Fay Maschler reviews RedFarm: New York's cult dim sum joint encroaches on Chinatown

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Fay Maschler5 September 2018

One of my companions at dinner at newly opened RedFarm is known to co-owner Ed Schoenfeld masterminding front-of-house, who is later described by another of my companions as “a picnic basket with braces on”. Maybe it’s because of his pink check shirt.

Brooklyn-born Ed is a restaurateur with — he wastes no time in telling us — 55 openings under his belt. This one in collaboration with executive chef Joe Ng is a branch of the two RedFarms in West Village and Upper West Side, New York.

Much excitement among those who have visited the Chinese Farms and also Decoy, the Peking Duck extravaganza in the West Village basement, is generated by news of this first international outpost. Arguably ironically — if you can understand that — it is almost next door to Balthazar, off Covent Garden Piazza.

In Pete Wells’s New York Times review six years ago, when he memorably configured Ng as “the Balanchine of dim sum”, he commented that RedFarm was part of the post-Momofuku generation enabled by the discovery that customers will wait in line patiently for ages, open their wallets and put up with annoying details such as communal tables. In London it is also walk-ins only, the majority of the seating is at long shared tables and prices are, how shall we say, ballsy.

Meaty creation: Stuffed chicken
Adrian Lourie

One of us being known to Ed gets us a red gingham check-upholstered banquette for four — and also more dishes than we actually order, all arriving at lightning speed. Although beneficent and of course interesting grist to the mill, it creates a hard-to-digest dim sum logjam. My advice when you go is to make choices stage by stage, starting, if you like hokey Cantonese food, with Spicy Crispy Beef and if you want to test their nous on the subject of sourcing “Our Famous Pastrami Egg Roll” where the brined beef has sagely been obtained from Monty’s Deli in Hoxton.

Irresistibly Instagram — you will surely have seen it somewhere — is Pac Man Shrimp Dumplings. Four pastel-coloured parcels, basically har gau, are made to look morose and malevolent with beady black sesame seed eyes. Pac Man is fashioned from a piece of battered sweet potato reclining on a bed of crushed avocado. It is daft but Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde are tightly packed and feature bouncy — veering on crunchy — prawn filling.

Soup dumplings, aka xiao long bao, here served two to an order, have the ineffably cunning component of a little stripy straw stuck in the centre of each through which the broth flavoured by pork and crab can be sipped. No wasteful spills.

Three colour vegetable dumplings in an almost translucent wrapping are a masterpiece of construction with fillings discernably different in flavour and texture. These arrive surrounded by sautéed and charred saladings which bring little or nothing to the party but establish the kitchen’s fondness for extraneous garnish that embraces a mushroom ragout muffling the chilli kick in chicken dumplings and a version of a vegetable katsu curry sauce floating lamb dumplings with various veg.

“Mains” ranging in price from £12 for asparagus — which farm is that from? — to £36 for marinated and grilled rib-eye steak could be skirted in the pursuit of economy and Sino certainty but if it is offered on the specials board do try Shrimp-stuffed Chicken. Possibly lightly brined, certainly with a kiss of smoke, the piece of breast with wing attached has ravishingly crisped, magically seasoned skin and a Vi-Spring mattress of juicy prawn. However westernised it may be, it cannot be gainsaid when it comes to enjoyment. But Wide Rice Noodles with Roast Duck is just a travesty of ho fun and no fun at all.

Custard bao is a rather lovely dessert and considerably more engaging than a fruit plate dominated by watermelon.

Covent Garden restaurant: RedFarm's dining space
Adrian Lourie

On the drinks list cocktails are £13. That seems a bit eager. If you want American wine, which seems only polite and fitting, there is a Columbia Valley Riesling, Chateau Ste Michelle 2015 from Washington State for £36 that jives well with the attention-grabbing dishes.

An unheralded but very welcome soft opening deal of a 25 per cent food discount is in place when I visit this week. Ed’s description of his one-way ticket to the UK and vagueness about when the first floor will be opened or lunch will be served suggest it might last for a while. At the current full prices, RedFarm is digging and delving a bit too close to Chinatown for comfort.

Fay Maschler's 50 favourite restaurants in London

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