How to book Lei

Lei is a 28-seat wine bar on Doyers Street in Manhattan's Chinatown, serving dishes rooted in regional Chinese home cooking alongside a constantly changing wine list¹. It is the first solo project of Annie Shi, a co-owner of King and Jupiter, and the kitchen is led by chef Patty Lee, formerly of Mission Chinese Food^2,3. It opened in June 2025 and won Best New Restaurant at the 2026 James Beard Awards^2,5. The bar takes its name from Shi's older sister Hannah, whose Chinese name was Lei³.

The room measures about 700 square feet, with most seats around the edges and a communal table in the middle for groups of up to eight². Shi worked with designer Rachel Vineberg Jones on the space, which has red mahogany woodwork and a mural depicting "Journey to the West"³.

The menu is a la carte and built to go with wine. Dishes named by writers include celtuce with red vinegar and fried shallots, sesame shao bing, a sweet and sour beef short rib, hand-rolled noodles with braised lamb, and black rice pudding^2,3,4. Shi curates the list with wine director Matt Turner; it covers Burgundy, Champagne, German and Basque whites and a low-intervention Chinese Cabernet, and Time Out notes many bottles sit in the $60 to $80 range². The Resy blog reported the list would open with 350 bottles³.

A limited number of reservations is released on Resy 14 days ahead at 9am Eastern, and walk-ins are welcome every night¹.