bao in one basket, especially as I went solo on this one. Well worth a try if you ever get a chance, they had different branches around the city, and I went to the highest rating one on Google.

Address: 24 W 33rd St, New York, NY 10001

Website: Nan Xiang Xiao Long Bao