Get FREE email communications from Fodor's Travel, covering must-see travel destinations, expert trip planning advice, and travel inspiration to fuel your passion.
Chinatown beckons adventurous diners with restaurants representing numerous regional cuisines of China, including Cantonese, Sichuan, Hunan, Fujian, Shanghai, and Hong Kong–style cooking. Malaysian and Vietnamese restaurants also have taken root here, and the neighborhood continues to grow rapidly.
Although the soups and the noodle options are consistently excellent at this no-frills restaurant, what you should really order here are dishes that involve the hanging lacquered ducks and other window "decorations." These are listed on a simple board and superbly served with pungent garlic-and-ginger sauce on the side. Seasonal specialties like duck with flowering chives and salt-baked soft-shell crabs are memorable.
The legendary Jing Fong restaurant, which could seat 800, moved into a (relatively) smaller space after the pandemic (it now seats about 125) but the dim sum and other favorite dishes still draw legions of fans, especially for weekend brunch. The dim sum carts still rove between the tables, with goodies that range from the familiar (barbecue pork buns and rice rolls) to more adventurous items like chicken feet, tripe, and snails.
Joe opened his first Shanghai restaurant in Queens in 1994, but buoyed by the accolades showered on his steamed soup dumplings—filled with a rich, fragrant broth and ground pork or a pork-crabmeat mixture—a Manhattan Chinatown location followed in 1995. After 25 years, it's moved to a new spot not far from the original and although the space is modern and updated, the food is just what fans have been raving about for years.
If you're craving something dessert-ish but not too sweet, the light and "bouncy" Japanese-style cheesecakes and cream puffs in flavors like matcha, ube, and cookies and cream from this little shop are delicious. The American-style cheesecake is really good, too.
Dim sum is traditionally served in the morning but if you have a craving at another time, head to this old-school spot in the heart of Chinatown, where dumplings, turnip cakes, rice rolls, and a variety of other small plates are available from early until late in the evening. Nom Wah started out as a tea parlor and bakery in 1920, just a few doors down, and only later started specializing in dim sum, and there's still an impressive selection of specialty tea on the menu.
Predating the banh mi craze by perhaps a decade, this cash-only storefront serves some of the best Vietnamese sandwiches in the city (some say the best in the country); those in the know opt for the "house special" with Vietnamese cold cuts. The baguettes are crusty on the outside and soft on the inside, just as they should be.
The name says it all: the open kitchen at this salt-of-the-earth Chinatown restaurant (located on charming, curved Doyers Street) means you can watch the noodle slinger in action while awaiting your bowl of, yes, tasty hand-pulled noodles. Just choose your ingredients—beef, pork, oxtail, eel, chicken, lamb, or shrimp, among others—and prepare to eat the most delicious bowl of noodles since that last trip to Shanghai.
Some of the best deals in the neighborhood can be found here, with sizzling pork-and-chive dumplings (four for $3) and plenty of vegetarian options. This is a casual, order-at-the counter spot with a few tables.
Please try a broader search, or expore these popular suggestions:
There are no results for {{ strDestName}} Restaurants in the searched map area with the above filters. Please try a different area on the map, or broaden your search with these popular suggestions:
Sign up for Travel Tips & News
Thank you for your interest!
