Deceptive is the word for Yeah Shanghai Deluxe, the two-year old restaurant with the hippest name in Chinatown. Sandwiched in along a row of look-alike, undistinguished eating places the narrow, storefront Yeah Shanghai Deluxe, with its dumpling kitchen in the window, could well be a casual, fast lunch spot or even a carry out.

But walk past the steaming, up front action of the dumpling prep area and cross over a charming little bridge to the cave-like rear dining room with its brick walls and Italian wine cellar look. There, is a sight every Chinese food freak searches for, a sea of Asian faces. Not a Caucasian in the crowd. The blackboard specials are in Chinese here (so are the newspapers) and although forks are available everyone seems to be eating with chopsticks.

Obviously this is not your father’s Chinese American restaurant serving Egg Foo young, egg rolls and moo goo gai pan (none of which are on the menu). It’s a new-fangled Chinese-Chinese restaurant serving the rare-in-New-York specialties of Shanghai. Oh, you can order moo shu pork, scallion pancakes, spring rolls or hot and sour soup, but why do it? Those dishes are available at every cookie cutter, garden variety Chinese eatery. But steamed, juicy pork buns, pork shoulder in honey sauce, chrysanthemum fish, roast chicken Northern China-style and Shanghai dough aren’t and Yeah Shanghai is a find because of those light, unusual, often exotic dishes. Its beautiful presentations, one-dish-at-a-time service, pleasant staff and agreeable dining room ambiance also enhance the experience.

In fact, the only dishes sampled that were just ordinary were two standards: hot and sour soup that needed hot sauce to jack it up and shredded pork in garlic sauce that was no better or worse than it is elsewhere.

Instead, start with those steamed, juicy pork buns or soup and meatˆfilled dumplings, eight of them. Eat each one on a soup spoon slowly sipping out the broth, then, eating the pork, remaining liquid and outer won ton-like shell. They are a mellow delight. Don’t depart without trying one or two dim sum. We selected steamed pork and leak dumplings and weren’t sorry. They offered a welcome taste and texture contrast.

Most main courses are attractively encircled by a border of thin, alternating orange and tomato slices and taste as good as they look. Get that whole Northern China-style roast chicken, presented with its head and feet and a clump of tender, moist shredded strands of chicken. Add the accompanying brown sauce replete with minced garlic and you’re on your way.

The pork shoulder in honey sauce is its equal. The soft, juicy meat, in a coat of
fall-away fat, easily separated from the meat, is sinfully delicious and the honey adds a subtle sweet note. Ten lightly breaded, gently cooked Peking-style prawns are another good bet.

Finish up with the spongy, steamed thousand pieces cake, an acquired taste to be sure, but like Yeah Shanghai Deluxe itself, one that is not a routine Manhattan eatery.

65 Bayard (@ Mott St.), 212-566-4884.