Radiance
“It is usually very quiet in here so this is an excellent spot for a group, as they can surely accommodate.”
“They even have an open library with books on tea, food, culture, art, and spirituality.”
“Radiance bought up the store space directly above the 805 Atrium and also booked the attached store front downstairs in the Atrium itself.”
Radiance
Takes Reservations: Yes
Delivery: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
Good for Kids: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Caters: Yes
Price range.
$$ Price range $11-30
8 reviews
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3.5-4 stars. Among the healthiest Chinese food I've ever eaten in a restaurant. The portions are TINY though, so if you're thinking about having lunch here, definitely plan on a light snack before or afterwards.
Since this place is in Midtown, it's not surprising that it's not too packed. I liked that it was very quiet and serene. It's a great place to sit and chat with friends for a few hours over tea, which they have an excellent selection of. I ordered the bi luo chun, which was delicious. You can re-steep as much as you'd like.
Overall if you like Asian teas this is a great option. But do note that it is pretty pricey for very small portions.
Let's get this straight: You're here to pay a premium to sit and chat in a peaceful yet exotic environment over tea and appetizers. Americans would appreciate its exotic, oriental allure – traditional Chinese instrumental music playing softly in the background and wooden window frames, tables, and chairs that look like antique.
It'd be a mistake to have a full meal here because you'd be over paying for mediocre Chinese food tailored for American taste. Authentic Chinese cuisine is found in those shabby shops, and the loud and rowdy restaurants in Chinatown, and not in an expensive Midtown restaurant.
Radiance is in essence a tea house. It has an extensive selection of Asian teas which are not offered in most restaurants. The Matcha tea at $8 per bowl is a powdered tea and therefore has an interesting, thick texture and rich taste of green tea, yet not as aromatic as tea brewed in a pot from tea leaves.
If you must – I'd recommend trying the soup dumplings and pot stickers. Forget about the lunch items, unless you were pressured into coming here and desperately hungry.
The dim sums such as a variety of dumplings and spring rolls range from $6-9 per dish. To give you some perspective, the same dim sums would cost $3-5 per dish in Chinatown restaurants – but that's okay, because, remember, you're paying premium for sitting in a nicer place.
This was one of those experiences where the food was neither great nor terrible. I was hoping to find a go to spot for tasty Chinese dishes in a classy setting. Classy? I guess you could consider this the higher end of dining spectra, but even at that it felt too clinically empty, if that makes sense? The flat service didnt help either. I have no idea why it was such slow service. It is interesting that a restaurant can have nice furniture and decoration, yet lack ambiance.
Either way, this would never be my destination for Chinese food again. Take out places have more flavor honestly. But I give them credit for cooking food that is healthier, less oily/fatty/salty than the regular Chinese joints.
I would like to give Radiance three stars, but with the price, the food just isnt tasty enough for me and I dont crave to go back. I felt disappointed as I made my way back to the subway. This might be a better suited place for people that are into the Asian tea culture. myself having no clue about what that means and assuming it is green tea I am giving it a pass on that as well.
So I think this place was pretty mediocre food wise. What made it worse was the price point.
I think if you want to talk business or whatever, this is the perfect place to do so and expense the crap out of whatever expense budget you have. For a regular meal, I highly suggest NOT coming here.
The tea is overpriced, the dim sum special was below average (not tasty) and the other dish (spicy fish pot) was ok. Pretty hard to screw up a spicy dish when I know the exact type of sauce they used to make it came out of a jar that you can buy from a grocery store.
Either way, I was highly underwhelmed by this place and the bill. Skip over to hot kitchen where you can definitely get more out of your meal for lunch/dinner.
Our group decided to go here on a Saturday night for dinner and though there's very little about this place that promises a good dinner experience, we thought we could make the best of it. Boy, were we wrong.
To start out, the restaurant was nearly empty, with maybe one or two other tables occupied. We had a pot of tea to start and that was good, but everything went horribly downhill from there on. Service was extremely slow and they messed up our orders. The food came out in a random order and one or two dishes at a time. We got some entrees in the beginning, and some appetizers right at the end. I was left waiting for my food for about 45 minutes after the first dish arrived, and when it finally came half the table was already done with their meals.
The food itself is mediocre to downright bad. The pork buns lacked any flavor, and the soup buns were just sweet and otherwise tasteless with an overly thick covering. I ordered the beef short rib with black pepper sauce, and this came after a long wait and was completely rare. The waitress mixed something up and gave us a beef with peppers that we hadn't ordered. It looked like Chinese take out food, but was okay tasting and by far the best thing we got. One of us ordered a tofu clay pot and got chicken instead. Another ordered the crispy eggplant which made him sick. Do not order this unless you want to throw up later at night like he did. And the wellness menu is just the small portions menu, which isn't really made clear when ordering. Oh, and forget about getting water or rice that you asked for, most of it just gets forgotten till the end of the meal.
The reason they gave was that the kitchen was backed up, but there were only three tables of guests there! They aren't ready to handle any sort of dinner service and should not advertise such a large menu if they can't even make all the food. Would give the place half a star just for the tea, if I could.
Just had lunch here with a friend. There was no line or wait so we decided to try it. The food was okay. I wouldn't say it was out of this world and I wouldn't say it was bad. I had the beef with broccoli and my friend had the general tso's chicken. The service was a little slow. It took 15 minutes to order and I had to call the lady over to get her attention. Any other time I wouldn't have minded waiting but I only have an hour for lunch.
They offer a lunch special which is nice and also affordable. It was less than $15 a person and we got an entree, rice, and soup.
If you looking for decent Chinese I would go here. The place looked clean and the food was good.
I really wanted to like this place. I think Chinese food can be done well and elegantly — high end. That's what this place tries to accomplish but the service fell short and the food is only okay though is authentic.
soup pork dumplings (3.5/5) – not as good as Joe's Shanghai or Din Tai Fung but it's solid.
crystal shrimp dumpling (3/5) – is also solid but not outstanding.
shumai (3/5) – was pretty weak
Seafood claypot (4/5) was certainly bountiful and was light
The service during lunch was really slow. It took 20 minutes to get me a menu and it took nearly 45 minutes to get any food. They clearly were both overwhelmed but poorly trained.
Dinner is empty here so service is much faster and better.
Looking for a place to eat in Midtown East and I ran into this place. The food was good but the service was terrible. Not sure if it was a language barrier but the service was not good. We ordered the dumplings twice after the messed up the first time and they still got the order wrong. I must say the tea was delicious! I got the Lychee Lady and my bf got the classic green. Best tea ever. For appetizer we got the scallion pancakes and the pork belly buns really tasty and for entree we got the eggplant with chili and the chicken with shitake mushrooms in an endive . That was also very good. We wanted to order one more dish and a dessert but the service was so bad we decided to skip. Maybe try the restaurant if you want some tasty Chinese food and don't mind bad service.