It’s the Year of Dim Sum, Drunken Chicken and Wagyu Fried Rice

Next Friday begins Chinese New Year.

But tonight begins your fling with the best-looking new Chinese restaurant in Vegas.

It’s China Tang, a Hong Kong import of generous dim sum and colonial-era cocktails from a Michelin star-laden hospitality group, now soft-open at MGM Grand.

Check this place out. It’s taking Strip-side Chinese to another level with its Tang Dynasty-meets-Art-Deco-meets-1930s-Shanghai feel. So get in there with some friends, starting in the separate lounge, at a bar under ornately beveled windows. 

There, a pre-Opium-War-inspired cocktail awaits, like the Mr. Tang with cognac, maraschino liqueur, Cointreau and absinthe served atop a dim sum basket frothing with dry ice.

Someone in your crew will be busy Instagramming that while you attempt a ridiculous toast to the Year of the Dog over the booming sound system. Then you’ll slide into the dining room and prepare to feast.

Steamed crab dumplings are a must from the dim sum menu. And wagyu fried rice can’t be ignored. And the Drunken Chicken will probably become someone’s new nickname before the night is through. 

But you’re vastly more concentrated on your Hammer Chicken. That comes stuffed with mushrooms and pork belly, gets baked inside clay, then doused in rosé and set on fire at your table.

Also, you’ll need a hammer to crack the clay apart to reveal what’s inside.

You did bring a hammer, right?