My spouse and I dined at Shun Lee Café for brunch on a Sunday in early December 2017. We booked a table online using the Open Table reservation system. Shun Lee is open for weeknight dinner and weekend lunch/brunch.
Shun Lee Café is located on West 65th Street (between Broadway/Columbus Avenue and Central Park West) on the Upper West Side, just one half-block from Lincoln Center (and thus offers a convenient place for a pre- or post-theatre meal). The owners of Shun Lee Café also own neighbor Shun Lee West (the more formal “big sister” restaurant located behind and connected to the Café) and Shun Lee Palace (which opened in 1971 in the Midtown East neighborhood). An earlier restaurant called Shun Lee Dynasty no longer operates.
The Shun Lee Café dining room has a few front windows that
allow light inside as well as city sidewalk peeping. A long banquette runs
along one wall, with a few tables adjacent; otherwise, all tables are
free-standing in the dining space. Décor includes a black-and-white tile floor
and glittery ceiling lamps modeled in animal shapes that represent the twelve Chinese
zodiac signs (rooster, pig, dog, sheep, monkey, rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon,
snake, horse).
Shun Lee Café
serves a meal of traditional Chinese cuisine as well as weekend dim sum. If you
choose dim sum, servers will wheel carts/trolleys to each table to show patrons
items that they can accept or reject. An order of steamed dumplings/shumai
includes three or four pieces (depending on the filling/ingredients) at a
charge of $8 for the order, or you can order crispy/fried options, some of
which come two pieces to an order (such as spring rolls, pancakes, and puffs). You
can also order off a more conventional Chinese menu, or you can do a
combination of dim sum appetizers followed by a more formal main dish. Reportedly,
Shun Lee Palace takes credit for creating dishes like crispy orange beef,
General Tso’s chicken, and Hunan crispy sea bass.
We enjoyed our dim sum brunch at Shun Lee Café, although it moved a bit too
quickly; the food was tasty, but the service was brusque did not provide the
leisurely lunch we had hoped for.
