WHY The spot-on cooking at this supremely nondescript place is something no food lover will want to miss.

WHAT With small appetizer plates of Shaoxing wine-marinated blue crab, red-cooked Jia Xing duck and cool jade celery seasoned with sesame oil, plus a few orders of satisfying pastries and dumplings, you might be tempted to forgo entrées. Don’t. The kitchen has honed the flavors of almost every dish: supremely rich deep-fried and red-cooked spare ribs; delicate gluten puffs in a soup lively with the contrasting textures of bow-tied fresh tofu sheet, glass noodles and torn napa cabbage; even simple al dente noodles dressed only with a modicum of scallion-infused oil.