By Gus Saltonstall
Jing Fong, a popular restaurant specializing in dim sum and Cantonese cuisine, permanently closed its Upper West Side location on Sunday.
The eatery announced on Instagram that it was shuttering its restaurant at 380 Amsterdam Avenue, on the corner of West 78th Street.
“We would like to share that after eight years of serving the Upper West Side, Jing Fong Upper West Side will close its doors at the end of service at 9:30 p.m. on March 8, 2026,” the restaurant wrote. “This decision does not come easily. We are beyond grateful for every guest who walked through our Upper West Side doors and every staff who became family. Thank you for being a part of our Upper West Side chapter and making it so meaningful.”
Jing Fong opened on the Upper West Side in July of 2017 to much fanfare, which West Side Rag covered at the time. The eatery served up dumplings, pork buns, spring rolls, fried shrimp wontons, soups, scallion pancakes, BBQ spare ribs, and much more.
In 2021, the Upper West Side restaurant’s manager Hing Chi Stephen Chung, was tragically hit and killed by a cyclist outside the eatery on Amsterdam Avenue. Chung was unloading vegetables for the kitchen when he was struck in the bike lane.
Jing Fong’s original location in Chinatown will remain open.
Dozens of customers responded on Instagram to Jing Fong’s closing post.
“We will really miss you uptown,” one person wrote. “We had dinner there last night. Thank you for the last eight years.”
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Terrible news. Loved this place. There are strong Chinese restaurants in the neighborhood (Legend 72 for Szechuan food), but Jing Fong was the go-to for dumplings and other dim sum. Any recommendations for a replacement??
The original Legend down on 15th and 7th was the real deal. We had a fest there 10/15 years ago where I had a sense of euphoria from the combination of the spices and the HOT chili red oil that’s in many Sichuan dishes. It wasn’t over the top quantity like a classic Cantonese banquet.
The 2 Sichuan place near w72nd is average at best. The food at the Empire Szechuan in the 60s on Columbus is oddly old school (UWS not China). They must have a good rental lease with their landlord.
I’m guessing the Chinese food closer to CU is better from the support of the international students/facility members. The quality of food in Flushing and Chinatown remains high due to the competition.
Tri Dim West
Moon Kee, hands down. Always reliable, incredibly delicious, and they do the carts on the weekends!
(It’s a little funny to watch since they just go in one tiny circle, but still, carts!)
I’m always disappointed by Legend, but I’ve never tried the anything from the hotpot menu.
Dim Sum Bloom (née Shun Lee) has delicious food and a strong dumpling menu. Highly recommended!
Dim Sum Sam on Broadway and 92nd is good but not a full service restaurant.
I second this recommendation. DSS is very good, part of a chain around d the city.
Thirded!
Moon Kee, on Broadway and 100th. There’s also Dim Sum Bloom on 98th and Broadway.
Han Dynasty!! It’s at 215 W. 85th Street. Highly recommend!!
I like Han Dynasty a lot, but to me it’s similar to Legend. Good Szechuan food, but not really a place for dim sum.
An e-bike driver killed the manager, not a cyclist.
The driver had likely run the 78th street red in the bike lane at high speed, but was not prosecuted because he stuck around and had been going the correct direction.
What is your source that the driver “stuck around”? I searched the internet and couldn’t find that information. All I found was from the WSR, “The details of the accident are somewhat unclear — no eyewitnesses have come forward and video cameras on the street apparently weren’t in position to capture what occurred. “
???
Other outlets reported on the crash at the time.
Link to Patch article found with Perplxity AI query:
https://patch.com/new-york/upper-west-side-nyc/man-killed-after-getting-hit-e-bike-was-uws-jing-fong-manager
Jay. Please please email me at nyc-evsa@outlook.com
I need proof it was an e bike. If so. Gus must do a correction. But more importantly, we learn of another person killed by an e bike. There have been MANY! And people are hit and maimed in NYC EVERY SINGLE DAY. The ER at Bellevue Hospital sees at least one victim a day! And that is ONE of FIFTY FOUR ER’s jn NYC! Yet, the NYPD stats show almost NO victims. 95% of e bike crashes arent reported. It is reprehensible. Where is THAT story. Lets stop avoiding the truth.
Gus – please start writing about victims. Why are they not worthy of a story? HONOR victims like Jing Fong!! Tell the WHOLE story.
I agree with the need to better enforce ebike laws, but the ebike-obsessed people are way too rabid about it. You’re referring to a man who died years ago by the name of his restaurant? Really? Have some respect.
At least get the victim’s name right if the closing point of your post is to honor them.
“HONOR victims like Jing Fong”
could start by not changing their names to the name of a restaurant
Going in t he right direction???? Riding a motorcycle (if it has 2 wheels and a motor, it is a motorcycle) in the bike lanes is a crime. He wasn’t prosecuted because Alvin Bragg doesn’t prosecute anyone who isn’t w hite.
So you’re admitting that e-bikes are motorcycles?
Bragg wasn’t NY County DA in 2021, and there was no arrest of the driver.
What evidence is there that he likely ran the red ligjt?
Well, it was day light, the view up Amsterdam is clear, there’s a 4-foot-wide space that someone unloading a car can step into that is adjacent to but not part of the “bike” lane, therefore it is safe to assume that the e-bike driver was not paying attention, and that inattention likely included ignoring a red.
Even if the delivery guy who killed the manager didn’t run the red, because of the clear view and the nature of “protected” “bike” lanes, he has to have been driving recklessly to have hit the manager with such force — perhaps he was interneting while in motion at 20MPH.
What happened is a horrible tragedy and I despise the e-bike riders as much as anyone and have seen countless examples of reckless riding but remember – you know what happens when you assume…
Who needs facts to back up a claim, right?
In other words, a whole lotta accusations and zero evidence.
Evidence: the manager was killed in broad daylight and the view up the ave. is clear. Effectively the driver has to have been driving recklessly.
You have no idea what the circumstances were…you’re just making lots of assumptions. How do you know that a group of pedestrians didn’t cross directly in front of the cyclist simultaneously so that he couldn’t see that the manager entered the bike lane. There’s no basis for your assertion that the view was clear up Amsterdam.
Boris,
You’ve answered your hypothetical, if the light were green to go north but pedestrians blocked the view up Amsterdam, then the e-bike driver needs to have slowed or stopped and then would not have hit and killed the manager.
A car driving rule: You have to pay attention to the car in front of you and also the car in front of the car in front of you. If you don’t do this, you’re not driving correctly.
Also: NYC bike lanes are NOT license for e-bike drivers to automatically go 20 MPH no matter what as long as they have a green.
Were you there?
No but I am familiar with the intersection and have been nearly hit 3 times by e-bike drivers running reds at speed in the same “bike” lane in broad daylight. It is impossible for an e-biker not driving recklessly to have not seen the deceased manager.
This is why a jury of peers is sort of scary.
I think, therefore it must be true.
No, I know that intersection, no hypotheticals needed.
It’s impossible to have not seen the manager, unless the driver weren’t looking at the lane ahead.
Want that where La Caridad had been? Or is that another location?
New Cottage is where La Caridad was. It’s solid. Jing Fong was where Planet Sushi was years ago, and I think it sat empty for a long time before Jing Fong took it over.
Thanks. And Cottage had been on like 76th and Amsterdam or something? And yes. Some of these places stay vacant for years and years. It is scary.
77th street Amsterdam
78th amsterdam
and if you go further back , , , Copper Hatch
Now, that I really miss!
Anybody remember the chain of Empipre Szechuan spots that provided reliably good meals until they didn’t, and then closed,
one by one.
Yeah, there’s one on Columbus in the 60s.
663-6004
I ordered constantly from Empire! (And, always got their superior free cold sesame noodles as well!)
Very sorry this happened (just ate lunch there recently). I’ve enjoyed having it in the neighborhood and thought the dim sum was great, but I found the dinner offerings a little lackluster and the whole place has been in decline in the last year or so (the interior was getting very worn looking). I was expecting this would happen. As it turns out, the dim sum scene on the UWS is suddenly not too bad. I like Moon Kee around Bway and 100th, and there are a few other spots right there.
Too bad I never tried it. Menu looked interesting, BUT there was something odd about the feng shui (energetics) of the space.
The location in Chinatown IS NOT their original location as the article states.
Texas Rotisserie on 97th and Broadway also has a sign on the door that it’s closing.
Oh, no! I love that place! One of my go to’s for a good, reasonably priced lunch!
No!!!! One of the few places left in the upper 90s that was around when I first moved to the neighborhood in 2002.
Please let me know if he was killed by an e bike or bicycle. Most bikes out there ares-bikes. Most injuries and deaths by bikes are by e bikes. NYPD often doesnt differentiate This is critical information.
I wish I had known about this, would have gone one last time.
Sorry to hear that. I liked it and feel bad that we didn’t go more often. I’m particularly sorry it is closing right before the weather gets nice as they also had some outdoor space.
It is ironic that for a neighborhood that prided itself on its Chinese food, the options really aren’t that great. Han Dynasty is nice but more exotic – you don’t go there for the basics. Cottage is pretty good but the space is tiny.
We recently hosted a Chinese banquet dinner there and it was superb. So nice to have had somewhere where the food brought me back to Hong Kong with great Cantonese cusisine, and not just the dim sum. A real loss to the UWS
The guy was killed by a psychotic bike rider ….another death that these bike lane nuts and nyc government is responsible for
So ban bikes, ban cars, ban the subway, mandate pedestrian-only? But people do trip and fall, so maybe not even that should be allowed.
This is a huge loss for me. I enjoyed eating here and ordering delivery from the time it opened. The dim sum were wonderful and all the dishes were tasty and well prepared. Service was always good and the place was spacious and comfortable. Sad sad sad.
So sorry to hear this news. I loved this place.
Awful news, they were my favorite dim sum downtown until they opened uptown, which saved be the trip for many years
The two locations couldn’t be more different.
I am sorry they are closing. I did not recall that the manager was killed by “a cyclist,” indee tragic. Would you please provide a link to an article from 2021 about this?
This is a bummer. They always seemed busy. The Chinese food situation on the UWS is dire.
Ordered in from Shanghai Dumplings Fusion on 72 st last night for the first time (normally ordered from Jing Fong) and it was really good, better than Jing Fong was actually. Got soup dumplings, sauteed string beans and Peking Duck. Will be our go to for Chinese now.
I guess the word “popular” is relative. I ate there a few times during its first year, and it was mostly empty. And I live a few blocks away and passed by this restaurant regularly after that, at various times of day, including evening. Based on what I saw, I would not have called it “popular.” It was rarely full, and usually 1/4 to 1/2 empty. But that’s just an anecdotal observation.
Still, I am sad that yet another restaurant is closing, and apparently a very beloved one. 🙁
I always had indigestion after eating at a Szechuan/Hunan place, and hated to see them take over, truly an Empire.
Let’s hope that rogue biker was charged with vehicular homicide. What was his name? Bikers do kill.
Nope. No charges at all.
Wondered why Jin Fong did not seem to make full use of its spacious sidewalk space?
For example insufficient patio umbrella shade though it was a sunny corner.
And there was space for additional tables
Went during the pre-/soft-open when it first opened in 2017. Wasn’t wowed by the food. Was less wowed by the waiter that couldn’t tell me whether something on the menu with some generic name was Char Siu Bao. Was completely put off by the fact that it always had a B or C sanitary rating after its initial Grade Pending (and the fact that they tried to put the score in as out of the way a place as possible so that you wouldn’t notice it). If you ever read what the things that get points off for to get a B or C it will make you ill.