On Tuesday, January 20, married duo and owners of Park Slope’s Noodle Lane, Lane Li and Chris Wang, are opening Rulin located at 15 East 13th Street between University Place and Fifth Avenue. In addition to serving hand-pulled noodles, it will offer creative takes on Lanzhou, Cantonese, and Sichuan dishes. Expect soy sauce duck canapés, binchotan charcoal-grilled short ribs dusted with cumin, and noodles served with assorted toppings and soups. The menu is not about traditional immigrant recipes here, but rather the multicultural innovation of the next generation, which grew up most of their lives in New York City.
After immigrating from Guangdong when she was six years old, Li learned traditional Cantonese home cooking in her family’s kitchen in Flatbush. During her 10-plus-year career in finance, she took classes at the French Culinary Institute (now International Culinary Education) and picked up tips and inspiration from the now-closed lauded Sichuan restaurant, Guan Fu, as well as Xi’an Famous Foods in Flushing.
In 2011, Li started Noodle Lane as one of the original vendors at Smorgasburg. But it wasn’t until 2023 that she retired the white collar for the white toque, and expanded her pop-up by opening Park Slope’s Noodle Lane. Her bestsellers are still Americanized Chinese takeout classics like sesame chicken, but the Union Square location may allow her to showcase more experimental dishes.
“I feel more free,” she said. “I’m gonna make what I want.”
The menu breaks down into five sections: starters, skewers (ordered by the stick), noodle and rice entrees, and sides.
The duck canapé appetizer ($19) reflects her multicultural culinary background. She takes the traditional Cantonese-style duck steamed in soy sauce and garlic and layers it on top of house-pickled daikon and discs of crispy roasted rice. At the base: some duck jus.
There’s also the craft and showmanship of noodle pulling that she loves, visible to customers through a window in the back of the restaurant. The noodles, made throughout the day, slip into six dishes: three with little broth; three in steaming soups.
In one of Li’s creations — the short rib noodles ($35) — she braises beef short rib and serves it alongside noodles in a chile herb sauce made with angelica root (a fragrant staple of Traditional Chinese Medicine) and Sichuan peppercorns. She tops them off with mustard greens pickled in-house “for a less vinegary flavor.”
Binchotan charcoal grilling makes up another substantial section of Rulin’s menu. She said the high-heat technique facilitates faster cooking and a crispier char while keeping the inside tender (though it was “a happy accident” due to the inaccessibility of gas on the premises). Li seasons ingredients like chicken thighs, boneless wings, squid, and shiitake mushrooms with chile flakes and cumin, serving them as skewers ($5-11) or in rice dishes ($25-35). Razor clams are also grilled for a salad ($29).
With interiors designed by Studio Jari for storefronts like Handsome Rice, the decor evokes soft minimalism through natural wood, lightly hued marble, curved architectural elements, and mosaic textures.
Rulin will be open Tuesday to Sunday, starting with dinner service until 10 p.m. Reservations will become available via Resy.
