Photo: Jenna Marotta
Dumpling spots are a dime a dozen (just look at the ones that recently opened in the East Village and Chinatown), but Chinese native Li Zheng says the restaurant he’ll open Monday, Hibachi Dumpling Express, is “a new concept.”
“We always were trying to open a dumpling store,” he says, “but the only thing is that dumplings are too simple. So we added hibachi.” In addition to selling a side dish of dumplings from a generations-old recipe, Hibachi Dumpling serves up hibachi-style teriyaki chicken, beef and shrimp.
Zheng outside Hibachi Dumpling (Photo: Kate Beaudoin)
Located on First Avenue between 13th and 14th Streets (just a few blocks over from another newcomer, Mimi’s Dumplings) this is actually the second Hibachi Dumpling to open in the past month. There’s another location on 23rd Street, between Second and Third Avenues, and yet another one coming to Harlem within a month. The grand plan, Zheng says, is to open 15 within the year.
Zheng isn’t new to the restaurant business; he owned a restaurant in Washington, D.C. called Saiku Hibachi before moving to New York two months ago. But at the end of the day, he says, “It’s the dumpling. Everybody likes dumplings.”
Click on the menu below to see what else is on offer.
Hibachi Dumpling Express, 229 First Ave., nr. 14th St., East Village