According to the nutritionist, not many Chinese restaurants in New York care about the quality of ingredients compared to her restaurant.

“There are very few American-Chinese places as mindful about the quality of ingredients as we are,” she said. “We’re excited to offer it to people who want this type of food, and it can make them feel good and they can workout after and they can feel focused after and it will add to their health.”

On one Instagram post, the restaurant said unlike other places, it offered lo mein that did not make their customers feel “icky”.

“We heard you’re obsessed with lo mein but rarely eat it,” the now-deleted post read. “You said it makes you feel bloated and icky the next day? Well, wait until you slurp up our HIGH lo mein. Not too oily. Or salty.”

For Haspel, by opening a Chinese restaurant, she hopes to celebrate Asian culture.

“I love love love American Chinese food. I made some tweaks so I would be able to eat it and my friends and other people would be able to eat it,” she said. “I am by all means never ever looking to put down culture at all. I am very inclusive, and we’re here to celebrate the culture.”

Her restaurant will feature “a lot of Chinese elements” such as “lucky bamboo” and “jade”.

However, social media users were having none of it.

“This white woman just opened a ‘clean’ Chinese food restaurant … not only is she using Chinese food stereotypes/naming, she is shaming traditional Chinese food cooking with MSG/grease/starch,” one commenter said.

“This restaurant uses racist tropes to position itself as better than a traditionally Chinese-owned restaurant for no good reason,” said one person.