In a new era for Chinese cuisine, restaurants across the West are opening up to regional recipes and nuanced flavours. So it stands to reason restaurant design is branching out from red lanterns and koi ponds. The latest, Nin Hao in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, distinguishes itself with Fujianese cuisine in a light-bathed space with five-metre ceilings.

New York studio Plan Plan dressed up a ground-floor space in a glassy tower block with reams of translucent Austrian fabric and tile work in concrete shades. A backlit polycarbonate wall over the bar and eating counter balances the incoming light and glows at night.

Blond wood seating and custom storage help keep the backdrop neutral for standout features like the hand-painted fantasy mural along one wall, accented with a long, communal Chinese-red table and a green-topped mahjong table with a rotating tray. Combined with an oversized white paper lantern, they represent a fresh take on Far Eastern motifs – a ‘contemporary spirit’, as the designers say.

The bathrooms, where the walls are coated in mosaic tiles, are another highlight. In one, the tiny tiles swirl together to resemble Spring Morning in the Han Palace by Qiu Ying. In the other, you can pick out Hudson River Valley from Fort Putnam, by George Henry Boughton.

The bar serves Chinese-themed cocktails like ‘Si Chuan’, with baiju, Sichuan peppercorns, pickled mango, and chilli, and it offers New York wine by glass.

www.ninhaonyc.com/

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