Radiance

If you like to eat fresh, healthy, clean and tasty Authentic Chinese food, this is the restaurant for you. I can taste the flavor of the ingredient itself, not like other Chinese food, drown by artificial spices, sauces, the ingredients act as the spice for each other! Yum! this chef is a master!!!
Last week, I went with a few friends and one of my friend knew the chef and thus we let him designed the menu. It was one of the best Chinese meal I ever had and I am Chinese, or should I said Taiwanese. My husband and I eat out everyday because we own our business and we just don’t have time to cook. We are used to the strong flavor, saucy common Chinese food. This chef opens my eyes. He doesn’t use much spices and cleverly uses combinations of food to complement each other. It was so well done. It’s a must try restaurant. We plan to go there a lot.

Very nice. Tranquil. Small portions. Steamed buns were ok (not special). Ordered the Cillian sea bass. Very small piece for high price. Again ok not noteworthy. The best item was the shrimp glass dumplings. They served squash with almost all the dishes. Very disappointed.

I have been to countless restaurants. But definitely this is the best Cantonese restaurant in NY. I heard Chef Luo used to be the headchef of one of the most prestigious Cantonese restaurants in China!
Tip: Talk to the chef when you make the reservation, and let him know what’s your preference, then ask him to make those specials that may not on the menu. He will surprise you!

One of the best Chinese meals I have ever had (and I’ve had a lot, I spend much of the year in Taiwan and HK). The chef came out and personally greeted our table. He is such a kind man, you can see it in his eyes. The tea here is to die for. You must try the Sweet Dragon Eye. The food was all very well prepared, and tasted healthy. After a huge meal, I don’t feel tired or heavy. Chinese food is always the opposite for me. I can’t wait to come back for afternoon tea.

this place was cray. music was great, tea was great. the pork belly was so good, perfect amount of spicy. they had so many kinds of dishes that I’d never had either. highly recommended.

I ordered lunch special from this place on 1/​5, I must said the food was not that good and totally overpriced! I mean I dont mind paying extra for good quality food but this place is no way near. The portion was also very small, as if they took half order out and $ 12 to $ 14 for lunch special with that quality is unacceptable. A total rip-​off!

My husband and I visited on a Travelzoo voucher and we were very pleasantly surprised. We got tea & dim sum for two. The food was delicious and very filling. It was actually a lot of food — more than we expected, and the tea was good too. I am normally very suspicious of these kinds of deals but I’m so glad we took a chance on this one. The service was great, wait staff was very nice and friendly, and our overall experience was fantastic. Note: we also had the woodear chicken dumplings, not pictured below, but also delicious.

Looking for a place to eat in Midtown East and I ran into this place. The food was good but the service was terrible. Not sure if it was a language barrier but the service was not good. We ordered the dumplings twice after the messed up the first time and they still got the order wrong. I must say the tea was delicious! I got the Lychee Lady and my bf got the classic green. Best tea ever. For appetizer we got the scallion pancakes and the pork belly buns really tasty and for entrée we got the eggplant with chili and the chicken with shitake mushrooms in an endive. That was also very good. We wanted to order one more dish and a dessert but the service was so bad we decided to skip. Maybe try the restaurant if you want some tasty Chinese food and don’t mind bad service.

Had dinner here last night… Great food and service!!! Try the soupy pork bun dim sum!!!

Radiance is one of my favorite places to dine in Midtown East. Quiet, romantic, lovely interior with ambiance. The food served here tastes healthy as if they’re home-​made. Also recommend their Eastern Journey iced tea since it’s so refreshing :) Great service and fine dining experience.

Had a really nice dinner. I loved my flounder, my kids loved their lo mein and my friend loved his chicken and garlic sauce. The bbq buns were perfect and the shrimp dumplings were really nice. Service was perfect!
Thank you for an enjoyable dinner!

A very disappointed experience at Radiance, come here for dim sum because they promoted themselves as a tea room & «fine Chinese cuisine»
But after I sit down and order couple dim sum dish. They serve me a uncooked frozen bun. And the bun looks like they got it from some Chinese supermarket. It don’t even taste good! This restaurant is like fancy décor with awful food. Don’t understand why theyand the last thing i have to say is.
EVEN JAPANESE RESTAURANT HAVE BETTER WONTON/​DUMPLING THEN YOU GUYS!
Disappointed.

Watch out for the $ 9 pot of tea!
So-​so food (expensive for what you get), and the service was terrible. Worst of all though, was the surprise on the check — yes, a pot of tea costs $ 9 here — $ 16 or $ 18 for two! We complained, and to their credit the waitstaff adjusted our check, but I would not recommend this place. Too many better options in the neighborhood.

This place gets 2 stars because the food was pretty good, everything else was average at best. This place charges $ 4 for a little bowl of rice? And at least $ 5 for a simple beverage such as soda or iced tea, ridiculous ! The pots of tea are a total rip off, $ 16 for pot of tea for 2? There was enough tea for a 5 year old, complete joke.
The service is another issue, twice I came here and the door was open constantly, making it cold inside and no heat was coming out of the vents. The wait staff is just clueless; I came for lunch and expect prompt service on a weekday as I don’t have all day to sit around. Took 10 mins to get the check (which was incorrect btw) and there were 3 tables of people, so no excuses here, just crappy service.

Let’s get this straight: You’re here to pay a premium to sit and chat in a peaceful yet exotic environment over tea and appetizers. Americans would appreciate its exotic, oriental allure — traditional Chinese instrumental music playing softly in the background and wooden window frames, tables, and chairs that look like antique.
It’d be a mistake to have a full meal here because you’d be over paying for mediocre Chinese food tailored for American taste. Authentic Chinese cuisine is found in those shabby shops, and the loud and rowdy restaurants in Chinatown, and not in an expensive Midtown restaurant.
Radiance is in essence a tea house. It has an extensive selection of Asian teas which are not offered in most restaurants. The Matcha tea at $ 8 per bowl is a powdered tea and therefore has an interesting, thick texture and rich taste of green tea, yet not as aromatic as tea brewed in a pot from tea leaves.
If you must — I’d recommend trying the soup dumplings and pot stickers. Forget about the lunch items, unless you were pressured into coming here and desperately hungry.
The dim sums such as a variety of dumplings and spring rolls range from $ 6 – 9 per dish. To give you some perspective, the same dim sums would cost $ 3 – 5 per dish in Chinatown restaurants — but that’s okay, because, remember, you’re paying premium for sitting in a nicer place.

I am just finishing up a quick Sunday lunch here. I ordered a bowl of dong qua tan (winter melon soup) and an order of five xiao long bao. There are three flaws in this meal, each worth a star. The place is too expensive. The soup was tasty but seasoned with way too much pepper. The soup dumplings were stuck to the steamer and one another, making them impossible to pick up without rupturing them.
All that said, the food was fine and the ambiance is nice. I didn’t feel like spending an arm and a leg for a pot of tea but they have a very extensive list. (It’s sort of poor form not to provide a cheap or complementary «house» tea, though.)
Maybe when they work out these kinks I will give them another try.

This is the third time I have been here for lunch, all happened this year, and this month.
This is a mid-​high end Chinese cuisine restaurant, very fine Asian cuisine, and more healthy than other places.
It just passed 12:00am in China on 25^th, which is my birthday, so writing this review is kind of epic!
The food here is tasty, traditional, and delicious.
I have tried two different kinds of lunch special here, sha cha beef and vegetables, and Peking style pork chop, I like Sha cha beef a lot, cuz this can not be easily found elsewhere. The latter is a bit Americanized, sweet but great!
Last but not least, try their tea, the first time my boss brought me here we ordered ginger milk tea, he likes it so much. Other tea is supposed to be excellent too.
I will come back:)

Note– There are two locations!
This is really important to distinguish, especially if you are familiar with the west side Radiance location. Open for about a year now, the E. 50^th location is more restaurant like and less busy. It is also the location that now does the one hour tea tasting instructor led group course. I purchased a $ 15 tea tasting voucher (good for two people) through Living Social. It was something I wanted to try for a few years.
The tea tastings are offered daily at 6:30 PM. Reservations are mandatory. I didn’t know what to expect since it was a group course. Luckily, my date and I were the only ones present that night for the tea tasting and we had the whole restaurant to ourselves. It was nice and relaxing and more of like tea time than a class. We were also late 15 minutes but Radiance was really accommodating to us and it didn’t make a difference. Our tea instructor Tatiana was really awesome, very nice, and knowledgeable about different types of teas and how they are made. The course is meant to be interactive so if you speak up and participate, the more fun it is.
We tried three different teas ranging in taste, color, and caffeine potency. Like wine and beer, it would take a great understanding, experience, and knowledge base to really appreciate fine teas and be able to pick up the subtle notes. I highly recommend the tea tasting course if you are interested in tea and enjoy it as a pastime. As for the east side outpost, I wonder how it survives. The west side Radiance location has much more going on in terms of ambiance and foot traffic.

My favorite part about this place is the music playing at the background — very peaceful. I also enjoyed very much the whole setting with books related to tea culture & zen philosophy, and all those traditional teapots as decorations.
Their food are quite decent even though they are by no means authentic Cantonese, but more like American Chinese food. I was in the mood for beef that night, so I tried the west lake soup, pepper steak, and mung bean tofu casserole. All pretty good!
Sweet service.
In sum, it’s a great place to dine with your partner or close friend.

HERE COMES A NEW CHALLENGER! CHUN LI… err… RADIANCE!
Ok, sorry about that. Really could not resist.
Indeed a new challenger has emerged for a piece of the lucrative pie that is Midtown East Chinese food. For whatever reason, everyone and their mom loves Chinese food. Black people love it. Hispanic people love it. Asians love it. White people love it. It’s got some appeal for everyone because it’s mother fucking delicious.
At first this really doesn’t make sense: the Midtown East Chinese food market is saturated to all hell. You got low brow spots like Hop Won Express over on 45^th that cater to the in and out buffet ala carte crowd. Oriental offers a gentrified sit down spot while Mee Noodle goes for the authentic play with a space and seating arrangement that does feel like China.
In comes Radiance with Dim Sums, Premium Teas and a «seasoning and wellness menu» along with catering thrown in for good measure. Uh… ok?
Radiance bought up the store space directly above the 805 Atrium and also booked the attached store front downstairs in the Atrium itself. (the site formerly known as JV Pizzeria)
On this warm Tuesday, a lady was handing out menus to their sit down restaurant above the 50^th st. entrance to the Atrium. I had decided to venture below and try their Radiance Café, sort of a miniature scaled down operation similar to what Pampano does. (Restaurant above, lunch atrium below)
The first thing’s first: the ladies here are actually Chinese. Old enough to be my mom and I even talked to them in Mandarin/​Cantonese. Authenticity check.
I noticed they had Calamari. Calamari on a lunch menu? They have got to be nuts. Calamari is a dish that a) most people wouldn’t order since they have no clue what it is and b) is hard to get right in terms of texture.
It looked right, calamari on a bed of celery. I decided to take the plunge… for $ 8.50ish you get a rice box with your choice of one of the lunch ala carte dishes (beef with broccoli, diced spicy chicken, shrimp and veggies, etc.) along with a small container of soup.
Neither one disappointed. The sweet and sour soup had perfect texture and excellent flavoring. Bold, robust, hint of spiciness and not too sour or sweet. Just perfectly calibrated to the tastes of the finance crowd.
The calamari however was even more impressive. Well seasoned with white sauce, the calamari was cooked to perfection. Not too chewy, and not too tender. Just enough for you to enjoy calamari, but still tender enough for you to rip apart with your teeth.
I really, really hope Radiance sticks around but I do question the decision to roll out a sit down restaurant in the crowded Midtown East landscape where the cheapest dish is a $ 12 stir fried Chinese Green and the most expensive is a wallet busting $ 34 Alaskan King Crab casserole. Rice doesn’t seem to be included as it lists it as a «side item» for $ 2.
The Radiance Café will be tied to the Radiance above… and without one, the other will not exist. The Café exists to help the restaurant meet basic operating income needs, but the Café wouldn’t exist if the Restaurant above goes under. A really tough situation and you gotta wish them the best, they certainly have my support!
One thing I would note is that this is from the same group that runs the Radiance Tea House in Midtown West so they are bringing a solid reputation and perhaps even a clientele. Let’s hope the Bankers will come, because I don’t see who else would sit down and eat at these prices. But the food is good, it’s authentic and the taste is right. May the best contender win!