Lhasa is a Tibetan restaurant coming to 1st Avenue

After three years on the southwest corner of First Avenue and 11th Street, Little Tong shut its doors in mid-March. (They did return shortly after for donation-based takeout meals.)

A sign is up now at the space with news of the next tenant — Lhasa, a Tibetan restaurant (thanks to Steven for the photos!) ...



Will update when more details are available about the new venture.

In an Instagram post from March, Simone Tong, Little Tong's chef and owner, cited the coronavirus outbreak as the driving force behind the closure. The Midtown East location remains open.

Little Tong returns to service with donation-based takeout meals

Last Sunday, Little Tong closed after three years on the southwest corner of First Avenue and 11th Street.

However, they are back, working with a nonprofit to serve donation-based meals.

Here's more via the EVG inbox:

Since closing over the weekend, Little Tong is now working with Rethink Food NYC, a nonprofit dedicated to feeding those in need, as the first restaurant to join the Restaurant Response Program.

The program will provide a $40,000 grant for 30 NYC-based restaurants at risk of closing operations due to the coronavirus outbreak. The expectation is that restaurants accepted to participate in the program will turn their restaurants into community kitchens, using the funds to prepare meals for affordable price points, continuing to employ team members and temporarily operate on a distributor model to help mitigate the effects of any food shortages.

Little Tong plans to cook 500 meals a day from noon to 6 p.m. Monday to Saturday. They will do this through April or longer if there is a need. All proceeds go to Rethink Food NYC. Food is available for pick up or no-contact delivery on Seamless or Grubhub.

Little Tong permanently closes East Village location

[Photo from May 2019]

After three years on the southwest corner of First Avenue and 11th Street, Little Tong shut its doors last night following dinner service.

In an Instagram post, Simone Tong, the chef and owner, cited the coronavirus outbreak as the driving force behind the closure.

The unfortunate reality is that the current public health climate has hit small businesses like ours to the extent that we cannot sustain the restaurant beyond this week. We are honored to have had the privilege to host so many of you in the East Village — and hope that we’ll have the opportunity to continue to do so at our other locations in the future.

The restaurant, which opened in March 2017, debuted to positive notices (the grandma chicken mixian was a standout dish), including two stars from Pete Wells at the Times.

The place was a big enough hit to open a second outpost in Midtown East. That location will remain open.

With a new menu, Little Tong dropping the Noodle Shop on 1st Avenue

[Photo Monday by Steven]

After a little more than two years on First Avenue at 11th Street, the well-regarded Little Tong Noodle Shop is undergoing a concept shift highlighted by a new menu and name, now officially going as Little Tong.

For the past two years, chef-owner Simone Tong specialized in mixian — a long, round rice noodle from China's Yunnan province.

And now, via the EVG inbox...

With the new menu (as of May 9) and concept, Chef Tong hopes to bring together traditional flavors with modern techniques and local ingredients to create dishes that continue to usher in the new era of regional Chinese cuisine in New York City ...

The new menu [has] a greater emphasis on shared plates and composed dishes showcasing market ingredients. Highlights from the first iteration of the menu include:

• Stir-Fried Fiddlehead Ferns and Guoba with pickled ramps, dan dan pork and crispy rice

• Macao Night Market Clams with Canto sausage, enoki, zucchini, and mala douban (fermented chili-bean sauce)

• Tieban Miyazaki A5 Wagyu with Yunnan salsa verde, alderwood sabayon and crispy herbs

• Tea-Smoked Duck Breast with XO fried rice, salted duck yolk and apricot sauce

As part of this evolution, the restaurant will drop "Noodle Shop" from its name (the Midtown East outpost, which opened last summer, will remain known as Little Tong Noodle Shop), but a handful of fan-favorite mixian dishes – including the Grandma Chicken and Chef’s Beef Shank versions – will remain on the menu.

Tong will also open Silver Apricot, an upscale Chinese-inspired restaurant in the West Village, later this summer.

Previously on EVG:
Little Tong Noodle Shop taking the former Schnitz space on 1st Avenue