Cha Cha Tang Brings Modern Chinese Fare to Greenwich Village

It is rare for a pop-up to move seamlessly to permanent status, with few changes to the menu or lapses in time. But such was the case with Cha Cha Tang, at 10 Downing Street, entrance on Sixth Avenue. It’s the latest project of Wilson Tang, the reviver of Nom Wah Tea Parlor, Chinatown’s oldest restaurant, which he helped revamp in 2011, a pioneer of a Cantonese rebirth.

Substituting the name of restaurateur Tang, the name puns on “cha chaan teng,” a type of establishment often described as a Hong Kong diner, serving dim sum, toasts, eggs, Spam-and-macaroni soups, and dishes that display influences including British, Japanese, and Portuguese. Aspects of this cuisine have long been part of Chinese American restaurants, along with newer cha chaan tengs in Chinatown, like S. Wan and Mabu Cafe.

Dan Ahn/Cha Cha Tang

Cha Cha Tang merged into John McDonald’s Hancock Street in the Village in the middle of May, scheduled to run Sundays and Mondays through the end of June. It continued throughout the summer and in early fall took over the space on a full-time basis. McDonald (of Lure Fishbar and Bowery Meat Co.) and Tang are current co-owners, and Doron Wong is the chef.

I went in late May to the pop-up and was blown away. The bouncy turnip cakes seen in dim sum parlors sweeping by on carts were bigger and more firm, laminated with taro for crunch and served with hoisin mayo, but still easily recognizable as turnip cakes.

Other transformations were more profound. Pork-and-shrimp siu mai arrived obscured by Japanese elements including tobiko, bonito flakes, and kewpie mayonnaise. But the macaroni soup with wontons and Spam was a rendition accurate in every way, except common elements had been upgraded, such as a chicken broth that was darker and more deeply flavorful, and English peas that didn’t taste poured from a can. And, nostalgically, the wontons evoked Nom Wah in their slightly firmer perfection.

Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

When the former Hancock St was declared Cha Cha Tang’s permanent home, a neon sign with the name of the restaurant burned over the door, but the décor and layout had changed little from the former tenant: wood paneling in a series of small dining rooms, with scooped-out booths surrounded by mirrors. Vintage black-and-white photos of Chinese families leaned against the walls, and the main dining room sported Chinese silk fabric on the walls.

In the permanent iteration (which recently opened for weekend dim sum brunch), lush egg rolls ($15) are festooned with microgreens but still flaunting a familiar filling of pork, shrimp, and Napa cabbage; the pastry itself is the focus of attention here. It was flaky as all get-out, and the sweet and sour plum sauce didn’t come from a bottle, either: Utterly satisfying. The eggplant appetizer might have come from any modern upscale Chinese restaurant — sweet, salty, and squishy as it glistens in the bowl.

The duck sliders (two for $18) – they had not been on the pop-up menu – are a wonderful transformation of the steamed bao such as those once sold from a window in Flushing near the subway station. Here, lacquered slivers of roast duck are crowded into a northern Chinese sesame bread, giving the sandwich a great crunch-squish ratio and an enduringly sweet flavor. A slice of fresh red chile on top is an invitation as well as a warning. For those who love the duck, it can be ordered whole ($115).

Dan Ahn/Cha Cha Tang

The macaroni soup ($18) is still not to be missed, but most of the main courses on the new menu are more substantial and easier to share. Chicken curry was mildly disappointing, since it’s too sweet. Go instead for the steamed branzino ($37), a good-size filet flavored with ginger, caramelized soy sauce broth, and fermented black beans often used to season Cantonese seafood. Even better was the XO fried rice ($28), hopping with scallops, shrimp, and lobster, seasoned with Hong Kong’s pungent XO sauce.

This being a dressed-up dining spot, there are plenty of drinks in all categories. The one that interested me most was a martini – one of three novel ones offered – based on vodka laced with both black tea and espresso, the latter two often mixed as a breakfast beverage in Hong Kong, sweetened with condensed milk. It’s not to my liking, though a noble experiment in mixology. Go instead for a floral cocktail called the Eau Claire ($18), composed of gin sweetened with Lillet, which itself tastes of herbs and fruit macerations, to which St. Germain (elderflower liqueur) and Italicus (a bergamot-flavored Italian liqueur) have been added. The upshot? A delicious drink that will remind you of summer’s flowers as the season wanes: Not a bad thing to sip with an egg roll.