What a spot. New as of January, great food and service. Highly recommend. Dumplings are freshly and ambiance if phenomenal. read more

I went on a Monday around noon and it was pretty empty, which surprised me because this place deserves way more love! Everything we had was so good. The handmade dumplings were definitely one of my favorites, 9/10 and you really can't beat them when they're made fresh. We also tried the duck with gold flakes and the Chinese gnocchi, which were both such a treat. Everything tasted fresh, flavorful, and different from the usual places around Boston. I highly recommend coming here and trying some of the authentic Chinese dishes. We really enjoyed everything and will definitely be back. read more

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Came here for an early dinner on a Friday and had no issues getting seats. Service was warm and friendly and being able to see the soup dumplings being made in real time was nice! Items we ordered as of July 2026 - Pork Soup Dumplings (3) - $8 - Very tender dumpling skin with a rich broth and tender pork inside. You only receive 3 but the size is pretty large. This is definitely something to get when we come here. - Scallion Oil Noodles - $12 - Noodles cooked perfectly and we really enjoyed the scallion flavorings in the dish. For the price it's not bad though in the future I would add protein into it as the noodles on their own isn't anything special. - Cucumber Salad - $8 - We love cucumbers, cilantro AND garlic so this was a very yummy dish for us. Cucumbers were fresh and crisp. Would order this again. - Sweet and Sour Pork - $25 - The tenderloin cut they use has great tenderness and the sauce is fantastic. I only wish they'd add some veggies and fruit to it like some other restaurants (green peppers, pineapples and onions). - Pickled veggies - Free! - Complimentary and also has a nice pickeled bite to it. Really refreshing. Overall we enjoyed our meal here and look forward to returning to try their multitude of other dishes! read more

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My husband and I took our families out to dinner at Novo Lantern. We loved all the dishes, in particular, the Peking duck (with the salt and pepper bones), the ants climbing tree, wasabi shrimp, di san xian, and the pan fried bao buns. Unfortunately we only took one picture of the food but everything was delicious. The owner was incredibly welcoming and accommodating of our large group at a late hour. Thank you for the wonderful dinner! read more

Novo Lantern - Peking duck - Dim Sum Near Me - Boston, Massachusetts

Great Chinese food in the middle of Boston. I love the family style dining. I had: 1. Pecking duck 2. Duck soup 3. Xiao long bao 4. Sizzling beef read more

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The soup dumplings are incredibly flavorful and they are on the medium side. There are only 3 of them. There is a very cute old Asian lady rolling them fresh for everyone to see. She is so kind and sweet. The string beans are very flavorful. The scallion and oil noodles are not good at all and lack flavor. This place is on the expensive side. However the portions are medium sized! Except the dumplings. I think there should be more read more

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Food was actually below average and nowhere close to being authentic. Seems as if they're selling to those unfamiliar with Chinese food. When asked what's their recommendations, the server said Beef With Broccoli! That's the very fake Chinese food Americans get at Panda Express! See the photos here: nothing was good about the food here. The crispy pork (see picture) was garbage -- it's a common Chinese dish and I can name many other restaurants that know how to make this dish well -- example, B2J Tasty Pot in Allston can do it way way better than Novo Lantern. Without exaggeration, I don't know how to make this dish, but am quite confident I can look up a recipe online and make it instantly better than what was served here... The server appeared to be either careless, or just extremely high, didn't even put in the order but lied that it was coming... The only thing pleasant about Novo Lantern was the hostess who seated us. read more

Novo Lantern - This dish was garbage -- it's a common Chinese dish and I can name many other restaurants that know how to make this dish well. - Dim Sum Near Me - Boston, Massachusetts

Novo Lantern is a very clean, polished, and delicious spot in Boston's South End! We were greeted with some pickled cabbage and carrots when we sat down, to enjoy while we perused their menu. For all of those who usually come to Yelp to look at photos (me!), they provided a version of the menu with photos of each dish! Our server was very kind and attentive throughout the entire meal. Food came out quick and was very fresh - we could even see a chef working on it from our table! Scallion noodles were my personal favorite. Lots of vegetarian and vegan options as well, which is great. Definitely recommend! read more

Novo Lantern - Dim Sum Near Me - Boston, Massachusetts

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Stopped by Novo Lantern recently and had a good experience. The atmosphere is warm and inviting, and the service was attentive the entire meal. One of the coolest parts was watching the dumplings being made in front of us. It added such a nice touch and gave the whole place a really cozy, yet upscaled, authentic feel. We ordered the Cucumber Salad, Pork Soup Dumplings, Lantern House Braised Beef, Sizzling Cumin Lamb, and the Scallion Oil Noodles. Honestly, every dish tasted pretty good, especially the cucumbers and lamb. While the flavors are fairly classics and can be find elsewhere, the vibe and attention to detail make it a spot worth trying at least once. read more

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This spot is right on Washington and Mass ave, parking on Washington has meters be sure to be courteous if you find a spot and park close to the sidewalk, it is a BUS lane next to you after all. The restaurant is done up nice! Great for small group of friends or date night / luncheon. Sesame bread with scallion oil - free right now and was nice, light, and paired well with the scallion oil dip! Fish roe soup dumpling- texture of the dumpling was really nice for me; the wrap was not overly thick and held the soup pretty well. HANDMADE fresh when you order at the dumpling stand near the back. The filling was well marinated and the broth was flavorful. I enjoyed. Wish they did 5-6 pcs for the price but I'm happy with the dish though Sizzling beef onion and peppers, could be the style from the region of China the cuisine is from but I'm used to canto style with some more salty seasoning and black pepper sauce style. Overall meat was tender; flames table side YES haha the charred pieces were tasty! Salt pepper squid and cod enjoyed this dish for the texture, light batter, and well cooked seafoood. Now the seasoning was all on the onions and peppers BUT the protein had no seasoning. Unfortunate miss here. Fried flounder hot and spicy - YES YES, like taipei style food i enjoyed this dish a lot. Fresh fish fillet, battered, fried, great seasoning. Overall i think the prices are a tad higher than i would have felt this cuisine should be at per dish but can't complain too much since i did enjoy the food overall. Server named Jack A+ service my guy! Appreciate you! read more

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We ordered the pork soup dumplings, Sizzling Scallion & Onion Beef, Dan Dan Gnocchi, and Sesame Pancake. I was honestly impressed watching the soup dumplings being made fresh right in front of us. They came out plump, juicy, and packed with flavor -- definitely the highlight of the meal for me. I seriously could've eaten another round. They are a little pricey at $8 for 3 dumplings, but the freshness made it feel worth trying at least once. The scallion beef was tender, savory, and really satisfying with the rice. The sesame pancake was decent but a little bland for my taste, and I wish the gnocchi came with more sauce because the flavor was actually really good. Overall, it was a fun dining experience with a nice atmosphere and a few standout dishes. I'd honestly come back just for the soup dumplings alone. read more

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Very exciting to have an authentic Chinese restaurant in the neighborhood. They just opened in January 2026 and have a smaller menu for now. Not too much customers currently but here is my thoughts of the food: The Soup Dumplings are decent to good. Good when you crave it. Salted & Pepper Cod and Calamari is really good. Seasoned perfectly. Sizzling King Oyster is a great vegan options. It's king oyster mushroom that is chopped to small cubes and stir fried. Overall, food is seasoned well and hits the spot. read more

Novo Lantern - Menu - Dim Sum Near Me - Boston, Massachusetts

Novo Lantern opened for business on January 8, 2026 at the corner of Washington St & Mass Ave. At the time of this posting, they were in their soft opening phase with a limited menu, which offered a selection of handmade dumplings, noodles & rice dishes, wok fried dishes, appetizers, hot tea, & soft drinks. The pricing is moderate. The place has a bright full service dining room and also offers takeout. I stopped by Novo Lantern for a mid-afternoon meal and dined-in. The server informed me they just opened on Thursday and still in the soft opening phase, everything was homemade. I was given a menu and ice water. I ordered the Pork Soup Dumplings (3 for $8 plus tax), Crab Roe Soup Dumplings (3 for $9 plus tax), and the Egg Fried Rice ($17 plus tax). While I was waiting, a server brought out complementary homemade sesame cake with oil dipping sauce. The round sesame cake was hot and soft, very good. The soup dumplings arrived first with ginger sauce provided, followed by the fried rice. The soup dumplings were very hot filled with a light broth & meat fillings. The fried rice had strips of scrambled egg & scallions in soft lightly fried rice. The rice was a great dish for absorbing the broth from the dumplings. After I was done, I was given the check which was $36.38 with tax and before tip. A handheld payment reader was brought over so I could tap & pay by card. Overall, a very good early dinner at Novo Lantern with good informative service by two servers. I will have to stop back for more dumplings and other Chinese dishes when their menu is expanded. read more

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Had lunch on a Saturday at the restaurant and had no issues getting seats. The restaurant presented nicely with nice seating and tablecloths. The waiter was attentive as he constantly came to fill our water glasses. We ordered the Pork Soup Dumplings, Potstickers, Pork Crispy Bottom Buns, String Beans, Cold Black Fungus Salad, Scallion Oil Noodles, and Sizzling Scallion & Onion Beef. We enjoyed our meal here, but forgot to take a picture of the dumplings! read more

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I honestly liked this place better when it was Nan Xiang Express. The food was pretty standard for Chinese (not the best in the area and not the best value either), but I guess it's the only sit down Chinese restaurant in this part of South End. They added a couple booths to the interior, the decor is clean and modern, and you can see someone preparing the food/dumplings at the front. It definitely tries to cater more to Western / more fusion palates with the use of kale, brussel sprouts, and gnocchi in some of the menu items (which we avoided). I think as a result (or maybe this just reflects the surrounding community), the patrons are largely non-Chinese, but I was glad to see how busy the place was! Our servers were a little rusty. For example, it seemed like they forgot about the vegetables we ordered because it came out much later than the rest of our food. read more

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I visited for their lunch special on a weekday, and it was easy finding a table for the group of us. The staff were all very friendly, but it took 20 minutes for the food to arrive. My favorite part was honestly the complementary pancakes every table gets. We tried the fish and the general su tofu dishes ($16 or so), and the lunch special came with egg drop soup and rice. While my friends liked the fish, the tofu dish was rather disappointing with the tofu being dry if not in sauce and seemingly having an air-fried texture. The two pieces of steamed broccoli tasted fresh but were cold and seemed out of a frozen bag. I appreciated that there were plenty of vegan options on the menu, but I'd definitely choose something else if I were coming back. Overall some of the food was good, and I loved the free pancake appetizers, but be prepared to wait and maybe pick a different tofu dish than the general su tofu. read more

Novo Lantern - General su tofu - Dim Sum Near Me - Boston, Massachusetts

Novo Lantern is a rather new Chinese fusion restaurant in South End that opened earlier this year! We visited around 3pm and had no trouble getting a table for two. We had a pretty good idea of what we wanted to order & requested for the following 4 dishes: - crabmeat soup dumplings -fried cod and calamari -sizzling scallion fried beef -hot & spicy fried flounder fish Each table gets a complimentary scallion sesame pancake/bread with scallion olive oil to start. It came with four pieces & was pretty tasty! The scallion olive oil was subtle but lovely. The star of the show for me was their crab meat soup dumplings! We were kind of bummed out when we saw that they only do 3 soup dumplings/order, whereas most places do at least 4-5 dumplings. Once we tried the dumplings, we immediately understood why it was $9/3 pieces... SO GOOD! I might even go as far as to say, best soup dumplings we've tried in town? Everything from the filling, the dumpling soup broth, and skin was PERFECTION! Very FLAVORFUL and honestly great size per dumpling. They make the dumplings in house & have a counter in the back of the restaurant where you're able to see the staff make the dumplings fresh! The second dish that arrived to our table was the fried cod and calamari. We almost always order calamari whenever we go out to eat & this was not bad! It was a generous amount of cod & calamari. I do wish that they included the tentacles (my favorite part!) and not just the body of the calamari. This dish was also under salted, so we did have to ask for some salt from our server. The sizzling scallion fried beef was under salted, as well. I always love getting sizzling plate dishes, especially when they light it on fire hahaha but flavor was definitely lacking here. This was my least favorite of all the dishes we ordered but I have the say, the beef was very tender and soft! Lastly, we had the hot & spicy fried flounder fish. It wasn't spicy at all honestly and unlike the previous two dishes, this was TOO salty for my liking. I noticed they sprinkled a lot of salt and I found it hard to eat w/o pairing it with some rice. I believe they use a black bean sauce for flavor... which is usually pretty salty already. Other than the black bean sauce, I felt like it was missing some depth in flavor I would've liked to see. I did, however, like the batter they used, how they fried it to be perfectly light + crispy, and fish itself was cooked well. Overall, I'm glad we were able to try a couple of different dishes & now we know which ones we like! Would for sure come back again for their soup dumplings. Their service was AMAZING. Very rarely do I say that but the server we had was incredibly attentive and checked up on us every few minutes! Parking: street meter parking read more

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Really great find! We got the Dan Dan gnocchi, soup dumpling trio, sweet and sour pork, and kale dumplings in chili oil. Recommend all. Great and fast service as well. Appreciate it! read more

Ordered take out through UberEats. - PEKING DUCK - NOT worth $50. - came with smaller portion of duck (less than half of a container), 6- thin/ small pancakes, scallion and cucumbers (all separately contained). The duck was bland but somewhat tender. - POACHED CHICKEN W/ SCALLION & GINGER - good. The container was too small for the portion. They slathered the ginger and scallion on the top so the top portion of the chicken was very salty and gingerly. But not bad. Will try different options next time. read more

Really delicious and delicate Service is just amazing Ambiance is net and clean We fell at home, at grandmas house read more

We are in from out of town and wanted a nice midday lunch on a chilly afternoon- this was exactly what I wanted! The restaurant is clean and so cute. Great service. Everything we ordered was terrific! I highly recommend! read more

I love this place!! I've been a few times now and the food never disappoints, the service is very friendly and accommodating, and they're great with allergies! They're soup dumplings are lovely, but some of my favorite dishes have been the novo lantern braised beef, salt and pepper cod & calamari, pork bottom buns, the dan dan gnocchi and most recently they added a peking duck to the menu; that was incredible! They also do a duck bone broth that I would not skip out on! I hope this newer spot gets the recognition it deserves! read more

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We visited Novo Lantern for a graduation dinner. We were lucky to find a place 2 weeks in advance with availability! We got stuck in traffic and they were very accommodating and held our reservation. Half our party was vegetarian and can recommend the kale dumplings and salt and pepper eggplant both which were amazing. Nothing special about the scallion pancake and general tso tofu. The veggie Singapore noodles tasted good but could use more vegetables. The meat eaters loved their chicken dishes and the salt and pepper fish and squid was really tasty and a large portion. The mango sago dessert was different and delicious. Our waitress was so sweet but seemed overwhelmed. Not an issue for us since we were in no hurry but we had to remind her about a couple of things. The restaurant was half full at the time. Ambience was very cool and we'd love to visit again! read more

The food is good especially the pork dumplings however, if you're selling three small pork dumpling females well add a fourth one for six dollars. They are good but they're small so if you wanna tray of nine you're getting only nine pork dumplings for almost $25 the size of your thumb. read more

Such a great little addition to the South End. The space is small, minimalist, and beautifully designed -- simple and clean. And the handmade dumplings, right in front of you... absolutely delicious. Fresh, flavorful, and clearly made with care. Every dish we tried was comforting and full of flavor. Owner and Staff were incredibly kind, welcoming, and attentive, making the whole experience feel warm and personal. A small place with big flavor. Definitely worth a visit. read more

Novo Lantern - Dim Sum Near Me - Boston, Massachusetts

We're visiting Boston for the first time and stopped by this restaurant because it was walking distance from the hotel. Such delicious food! We got the cumin lamb, green beans, pork soup dumplings, and pan fried pork buns and, for desert, we got the mango sago. Everything was absolutely delicious and tasted exactly like mom's cooking. If anyone wants authentic Chinese food in this area, this is definitely the place to go! read more

So happy there is a tasty Chinese restaurant in town. Food was really good. Loved the kale wontons in chili oil! Malabang noodles was also delicious. Be sure to order tea - they serve it in a beautiful glass pot and it adds to ambience in addition to adding balance to the meal. The decor is elegant - minimal but not stark - classy and modern. Service was excellent. read more

Novo Lantern - Chrysanthemum tea - Dim Sum Near Me - Boston, Massachusetts

Amazing quality food, great hospitality and service. Very good with allergies and accommodations. 10/10 would recommend trying.

Had dinner at 6pm. Was very quiet. The waitress was very attentive and said they were looking for feedback. They get points for presentation - there is someone making dumplings in the back, we got nicely presented scallion pancakes (more like bread) as an appetizer on the house. The soup dumplings were flavorful but I wish the soup spoons had been bigger to accommodate. Please note you are only getting 3 large-ish ones per order so plan accordingly. Unfortunately we were limited by my temporary spice intolerance so perhaps we were ordering the wrong dishes. The crispy fried cod had an interesting presentation and was indeed crispy - but the flavor was mainly from the sweet and sour sauce. Another review commented on apparent to American tastes and I'm sure that's what they tried to do here. The ginger chicken tasted more "authentic" but wish we had been advised we needed to order a side of rice since it comes without. Overall, I think it's worth a try but you might need to try the spicy dishes. And maybe do more soup dumplings read more

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Nova Lantern delivers a standout experience from start to finish. The food was exceptionalclean, confident flavors that immediately took me back to time I've spent living in Asia. The xiaolongbao and potstickers were beautifully executed, but the cumin lamb was the undeniable star of the table bold, aromatic, and deeply satisfying. The rest of the menu held up just as well. Service was excellent: warm, precise, and genuinely attentive without ever feeling intrusive. A thoughtfully run restaurant with real respect for flavor and hospitality. Since it's a new spot, I really hope people go check it out it's absolutely worth a visit and deserves the support. read more

Get on to this place early because it's great... I live in the neighborhood and this will be my go to for great food.... 5 stars​

New gem in the South End. Delicious food, everything tasted fresh and rich in flavor. The classy city vibes and attentive service is top notch. read more

The Food was excellent the service was good the place was very nice and fancy my daughter and I enjoyed are self alot read more