Every year on her birthday, restaurateur and a Michelin Guide sommelier award winner Annie Shi wanted the same two things: Chinese food and a good bottle of wine. Lei, her latest project tucked into Doyers Street, was where that wish finally became a restaurant.
“Lei is a very personal project where I get to realize that dream of bridging wine and the food I grew up with alongside my team,” said Shi, who also helms the acclaimed King and Jupiter in the city.
Before her entry into hospitality, Shi studied at Yale before a stint at JP Morgan. She found her way into restaurants when she co-opened King in SoHo in 2016 alongside chefs Jess Shadbolt and Clare de Boer. Taking on all non-food responsibilities there, she developed her expertise in wine. Lei is her first solo venture, with chef Patty Lee, a Mission Chinese Food alum, running the kitchen. Though Lee runs the kitchen, the menu is Shi’s own as the dishes are rooted in the Chinese home cooking she grew up eating, reworked to pair beautifully with wine.
Building a Chinese Wine Bar
Located on a pedestrian-only street, crowds already wander here, visiting the historical Nom Wah Tea Parlor and Chinese Tuxedo. With Lei, Shi has added something new to the mix. Enter a 700-square-foot bar with an ambitious wine list and a menu built on regional Chinese flavors and personal culinary memory.
Inside Lei, wine bottles line high shelves stretching toward the ceiling, moody lighting reflects off a sleek, stainless steel bar top, and tightly packed tables keep the energy focused inward. The window table gives visitors a front-row seat to Doyers Street, while the entryway nook doubles as coveted overflow seating once the evening crowd settles in.
“Lei is a place where we get to broaden the conversation around what it means to be a wine bar,” Shi said. The program spans roughly 850 references, highlighting both classic producers and emerging regions such as Spain, Greece, and China. By-the-glass options rotate regularly, and there’s no snobbery. Guests will find the staff eager to help navigate pours and pairings, tailored to whatever food lands on the table.
A Menu Designed for Lingering
The menu moves effortlessly from cold plates to heartier dishes, most sized for lingering but substantial enough to build a full meal. Start with the Chilled Celtuce with kombu jelly, shallots, and red vinegar, which comes out as striking on the plate as it is refreshing. Pro tip: save any extra sauce for dipping the Sesame Shao Bing in. Round out the cold spread with the Lady Edison Jin Hua Ham, paired with seasonal fruit, and the Chinese Omelette with aged white jade radish and scallion oil.
On the warm dish side, steamed cockles arrive in a fragrant broth, and fried squash come coated in rich, salted duck yolk for a satisfying crunch. Each dish is designed to complement what’s in the glass, making it easy to work through a few pours on the way to the larger plates.
Don’t skip the Hand-Rolled Cat’s Ear Noodles, braised with cumin-spiced lamb and tomato. Beneath a heap of chopped cilantro, the noodles are chewy and satisfying, and the lamb tender and fragrant. Ask the staff for a drink pairing, and see how well cumin and lamb can mesh with a bright wine.
To finish, the Eight Treasure Rice Pudding with sticky toffee sauce offered a warm, comforting close, and it’s the kind of dessert that makes the whole evening feel like a quiet celebration. Which, it turns out, was exactly the point.
Visit Lei every day from 5 p.m. to midnight. 15-17 Doyers St., Chinatown, leiwine.nyc
