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You Need To Try This Chinatown

“Sai Woo” Staff Tasting On The Night Before Opening

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by Andrew Morrison | The long awaited Sai Woo restaurant opens at 158 East Pender St. in Chinatown this evening at 5pm. I was there last night as the staff were being schooled on co-owner/chef Douglas Chang’s food and barman Justin Anello’s cocktails.

I won’t go into detail about the many dishes and drinks I tried, save to mention a couple things of special note: the “cola” wings are insanely good (use the lime provided); puncture the tea egg and let the yolk run over the tea smoked albacore; and be sure to order the sweet and oaky smoky lapsang sauchong-inflected Smoking Gun cocktail.

The 188 seat restaurant (main floor and basement lounge) has been a very long time coming, so it’s nice to see it finally ready for prime time. Last night showed that the kitchen and bar have their shit together. Now we’ll see how they and the floor staff handle the bumrush. We wish the entire team the best of luck. Break a leg!

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