Glam Chinese Restaurant Opens at The Wharf

Philippe Chow, a glitzy Beijing-style restaurant out of New York City, opens Wednesday at The Wharf.

Why it matters: Chow’s new waterfront outpost is the first outside NYC, where two Manhattan locations are known equally for celeb-spotting and Peking duck-carving.

• The upscale Chinese restaurant is among several “Phase 2” Wharf development restaurants to recently open, including fellow name-dropper Gordon Ramsay’s Hell’s Kitchen.

The feel: “Vibe dining,” according to CEO Abraham Merchant, who hopes to recreate the uptown feel of Chow’s decades-old flagship with a glam design, ambient DJ tunes, and showstopper tableside dishes like cotton candy baked Alaska.

• The 350-seat space includes a waterfront patio with more plush banquette seating, umbrellas, and firepits — plus two private dining rooms, one with discreet private entrances if Chow regular Rihanna drops by.

On the menu: Chef Chow’s classics — identical to NYC — such as salt & pepper lobster, filet mignon with oyster sauce, ginger-scallion crab legs, and hand-pulled noodles.

• A special $115 Peking duck, roasted to order, requires 45 minutes advance notice — and three days prep — and is carved tableside alongside homemade pancakes.

In your glass: Cocktails including a lychee martini fashioned from coconut-infused genever and Japanese vodka. The bar stocks more than 200 bottles with an emphasis on “allocated” (i.e. hard-to-get) Asian spirits and finds like Indian gin or Haitian rum.

🥢 Hands off: The restaurant orders Instagrammable panda chopstick rests by the thousands thanks to hot-handed diners.

• “We don’t tell them to take them, but they do, so we put a #philippechow hashtag on the back so they can at least tag us,” says Merchant.

Editor's note: This story has been corrected to say Philippe Chow opens on Wednesday, not Thursday. The restaurant also announced it has added 100 to its seating capacity for a total of 350.