New Yeah Shanghai Deluxe

If you've ever wondered what they're having at the next table, here's the place to find out.

Other diners always seem to provide much of the inspiration at New Yeah Shanghai Deluxe; one folks have passed the trickling waterfall and crossed the footbridge into the main room, a relaxed, convivial spirit seems to take over, and often they're inclined to volunteer recommendations before you ask.

Cuttlefish with salt and pepper (top photo; $9.95) and sautéed eel with chives (second photo; $13.95) seem to appear at most tables; so does fried fish with seaweed ($12.95), though sometimes the batter is a bit thick, and uniformly tinged with green rather than threaded with the algae. The "lion's head" casserole, oversized pork meatballs and bok choy in a thick brown sauce ($10.95), is an exceptional example of its breed.

Also shown below: aster indicus ($5.95), salty greens with diced bean curd; duck tongue with wine flavor (mind the cartilage; $8.95), beef tendon with spicy flavor ($5.25) and ox tongue and tripe with spicy flavor ($5.95); jellyfish (crunchy, not gooey; $5.95); sea cucumber, which supplies a springy but flavor-free platform for the sauce with shrimp roe ($25.95), salty pork belly atop knotted bean curd sheets ($11.95); one of the (largely tasteless) knots; sautéed pea shoots; labor-intensive crab with salty egg yolk ($14.95); pig colon in pot ($11.95).

New Yeah Shanghai Deluxe
65 Bayard St. (Mott-Elizabeth Sts.)
212-566-6111