America's Best Chinese Restaurants Part 9: RedFarm

This is part four in a series revealing America's best Chinese restaurants. Find part one here, part two here, and part three here, part four here, part five here, part six here, part seven here, and part eight here, and stay tuned for the complete ranking.

Dim sum master chef Joe Ng and Chinese food expert Ed Schoenfeld have elevated Chinese food to a whole new level in the West Village and Upper West Side. RedFarm offers innovative Chinese cuisine incorporating a farm-to-table mindset, one that you certainly don't encounter too often in Chinese restaurants.

The West Village location only has 42 seats, most of which are at two large communal tables, and reservations for both locations are only taken for parties of eight or more. Once you take your seat and the food starts coming out, however, you'll see what all the fuss is about. Starters include Kumamoto oysters with Meyer lemon-yuzu ice, barbecued Flack Foot Berkshire pork belly with grilled jalapeños, a Katz's pastrami egg roll, and barbecue duck lettuce wraps. Dim sum includes pan-fried lamb dumpling "shooters," pan-fried pork buns, crispy oxtail dumplings, crispy duck and crab dumplings, and pork and crab soup dumplings. Mains include lobster with chopped pork and egg, crispy skin smoked chicken with garlic, wide rice noodles with barbecues duck breast, Dungeness and Rock crabmeat long life noodles, Nueske's bacon and egg fried rice, and udon noodles with grilled short ribs.

Not only is RedFarm's food creative and delicious, it fuses the traditional and contemporary in a seamless and brilliant way.