Husband-and-wife team Bolun and Linette Yao of August Hospitality Group opened Yingtao in Hell’s Kitchen in late 2023. Named after Bolun’s late grandmother, the modern Chinese restaurant earned a Michelin star within its first year and is currently New York City’s only Michelin-starred Chinese tasting-menu restaurant. Executive chef Emily Yuen leads the kitchen, serving a seasonal tasting menu.
Designed by Glen & Co. Architecture, the 38-seat dining room pairs high-gloss black walls with lacquered red accents inspired by the cherry behind Yingtao’s name. An open kitchen, duck-aging display, custom cherry-tree mirror, and case of limited-edition sneakers and memorabilia reflect Bolun’s personal style. A hip-hop playlist and collaborations with emerging Asian and Asian American creatives extend that sensibility beyond the dining room.
Yuen came to Yingtao after working in French and Japanese fine-dining restaurants. Although she grew up cooking and eating Chinese food at home, she had never cooked it professionally. At Yingtao, she reinterprets traditional dishes while exploring her Chinese heritage.
“I knew that I wanted to continue cooking Asian food and exploring that. I was like, ‘I’m never cooking French food again in my life,’” says Yuen. “There are so many Michelin-starred Korean restaurants in New York now. The goal here is to uplift Chinese cuisine in that way, to be the pioneers of that for Chinese food.”
Cooking at Yingtao has allowed Yuen to use the flavors of her childhood as reference points in a professional kitchen for the first time.
“Me and my parents, we only ate Chinese food. I’m remembering things that I had, flavors I had when I was a kid—but it was never in a fancy setting,” says Yuen. “It’s also a journey into studying Chinese food more, because I didn’t think about it consciously before.”
Yuen has also begun exploring regional cooking from across China, looking beyond the Sichuan food already widely represented in the United States.
“Especially in New York, it feels like everyone is copying each other. They all have similar menus because that’s what they think American people want to eat,” says Yuen.
The changing menu has included a take on lo mai gai, with sticky rice, lap cheong, and salted duck yolk stuffed inside a glazed, deboned chicken wing. It has also featured wontons filled with Berkshire pork and tiger prawn in a layered superior stock.
Curated by Linette Yao, Yingtao’s beverage program includes wines emphasizing small producers and sustainable practices, cocktails incorporating Asian flavors, and baijiu served by the pour or as a guided flight. Cocktails have included the Yingtao Sour, made with cherry and rose-cardamom tea, and Her Name Is Jade, combining jasmine gin, osmanthus, and yuzu. The baijiu selection spans phoenix, strong, and sauce aromas.
