The restaurant’s size was partially to credit for its citywide reputation, according to Lam, along with its downfall during the pandemic.Ī month before coronavirus had been detected in New York state, Lam recalls walking upstairs and counting 36 customers in Jing Fong’s 794-person dining room. When the sprawling room wasn’t filled with diners seated at round tables sharing dumplings and roast duck, the space was often used to host large weddings and events. Jing Fong, which opened in 1978 and moved to its former, two-story home on Elizabeth Street in 1992, was largely recognized as Manhattan Chinatown’s largest dim sum hall. The restaurant’s red carpet, paneling, and wallpaper are meant to evoke “the vibe of Jing Fong,” Truman Lam says. The restaurant’s team of dim sum carts may return to the floor in a limited way - “maybe three or four of them,” he says - and possibly on weekends only. “We want to do carts in some way,” Lam says, “but given the size of the space, we’re not sure if it makes sense yet.” Indoor dining could follow as early as next week, Lam says, though don’t expect dim sum carts at the start. Jing Fong will open for takeout and delivery to start, as its kitchen staff - almost all of whom worked at the previous location of the restaurant - settles into the new space. “Did people come to Jing Fong for the food, or because the vibe is so awesome?” He’s about to find out. What used to be a multi-sensory, possibly hours-long dining experience - arriving early, or otherwise waiting in lines of Disney proportion riding an escalator upstairs keeping one eye on the room’s roaming dim sum carts - is now mostly about the food. At around 100 seats, the new restaurant isn’t small, but it’s a far cry from its former 800-seat home on Elizabeth Street.

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