Back Bay's Dumpling and Matcha Moment: What's New Between Newbury and Boylston This Fall

Since mid-July, four places built around dumplings, dim sum or matcha have opened within a few blocks of each other in Back Bay, and a fifth, Din Tai Fung, has been reported for the Prudential Center. Most of them did not take empty storefronts. They took over rooms that other businesses had held for years, including an Irish pub that lasted 17 years, a steakhouse that lasted eight and a dumpling house that dated to 2014. These openings replace places the neighborhood already knew, and the largest of those swaps is still unconfirmed.

Here is where each address stood as of October 8, 2026.

Boylston Street's pub and steakhouse rooms are going to dim sum

Zhu is the clearest example. The restaurant at 903 Boylston St. is in the space where Lir, an Irish pub, ran for 17 years before it closed in 2020, according to Boston Restaurant Talk. The new restaurant was first reported last fall. It began a soft opening on Monday, September 28, 2026, open from 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. that day, and serves Chinese seafood and dim sum along with beer, wine, cocktails and spirits.

Boston.com names chef Joanna Zhu as the chef behind it. The paper describes a dim sum bar, dumplings and other Chinese dishes, some of which nod to her mother's cooking. Boston Magazine describes the restaurant as a "glam multi-level spot" and reported on October 2 that it was still in soft-opening mode, with a full opening coming soon. No date had been given. Hours and menu may still change before then. The restaurant's Instagram, @zhuboston, has the most current information. The restaurant is unrelated to the vegan restaurant of the same name in Arlington.

Farther down Boylston, the potential change is bigger. Del Frisco's Double Eagle Steakhouse closed its Prudential Center location at 888 Boylston St. after eight years, and MassLive reported in mid-July that it had closed. The Seaport location is still open.

On July 16, What Now Boston reported that Din Tai Fung was getting ready to take over that space. The report was based on a local photographer's Instagram post, which Mayor Wu reposted. The Taiwanese chain started in Taipei in 1958 as a cooking oil shop. It now runs more than 170 locations in 14 countries and is best known for its xiaolongbao, which are soup dumplings made with 18 folds. At that time it had 23 U.S. locations in Arizona, California, Nevada, New York, Oregon and Washington. The closest one to Boston was in New York, so 888 Boylston would be its first in Massachusetts.

That July report made two conditions clear. The opening depended on approval from the Licensing Board, and "an opening timeline for the Boston restaurant has not yet been announced." Our research turned up no later local report confirming either an approval or a construction schedule. As of early October, Din Tai Fung at the Prudential Center is still a reported plan, and the space has not been confirmed as its new home.

On Mass Ave, the dumplings stayed and the owner changed

The Boylston Street rooms are changing what they serve. 179 Massachusetts Ave. kept its cuisine and changed hands. Dumpling Center was reported open there on August 11, 2026, in the former Dumpling Palace space. Boston Restaurant Talk reports that the new restaurant has different owners. Dumpling Palace opened in 2014, when it replaced Nan Ling. That makes Dumpling Center at least the third restaurant serving Chinese food at that address.

The menu covers more than the name suggests. It includes handmade dumplings, buns, noodles, sizzling dry-wok dishes and mala hot pot, according to Boston Restaurant Talk and NBC Boston. Little has been published about who runs it or whether the owners have other restaurants.

Taken together, these three addresses show two kinds of change. On Boylston, two rooms that had been a pub and a steakhouse are turning to dim sum, one of them only on a reported plan so far. On Mass Ave, a dumpling house has new owners and the same cuisine. The neighborhood is getting more dumplings in both cases, but how each change happens is quite different.

Newbury's matcha cafés come from very different starting points

The two matcha cafés on Newbury Street have very different backgrounds. One belongs to an international chain. The other grew out of a local pop-up.

Nana's Green Tea, 175 Newbury St. The chain was founded in Tokyo in 2001. Its Back Bay shop soft-opened on Tuesday, July 14, 2026. MassLive called it the chain's seventh U.S. location and its second on the East Coast. The menu goes past drinks to parfaits, matcha soft serve and other desserts, plus Japanese curry and rice bowls. That makes it as much a place for lunch as a tea stop. Boston.com listed July 17 as the opening date. That probably reflects the difference between a soft opening and the official one.

byChae, 222 Newbury St. This is the first café from the matcha brand started by David Chae, a Babson student. The brand began as a mobile pop-up in June 2025, as What Now Boston reported. Boston Magazine listed it as open on October 2. The magazine singled out the mango sticky rice matcha, which is topped with coconut cream, and called Boston's appetite for matcha a "moment."

So one café comes from a 25-year-old Tokyo chain and the other from a pop-up that is barely more than a year old, and both chose the same street within a few weeks of each other. Both menus are built around matcha and include much more than a cup of tea.

A few other recent Back Bay openings fall outside the pattern but are worth knowing about:

• Shuden Bar at The Irving, 61 Exeter St., is a Wednesday pop-up serving Japanese hand rolls with a specialty drinks menu.
• LPM Restaurant & Bar is a new French Riviera-style restaurant at the Four Seasons Hotel One Dalton Street. Boston Magazine mentioned its salt-baked sea bass.
• 7th Street Burger, a New York burger chain, announced 267 Newbury St. as its Back Bay address, according to NBC Boston. Boston.com listed its Newbury Street location as open in an October 2 roundup. Its arrival came shortly after the Smashburger at 545 Boylston St. was reported closed in late June.

Where the new spots meet October's calendar

The neighborhood has three busy weekends coming up, and the new places fit around each of them.

1. Sunday, October 11: Open Newbury Street. From 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Newbury is closed to cars from Berkeley Street to Massachusetts Avenue. The Fairfield, Gloucester and Hereford Street intersections are car-free too. Parking is banned from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. This is the last date of the City of Boston summer series. One more date in December, tied to holiday events, is still to be announced. Nana's Green Tea, byChae and 7th Street Burger are all on the car-free stretch.
2. Friday through Sunday, October 16 to 18: Head of the Charles Regatta. The regatta brings crowds to the river edge of the neighborhood all weekend.
3. Saturday, October 17: Boston Book Festival. The festival fills Copley Square from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., which puts Zhu at 903 Boylston and Dumpling Center on Mass Ave within a short walk.

On the weekdays in between, the Copley Square Farmers Market runs twice a week through November 24, 2026. Zhu's full opening date and any Licensing Board decision on 888 Boylston are the next two things to watch for. The second will settle whether the Prudential Center's old steakhouse space becomes the state's first Din Tai Fung.

Sheri served on the Brookline Preservation Commission for more than 15 years, so she follows closely how buildings change hands and change uses. That includes what moves into a long-held storefront, and how a new operator affects the block around it. If you'd like to talk about how Back Bay's changes on Boylston and Newbury fit with your own plans, Sheri Flagler is glad to compare notes. Let's Connect.