MANHATTAN – The Upper East Side is one step closer to the chew, crispy, savory flavor explosion packed inside each dumpling served at Vanessa’s Dumpling House— the restaurant chain with five locations across New York City will be opening its first UES location next year.
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During Community Board 8’s Street Life committee, Vanessa Wang herself— founder of Vanessa’s Dumpling House which has been slinging dumplings since 1999— spoke about the new restaurant set to open on Second Avenue between East 84th and East 85th Streets.
As part of the new restaurant’s application for a license to serve wine and beer to patrons with their food, Vanessa and her associates explained to the committee that the restaurant would be open from noon to 10:00 pm every day— and they hoped to serve bottled and draft beers meant to pair with their menu consisting primarily of dumplings and homemade Chinese noodles.
Vanessa’s handmade dumplings come with eight pieces per order, either fried or boiled, and stuffed with one of several tasty fillings— Chive & Pork, Shrimp, Chicken & Basil and Vegetable.
Boiled or fried wontons featuring Shrimp and Chicken or Spinach and Mushroom served with spicy sauce are also an option if the standard dumplings aren’t your jam. Also on the menu are their famous sesame pancake sandwiches, steamed buns and fresh hot soups.
Vanessa’s Dumpling House also offers frozen dumplings you can take home.
The new UES location on Second Avenue would be the third Vanessa’s Dumpling House to serve alcohol— currently only the Upper West Side and Williamsburg locations have wine available.
Vanessa’s Dumpling House will take over the nearly 1,500 square foot space previously home to Park East Kosher Butcher, which has been vacant since 2017— when the meat purveyor moved to First Avenue.
The Second Avenue dumpling shop will sit sandwiched between Elio’s Italian restaurant and Gardenia Boutique florists, next to Van Leeuwen Ice Cream. The shop itself appears to be double the size of the Upper West Side store on Amsterdam Avenue, where we sampled their dumplings, steamed buns and soup.
It’s not clear when Vanessa’s Dumpling House will open its doors on Second Avenue to customers here on the Upper East Side, however, a look inside the restaurant’s future space shows little work done inside– a sign the opening may still be weeks or months away.
A partial Stop Work order hangs on the building’s door– a closer look at violation from the City’s Department of Buildings says the entire ground floor has been gutted, including fire-proofing on the ceiling and walls, in a way that doesn’t reflect the approved plans.
A second Stop Work order was issued after City inspectors saw new drywall installed on the ceiling, despite the initial Stop Work order.
We’ve tried to contact Vanessa’s several times for more information, but were unsuccessful in reaching company leaders.
Workers at other Vanessa’s Dumpling House locations told Upper East Site the grand opening date of the UES restaurant hasn’t even been revealed to Vanessa’s employees as of yet.
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