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A new Chinese restaurant is preparing to open on the Upper West Side — and it’s moving into one of the neighborhood’s most notoriously high-turnover restaurant spaces.
Wu’s Dynasty, a Cantonese-style Chinese restaurant, is planning to open this June in the ground-floor commercial space at 208 West 70th Street, between West End and Amsterdam avenues. While paperwork lists the address as 210 West 70th Street, the restaurant will occupy the same expansive space formerly home to Lincoln Square Steak, according to an attorney who appeared before Community Board 7. 
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If the address sounds familiar, it’s because 208 West 70th Street has become something of a culinary revolving door. Over the past few decades, at least eight restaurants have come and gone — none lasting more than ten years — despite the space’s massive footprint and prime location (right next to Cafe Luxembourg, which has been running strong since the Reagan administration).
Most recently, the address was home to Tavola Della Nonna, an Italian-American restaurant that opened just before the pandemic in February 2020 and closed shortly thereafter.
The last tenant at the space was Tavola Della Nonna (Google Maps)
Before that came Lincoln Square Steak, which occupied the roughly 9,000-square-foot space from 2015 to 2019 and even served as a filming location for “Law & Order: SVU.” Earlier tenants included Maria Loi’s Greek restaurant Loi, the glitzy mega-restaurant Marika, and Compass, which holds the distinction of being the longest-running eatery at the address, surviving from 2002 to 2011. 
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Going further back, the space was once home to Mendy’s West — immortalized by Seinfeld’s “Is soup a meal?” debate — and Lee Mazzilli’s Sports Cafe, a 350-seat family-friendly restaurant opened by the former Yankee and Met in the mid-1990s. In the late 1980s, the space housed Cosmico, a flashy supper club decorated with artwork by actor Anthony Quinn. Long before that, the building’s basement was home to Ungano’s, a legendary music venue that hosted artists like Fleetwood Mac, BB King, and Van Morrison.
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Now, Wu’s Dynasty is hoping to succeed where many others have struggled. The Cantonese restaurant will have a capacity of 340 people, with 38 tables and 228 seats. Planned hours are 11am to 11pm, with background music only — no DJs or live performances. The space is currently undergoing renovations.
The legal representative for the owner, who also operates several restaurants in Queens and Long Island — including Spring Thai in Rego Park and multiple bakeries — told Community Board 7 this will be his first restaurant in Manhattan.
Whether Wu’s Dynasty can finally break the curse of 208 West 70th Street remains to be seen. But for a space with such a long and colorful history, neighbors will certainly be watching — and rooting — to see if this one sticks.
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