Had a chance to go see my acupuncturist in Chinatown while I was in NYC. My body is falling apart on me these days from being on my feet all day, everyday. Dr. Wu on Baxter– he’s the best!

So as is my Chinatown/Dr. Wu ritual, I went out for my XLB fix. There’s nothing like soup dumplings to keep your calm after having a dozen pins pricked into your body. Usually, I go to Shanghai Cafe, but I wanted to try Nice Green Bo, as I had heard a lot about it but never tried when I lived there.

Until recently, the place was called NEW Green Bo. Now it’s NICE Green Bo. See how they covered the sign? Hilarious.

Lots of accolades.

The place was PACKED! I was alone so was seated right away– I love sitting next to random strangers at the big round tables, it’s so New York. I shared a pot of tea with the couple next to me, it was nice. I have to say that I love going out and eating solo in NYC– at the risk of sounding cliche, it’s “liberating”.

I didn’t even give the server a chance to give me the menu and ordered the pork and crab XLB right away. It’s the only way to go!

The skin was thick and held everything together without breaking apart. It’s heartbreaking when the soup just collapses on you– which is the result of dumpling skin that is not thick enough, and bad chopstick skills.

Surprisingly, the soup was dark and more soy based, so it was more salty than what I was used to. But the crab was still moist (it has the tendency to dry out). No pork stinkiness, which is always appreciated at Chinatown joints.

Overall, they were delicious, as far as XLB goes. I hear the scallion pancakes are awesome too, but I wanted to go get Great NY Noodletown after this so I didn’t order anything else. Exercising restraint!

Also, Dr. Wu always tells me, “Stay hungry.” Yessir.

Happy Year of the TIGRRRRR!

NICE GREEN BO
66 Bayard Street
NYC
T: 212.625.2359