YingTao

YingTao opened in early 2024 at 805 Ninth Avenue in Hell’s Kitchen as owners Bolun and Linette Yao’s contemporary Chinese fine-dining room. The name is Bolun’s late grandmother’s name and also means cherry in Mandarin. Executive chef Emily Yuen, a Vancouver native who cooked in Michelin kitchens abroad and later in New York with Daniel Boulud’s group and at Kajitsu, runs a focused tasting that reworks Chinese flavors through modern fine-dining technique. Michelin awards one star. The house tasting has published around $150 for seven courses; confirm before you book. Dishes that keep coming up in Michelin notes include pork-and-prawn wontons in broth, black cod on tofu with mala sauce, playful chicken-wing riffs, and coconut nian gao to close. A curved chef’s counter faces the open kitchen; the bar runs a separate à la carte menu for walk-ins. Main-room reservations usually open on a rolling thirty-day window through the house booking link. The kitchen cannot accommodate vegan or vegetarian diets, or allergies to fish, seafood, soy, gluten, or allium on the tasting.

Diners treat YingTao as a polished Hell’s Kitchen special occasion: meticulous plating, an open kitchen, and a tasting that reads more fine dining than Chinatown banquet. Regulars talk about booking the thirty-day window early, sitting at the chef’s counter when they can, and using the bar when the tasting is full.

The same reviews warn about a check that climbs once drinks join, a room that can feel solemn, hard dietary limits on the tasting, and a minority who find the food more technique than thrill. Come for reserved contemporary Chinese tasting midtown when Flushing carts or a Williamsburg share-plate night are not the mood.