Don’t walk into Lucky Pot looking for a $3.99 special of General Tso’s chicken, fried rice, and an egg roll; if you do, you may elicit stares of contempt, or possibly have the waitstaff pretend not to speak English just so they can ignore you. Lucky Pot serves an authentic style of Northern Chinese cuisine—one which emphasizes crispiness and crunchiness in texture, as well as heartiness in taste. It’s not for everyone: service will be curt and won’t hold your hand while you figure out the menu. It’s best to do some research (which we’ll help you with) and just dive in.

For hot days, there are fantastic cold dishes, like sliced beef shank that’s marinated, slow-cooked, then chilled to an odd, but addictive, gelatinous texture from the tendons. Steamed pork, lamb, and vegetable dumplings have thicker-than-normal skins, but they’re still light and delicious. For colder days, tofu casserole with a steaming, mushroomy broth warms you up; better are the savory, crunchy, appropriately greasy pan-fried green-onion cakes. But make the darkly rich beef noodle soup your centerpiece. The noodles are toothsome and the broth marrowy and soothing. Peking duck’s fine here, but better at Peking Cuisine. (Most of the time, we find the name of the restaurant’s a good guide to ordering.)