What to Eat at China Blue, Now Open in Tribeca

The old Capsouto Frères space has been renovated. Photo: Melissa Hom

Yiming Wang and Xian Zhang, the proprietors of the two-year-old Michelin-starred Murray Hill restaurant Café China, have opened a sister restaurant on Watts Street in the old Capsouto Frères space. Like its uptown counterpart, the dining room has been painted in cool shades of blue, with design flourishes throughout, such as antique typewriters meant to evoke Shanghai in the thirties. But while Café China focuses on Sichuan cuisine and dishes like pork dumplings bathed in chili oil, the expansive menu at China Blue is all about the cuisine of Shanghai, replete with subtle flavor combinations and more seafood all around. It includes radish-and-clam soup, braised tofu with king-crab meat, free-range drunken chicken, sautéed rice cakes with mustard greens, and lots and lots of dumplings. A look at the space, including many of the dishes, and the menu, straight ahead.