Nan Xiang Xiao Long Bao is one of those XLB restaurants that is not often brought up in the XLB fights because it’s not that accessible. The original location is in Flushing, so it’s a bit far from Manhattan. Many people do end up going to Joe’s Shanghai to get their fix, but fortunately now a Manhattan location of this restaurant has opened in Koreatown. I had originally gone to the Flushing location and said the following:

I had visited Ippudo twice before this time throughout my whole life, once in London and once in the East Village. This original post just had a comment of “Overrated and pricey. I’d skip here any day of the week. Daikokuya in LA is way better”. Because I didn’t take pics of my dinner nearly 4 years ago, I thought about revisiting this Midtown location to try to remember why I was underwhelmed.

This is an updated review for the Midtown / Times Square (Theater District) location for Ichiran. I had been to the original Bushwick location years ago, and I didn’t take pictures nor remembered much about it. The only thing I wrote down was it was a much better version of Shinsengumi. Shinsengumi was a popular Torrance (California) restaurant that served hakata style ramen. They also allowed you to select your flavor profiles, and it was far less busy than Ichiran.

So bad. The lomo saltado is really dry. Can’t seem to find a decent lomo saltado in NYC.

Pretty good bento boxing place. A little pricey but no need to tip.

Across from Bryant Park. Expensive AF chocolate ($3 pp), but the other desserts were amazing. Really good chocolate though.

The Christmas log is good. A lot of Frenchy desserts.

Terrible BBQ. Go here for cheap stale dry meats in tourist hell. Oh apparently it’s permanently closed.

Interesting bar. Bar upstairs is cool. Piano bar downstairs is really KEWL.