Lunch at Rickshaw Dumpling Bar and Dessert from L'Arte del Gelato

Last Saturday, my husband and I decided to have lunch in Manhattan and we chose to go to Rickshaw Dumpling Bar. We like dumplings and I definitely love chocolate, that's why I wanted to try their chocolate shanghai soup dumplings.

We entered, surveyed the interior (trying to get our bearings) and went straight to the counter to place our orders. The lady behind the counter was very friendly and told us what the favorite items were when we asked. After looking again at the menu, we knew what we wanted and they were: Chicken and Thai basil, Classic pork and Chinese chive, Peking duck, Peanut sate soup, Shiitake mushroom soup, Chocolate shanghai soup dumplings, Green tea milkshake and Iced green tea with mint.

After placing the orders we noticed that the place was quite empty, so we could get a table right away. While waiting for our orders to arrived, I looked over the open kitchen where they prepared the dumplings. I saw several giant, I mean giant, steamers.

Our orders arrived pretty fast, I couldn't wait to sink my teeth into that warm dumplings. All the dumplings were very juicy, so yummy! I liked all of them, but my favorite was the Peking duck which was fried, my husband's favorite was the Classic pork which was steamed.

Chicken & Thai basil dumplings and Classic pork & Chinese chive dumplings


Our four boxes of dumplings


Peking duck - pan fried dumplings and Chocolate Shanghai soup dumplings

The soups were okay, not my favorite, but my husband liked them, especially to have them with the dumplings. As the menu suggested, the Peanut sate soup went well with Chicken and thai basil, while the Shiitake mushroom soup went well with Peking duck. It was not necessary to eat the dumpling together with the soup, I enjoyed the dumpling by itself.

Peanute sate soup and Shiitake mushroom soup

The Chocolate shanghai soup dumplings was okay, there was enough melted chocolate oozing but unfortunately the mochi was too chewy. So when you bite into it you essentially risk squirting yourself with hot melted chocolate. The green tea milkshake was not thick at all, too watery in my opinion.

Hot melted chocolate oozing out of the Chocolate Shanghai soup dumplings and Green tea milkshake next to Iced green tea with mint

With full stomachs we drove to L'Arte Del Gelato, our favorite gelato place in the city. I got the large one to share -- pistachio, caramel and hazelnut gelati, and they gave me a sample of coffee gelato on top. As we expected, the gelato was still perfect!

L'Arte Del Gelato for the road: pistachio, caramel and hazelnut

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Rickshaw Dumpling Bar
53 East 8th St
New York, NY 10003
(212) 461-1750
http://rickshawdumplings.com/

L'Arte del Gelato
75 Seventh Avenue
New York, NY 10014
(212) 924-0803
http://www.lartedelgelato.com/