Xian Wei

A supper club in my neighborhood! 9 delicious plates of food (11 if we count 2 amuse bouche) .artful, delicious, surprising. 7 strangers sat down to eat and share: wine, conversation, much laughter and travel stories .
Chef Luther and Kenny are warm and gracious and at the end of our dinner they joined the table to answer questions and share their passion for fine dining, Chinese style.
We ate for over 4 hours .and didn’t want to leave!
They are young and some finer points (re table setting) could be improved but it was an fun delicious evening and we cant wait to return to the next season and taste the new menu .Can’t wait to see what Xian Wei will do next! I wish them well.

Chef Luther Chen is up-​and-​coming. That’s really the only way to put it.
At 19 years old, the kid has some serious talent and training, as well as a great intuition and drive. Xian Wei is just his first endeavor, but I truly would not be surprised to see his name attached to a Michelin-​starred restaurant someday.
Xian Wei is a supper club with the goal to elevate regional Chinese dishes and bring greater understanding of the country’s culinary diversity to those who might only be familiar with takeout offerings. It doubtless a fusion of cuisines, with French influences in both plating and saucing, but there are plenty of Chinese flavors to be experienced.
They just finished their Winter series, but since nobody’s talked about the individual dishes, I’ll lay them out:
Amuses: housemade bin bin cracker
and braised pork snout
. The cracker was very flavorful and crispy, while the snout was tender and had a great Sichuan flavor from the peppercorn sauce. 4 stars.
«Sichuan Pickles»
A beautiful plate, with lots of different textures and tastes. The brine is different than that used in China, but it was still a good way to start. 3 stars.
«Anhui Tofu»
Absolutely fantastic, and a labor of love. The broth is made of firm tofu that has fermented for 3 months and then added to rice wine, which kills the mold and leaves you with a very cheese-​like miso bean curd that is very delectable pungent. The fresh tofu was incredibly silky and slid over my tongue beautifully. Loved the clams here. 5 stars.
«Xiamen Oyster»
An authentic street food, but the garlic was much too strong, overpowering the shellfish. The textures were great, though. 3 stars.
«Shanghai napa»
Wow, the homemade XO sauce was fantastic, and the prawns were grilled just right. 4.5 stars.
«Guangdong cod»
This was as fusiony as it gets, but one of the better fish dishes I’ve had in a while. The cod was brined and then sous-​vided, so it was über tender but still retained its flavor. The onion jus gave it good umami. 4 stars.
«Zinjiang shao kao»
A take on street skewers. Tender and not lamby at all, and I thought that the use of the fat cap was a great choice since it’s the most suggestible animal fat and grilled well. 3.5 stars.
«Yangtze River Rice»
A very creative way to do a dessert course for a cuisine that doesn’t know dessert. This was sweet but not overly so, and the tang yuan is something that any sesame or peanut butter lover would enjoy. 4.5 stars.
The price point (~$ 95) is going to be a bit of a turn-​off for most people, and it might in fact be just a tad bit high. But given the fact that they seat only 8 per night naturally means that the cost of food production is going to be a little bit higher per person. The food was really very good and a great way to bring Chinese flavors into fine dining. I want to see Chef Luther succeed and fully expect that he he has big things ahead for him.
Keep in mind that you’re dining at the chef’s house. This is not a restaurant, so you’re not going to get top-​notch service, although Chef Luther and manager Kenny are incredibly kind and gracious.

This chef got potential!
you have to go try it if you love food.
But they need more experience on how to do these types of events more smoothly so that it does not drag on too long.