The Best Restaurants In Chinatown

Shu Jiao Fu Zhou is located on the outside periphery of what most would consider Chinatown, which is a nice way of saying it’s not exactly in Chinatown, by like a block. But we’re including it in this guide because we reserve the right to reject labels and also because this place serves the best dumplings around. They’re incredibly juicy and chewy and always just right. The wheat noodles with peanut sauce are also not to be missed.

Wu’s is our go-to spot for a birthday dinner or any other sort of big group outing in Chinatown. It’s BYOB, so most groups have ice buckets next to them filled with everything from Alsatian riesling to American IPAs. Every large round table has a humongous lazy susan, which you’ll inevitably cover with shareable dishes like a huge bowl of wonton soup, fried Dungeness crab, and Peking duck served in bao buns. After you finish everything in your ice bucket, keep the night going at 169 Bar a few feet away.

Whenever we’re in the mood for something unique and delicious that doesn’t cost much more than $15, we go to Kopitiam. It’s an excellent Malaysian spot on the border of the Lower East Side that’s great for a casual brunch or catch-up dinner with a friend who would appreciate a perfect oyster omelette. Split that and an order of the nasi lemak—but above all else, try the pan mee soup with handmade noodles, anchovy broth, and ground pork. It’s the Sunday HBO programming of the Kopitiam menu, and you’ll feel left out if you miss it.

Hands down, the best location of this NYC Cantonese chain is in Chinatown. Open until 3am every night, the dining room is a scene populated by every type of LES person: NYU students, Dimes Square fashionistas, and local families that have been going there forever. There are no carts, but things like shredded duck spring rolls, crispy short rib, and salted egg yolk buns taste better fresh out of the kitchen anyway. Or, share some big plates of Cantonese food like lobster yee mein and pork chop.

Trust us on these two facts: you will (almost certainly) have to wait in line to get a table at Shanghai 21, and it will (certainly) be worth it. This bright-green restaurant, sandwiched right between Chinatown legends Wo Hop and Hop Kee, turns out notably fantastic soup dumplings, but we also love the spicy-sweet Szechuan-style wontons and the tender shredded beef with dried bean curd. And the walls are covered with blown-up, illuminated glamour shots of food, in case you're in need of some outside-the-box apartment decor inspo.

On the border of Chinatown and the LES, Potluck Club serves Cantonese-American food in a space that looks like a cross between a restaurant, a lounge, and the concessions area of a movie theater. The menu was inspired by Chinatown, with dishes like a jellyfish salad, Berkshire pork potstickers, and salt and pepper chicken that comes with chive biscuits, pickled jalapeños, and a chili crisp jam. Order that chicken, and don’t skip dessert. The Dole Whip soft serve topped with a bolo bao crumble is reason enough to visit. 

As the name suggests, Taiwan Pork Chop House serves pork chops, and while they’re enjoyable (especially for $4.50 each), our favorite things here are the fried rice cakes with shredded pork or the tender wontons drenched in spicy oil. Everything at this casual cafe is both shareable and under $10, so bring a group and order a lot (and bring cash). You should probably get two or three orders of the wontons, but we recommend ordering in stages, as all of the food comes out really quickly.

From a former chef at Estela, in a room that could double as the inside of a bank vault, Bridges serves food that is elegant, rich, and demanding of all your attention. The dainty-plate menu changes seasonally, but there are two things you should always order: the sea urchin custard that could double as butter, and the comté tart. It’s hard to adequately explain just how good this glorified quiche is, but a perfect bite—with a little crust, a little cheese filling, and a little of whatever’s on top (sometimes chanterelles, sometimes truffles)—should do the trick. 

There are a lot of places selling rice rolls in Chinatown, and many of them are worth your time. The cheong fun cart at Hester and Elizabeth, for example, and the little takeout window at Sun Hing Lung. But our top pick is Yi Ji Shi Mo. The rice rolls here are exceedingly thin and delicate, like edible sheets of silk. There are a bunch of different varieties (starting around $3), but be sure to get the signature version with shrimp, pork, egg, and bits of chopped cilantro. It’s one of the top dishes in the neighborhood.

If you want to impress anyone with excellent soup dumplings, take them to Deluxe Green Bo. In addition to the soup dumplings (which are incredibly meaty and come with a combo of crab and pork), we love the rice cakes with shredded pork and cabbage, as well as the hot and spicy wontons that come with peanut sauce, sesame seeds, and chili oil on top. The space isn’t huge, so we wouldn’t recommend bringing more than four people here with you, but it’s great for a few out-of-towners if you’re playing host.

Royal Seafood is just one big carpeted room on Mott Street full of huge round tables, and though it can get busy on the weekends, it's our go-to spot for a weekday dim sum brunch when we remember work doesn’t matter, but egg tarts do. Make sure to snag plenty of pork buns, rice rolls, and chicken feet off the carts because it sometimes takes a while for them to recirculate. Even on a Tuesday morning, you'll see someone pairing their chicken feet with a bottle of Hennessy, so come here when you'd like to briefly forget about all of your responsibilities, and just focus on eating a lot of shrimp.

Chinatown is home to many excellent snacks, but none of them are as soft as the tofu pudding at Fong On. They hold the title of the oldest family-run tofu shop in NYC, which would be a big deal even if it weren’t for the silky smooth quality of their bean curd. They sell blocks of soft or firm tofu, as well as savory and sweet puddings. Don’t make yourself choose between the two. Instead, get both—the savory is topped with things like dried shrimp and pickled radish, and the sweet comes in a variety of different combinations, but get the one with taro balls, grass jelly, and red beans. The small size—which is good for a light lunch or big snack—will run you under $10.

If you’re looking for a relatively affordable takeout lunch, head to Wah Fung, a tollbooth-sized takeout spot where the roast pork, chicken, and duck are chopped to order. For around $6, you can get an aluminum container of caramelized meat, served over a mound of gravy-soaked rice. Choose one of the combos, remember to bring cash, and don’t be intimidated by the line that often stretches down the block. It moves fast.

A visit to Ping’s is incomplete without an order of the bounciest, most racket sport-ready crispy shrimp balls we’ve ever had. The dim sum carts at this Hong Kong-style seafood spot only rattle along during the day, but you can get their silken and chewy har gow, savory rolled rice noodles with vegetables, and turnip cakes all day, as well as some good things at night like sweet walnut shrimp, or stirfried manila clams in black pepper sauce. It feels like the kind of place that families have been going to twice a year (at minimum) since it opened in 1998, and is absolutely worthy of a new family tradition.

If you visit 1915 Lanzhou Handpulled Noodles & Dumplings with someone else, make sure you snag the seat facing the open kitchen at the back—you'll have the best view of the noodle-pulling. A chef rhythmically slaps and stretches dough and two giant pots of beef broth bubble away—for eight hours, until the broth is rich and cloudy. Taste it in the signature beef noodle soup, which has fall-apart meat and a glittery red pool of smoky chili oil. 

It only takes one slurp of Maxi’s simple, savory broth—made with pork bones and shrimp—to understand why this Hong Kong-style noodle shop draws crowds, both here and in its two Flushing locations. You can’t go wrong with the pleasantly chewy duck-egg noodles and the plump shrimp and pork wontons, which are sized somewhere between a golf ball and a tennis ball.

Hwa Yuan Szechuan is a reboot of a restaurant from the ’80s, but unlike the last Ninja Turtles movie, this is a rebirth we’re extremely down with. It takes up two huge floors, has very large round tables, and serves Chinatown’s best Peking duck. They also have really good sesame noodles, soup dumplings, steamed fish, crispy beef, and mapo tofu. Hwa Yuan is pricier and a bit more upscale than many of its neighbors, but it's absolutely worth it for the excellent food.

Mei Li Wah is a Chinese bakery that makes some of the best pork buns in the city. The buns come steamed or baked, and there’s even one with chicken and egg in addition to pork. The baked ones with barbecue pork are the best, though. They're perfectly soft, with a golden brown top, and caramelized pieces of pork steaming on the inside. While there are plenty of people who come to Mei Lai Wah to pick up buns and leave, you can also sit down and have a full meal here that involves some pretty good rice rolls and fried rice dishes with eggs, vegetables, and sausage mixed in.

Tolo is a wine bar where you can pair things like cold poached chicken in a málà chili oil with an earthy-yet-zippy Alsatian pinot noir (thanks to their friends at Parcelle). The chef is from Hong Kong, but the menu is derived from a few different regions of China. It’s dark, the kitchen is open, the green beans are spicy and gingery and full of ground pork, and it’s a great spot to go for a casual date, or a hangout with a couple of friends—though the restaurant is small, so big groups are no-go.

This Dominican counter-service spot achieved TikTok fame for their smashburger, which they layer with a crisp, golden-brown slice of fried queso blanco. This is no cheap internetty gimmick: The cheese adds a salty squeakiness to every bite. But our favorite thing on the menu is the signature El Sazón R.D. sandwich with pernil (and a stacked cast of fried cheese, fried salami, and sweet plantains), and the more traditional Dominican fare—like the pork mofongo and creamy morir soñando—is good, too. There’s almost no indoor seating, so take advantage of their outdoor dining structure or have a little picnic at Columbus Park around the corner.

Unfortunately, Wo Hop isn't open late anymore. But even though you can no longer stop by at 3am for a plate of noodles, this restaurant is still an NYC institution. It's been around since 1938, and it's the kind of place where you'll see lawyers from the DA’s office, a steady stream of police officers getting takeout, and ’80s headshots of former Broadway stars. Bring cash, be prepared for a short wait, and then head down the stairs to eat some intensely crispy fried dumplings, as well as big plates of chow fun, lemon chicken, and beef and broccoli. 

Uncle Lou channels the neighborhood's old-school Cantonese spots, with a hint of neon and a bit of fake foliage. Open since 2021, the place stays packed with groups going to town on family-style portions, and it nails just about everything on its enormous menu. The garlic chicken is essential, and you should pair it with some bacon fried rice, chow mei fun, and perfectly silky wontons. Reservations are only available for parties of six or more, so keep Uncle Lou in mind for your next birthday party.

Even on a Monday night, you might find it difficult to get a table at Spicy Village. And there are several reasons for this. First off, the space about the size of a tollbooth. It’s also BYOB, and the noodle-heavy Henan food is very good and pretty inexpensive. The rich, brothy big tray chicken (with noodles) should always be on your table, and you should bring one or two people to split it with. For a quick, casual meal that won't cost more than $20 per person, it doesn't get much better.

There are two things you need to know about Peking Duck House. You can probably guess the first: This place serves really good Peking duck. The long menu has lots of other options—like dim sum, mala chicken, and a giant plate of seafood with scallops and shrimp—but you come here for the juicy, crispy duck that’s carved tableside. The second thing to know about this Chinatown spot is that it’s BYOB. Combine the two, and you get a pretty ideal group dinner option. The two-floor space has a bunch of big tables for large parties, but it is very popular, so you should make a reservation by phone ahead of time.

Since it’s down an obscure alleyway on Bowery, you’re probably not going to stumble into West New Malaysia randomly. But you should make a point to come here for some excellent Malaysian curries, big bowls of soup filled with seafood, and shareable entrees like sauteed chicken that’s perfectly tender and covered in spicy shrimp paste. The menu is huge, but no matter what you order, make sure to get the crispy fried prawns with salted egg.

If you're vegetarian and tired of subsisting on custard buns every time you and your friends go out for dim sum, allow us to introduce you to Buddha Bodai. All of the dim sum at this restaurant on Mott Street is kosher and plant-based. It doesn’t get insanely busy, and most dishes here cost less than $15, so it’s a very useful place to know about—especially because it’s BYOB. There’s a long menu of things like dumplings, spring rolls, and various noodle dishes, as well as some pretty solid vegetarian versions of chicken, duck, and lamb.

This little bakery on Mott Street serves plenty of bun varieties, from pork to egg yolk, but they’re most famous for the one filled with pumpkin custard. They always come out piping hot, and after eating one, you’ll want Golden Steamer to become a tutor for every place and product that's part of the Pumpkin Spice Industrial Complex.