Best Chinese restaurants in New York – The full list
New York is one of the best cities in America for Chinese food, with a dining scene that stretches far beyond one neighborhood or one style. In a single day, you can eat old-school Chinatown dim sum, Shanghainese soup dumplings, Cantonese roast pork buns, Sichuan dry pot, glamorous Midtown Chinese fine dining, modern SoHo Chinese comfort food, and Asian-fusion restaurants that borrow heavily from Chinese techniques and flavors.
This guide brings together some of the best Chinese restaurants in New York, including historic Chinatown institutions, upscale dining rooms, dim sum favorites, celebrity-friendly Midtown spots, Sichuan specialists, and Chinese-inspired restaurants built for big nights out. Some are traditional, some are modern, and some are better described as pan-Asian or Chinese-fusion, but each one adds something useful to the way New Yorkers eat Chinese food.
TAO Downtown Restaurant
TAO Downtown Restaurant is one of New York’s most theatrical Asian-inspired dining rooms. Set in Chelsea near the Meatpacking District, it is known for its dramatic scale, nightclub energy, high ceilings, bold design, and a menu that moves across Chinese, Japanese, Thai, and broader Asian influences. It is not a quiet Chinatown restaurant; it is a destination for a full night out.
The restaurant works best for birthdays, group dinners, tourists, date nights, corporate entertaining, and occasions where atmosphere matters as much as the food. Diners can expect shareable plates, noodles, rice dishes, dumplings, seafood, meat dishes, cocktails, and a room that feels built for celebration. TAO Downtown is best understood as a glamorous Asian-fusion restaurant with strong Chinese influence rather than a strictly traditional Chinese restaurant.
Address: 92 9th Avenue, New York, NY 10011
Menu: View the TAO Downtown Restaurant menu
Mr. Chow – 57th
Mr. Chow – 57th is one of New York’s most famous high-end Chinese restaurants, with a long history tied to art, fashion, celebrity culture, and Midtown fine dining. The restaurant serves Beijing-influenced Chinese cooking in a polished, minimalist room where the experience is as much about service, scene, and legacy as it is about the dishes themselves.
This is a strong choice for special occasions, client dinners, date nights, and diners who want Chinese food in a more formal, luxury setting. Mr. Chow is not the place for a casual Chinatown meal or a low-cost dumpling run. It is more about ceremony: Peking duck, noodles, seafood, chicken satay, signature dishes, and a sense of old-school New York glamour.
Address: 324 East 57th Street, New York, NY 10022
Menu: View the Mr. Chow – 57th menu
Nom Wah Tea Parlor
Nom Wah Tea Parlor is one of Chinatown’s essential dim sum restaurants and one of the most historically important Chinese restaurants in New York. Located on Doyers Street, it has been serving dim sum for generations, and the room still has the feeling of an old New York institution rather than a polished modern dining room.
This is a strong choice for dumplings, roast pork buns, shrimp dumplings, rice rolls, turnip cakes, egg rolls, tea, and a classic Chinatown lunch or early dinner. Nom Wah is especially useful for visitors who want a restaurant with real history, but it also works for locals who want dim sum in a room that feels connected to the neighborhood’s past.
Address: 13 Doyers Street, New York, NY 10013
Menu: View the Nom Wah Tea Parlor menu
Buddakan
Buddakan is a grand pan-Asian restaurant in Chelsea, set inside one of the city’s most dramatic dining rooms. Like TAO, it is not strictly Chinese, but Chinese flavors and techniques are a major part of the experience. The menu moves through dumplings, noodles, rice, seafood, meat dishes, vegetables, and large-format plates designed for sharing.
Buddakan is best for big nights out, birthdays, group dinners, dates, and visitors who want a restaurant that feels cinematic. The room has a sense of scale and spectacle, which makes it different from smaller Chinatown or East Village Chinese restaurants. Go when you want Asian-fusion food, cocktails, and atmosphere in equal measure.
Address: 75 9th Avenue, New York, NY 10011
Menu: View the Buddakan menu
Joe’s Shanghai
Joe’s Shanghai is one of New York’s most recognizable names for soup dumplings. Located on Bowery in Chinatown, it is strongly associated with xiao long bao, the broth-filled dumplings that helped make the restaurant famous with locals, tourists, and food writers. It is a casual, busy, straightforward restaurant built around dishes people crave.
The essential order is the soup dumplings, but the broader menu includes Shanghainese and Chinese-American favorites, noodles, rice, seafood, vegetables, and larger plates for sharing. Joe’s Shanghai is especially good for groups, visitors, Chinatown meals, and anyone who wants a classic New York soup dumpling experience without turning dinner into a formal event.
Address: 46 Bowery, New York, NY 10013
Menu: View the Joe’s Shanghai menu
Pinch Chinese
Pinch Chinese brings a modern SoHo approach to Chinese comfort food. Located on Prince Street, it combines the warmth of a neighborhood Chinese restaurant with the polish of a downtown dining room. The menu is especially appealing for diners who want dumplings, noodles, vegetables, seafood, meat dishes, and Chinese flavors in a setting that feels relaxed but carefully put together.
This is a strong choice for casual dates, dinners with friends, wine-focused meals, and anyone who wants Chinese food that feels both familiar and contemporary. Pinch Chinese is particularly useful when you want soup dumplings, Peking duck, spicy wontons, fried rice, or shareable plates in SoHo without choosing between a quick takeout counter and a formal fine-dining room.
Address: 177 Prince Street, New York, NY 10012
Menu: View the Pinch Chinese menu
Sei Less
Sei Less is a Midtown Asian-fusion restaurant with a Chinese-influenced menu, a speakeasy-style entrance, and a strong connection to New York nightlife and celebrity dining. Located near the Garment District, Penn Station, Madison Square Garden, and Times Square, it is built for diners who want food, privacy, cocktails, and atmosphere in one place.
The menu includes dishes such as noodles, fried rice, lettuce wraps, bao buns, spare ribs, wontons, lobster, seafood, and other shareable plates. Sei Less is not a traditional Chinese restaurant, but it works well in a Chinese restaurant roundup because its menu draws heavily from Chinese and broader Asian flavors. It is especially useful for group dinners, birthdays, after-work meals, and nights before or after events in Midtown.
Address: 156 West 38th Street, New York, NY 10018
Menu: View the Sei Less menu
Brooklyn Chop House
Brooklyn Chop House is a Chinese-inspired steakhouse in the Financial District, built around the idea of combining dim sum, Asian dishes, and steakhouse classics. It is one of the more unusual restaurants on this list because it is not simply a Chinese restaurant and not simply a steakhouse. Its identity sits between both worlds.
The restaurant works well for groups who want dumplings, Peking duck, fried rice, lobster, steaks, chops, and a more clubby downtown atmosphere. It is especially good for celebratory dinners, business meals, birthdays, and diners who want Chinese flavors in a bigger, bolder, steakhouse-style format. For mixed groups, Brooklyn Chop House is useful because it offers both familiar steakhouse comfort and Chinese-inspired dishes.
Address: 150 Nassau Street, New York, NY 10038
Menu: View the Brooklyn Chop House menu
MaLa Project
MaLa Project brings Sichuan dry pot to the East Village. It is one of the most distinctive Chinese restaurants in New York because the experience is built around mala flavor: spicy, numbing, aromatic, and customizable. Diners choose ingredients, heat level, and add-ins, then the kitchen turns them into a dry pot layered with chiles, peppercorns, spices, vegetables, proteins, and noodles or rice.
This is a great choice for diners who want Chinese food with heat and personality. It works for casual dinners, groups, East Village nights out, and anyone who enjoys building a meal around bold Sichuan flavors. MaLa Project is especially good when the table wants something more interactive and flavor-forward than a standard Chinese takeout-style meal.
Address: 122 1st Avenue, New York, NY 10009
Menu: View the MaLa Project menu
Mei Lai Wah
Mei Lai Wah is one of Chinatown’s most beloved Chinese bakery and roast pork bun institutions. After decades on Bayard Street, the bakery now operates from Mott Street, continuing its tradition of Cantonese and Toisan-style baked goods, buns, and Chinatown comfort food. It is more casual than a full-service restaurant, but it is important enough to belong in any serious Chinese food guide to New York.
The draw here is simple: roast pork buns, pineapple pork buns, baked goods, quick bites, and the kind of Chinatown food memory that people return to again and again. Mei Lai Wah is best for a snack, a casual breakfast or lunch, a Chinatown food crawl, or a takeaway stop before walking through the neighborhood. It shows that some of New York’s best Chinese food is not served in a formal dining room at all.
Address: 41 Mott Street, New York, NY 10013
Menu: View the Mei Lai Wah menu
Final Thoughts
The best Chinese restaurants in New York cover a wide range of styles, settings, and occasions. Nom Wah Tea Parlor, Joe’s Shanghai, and Mei Lai Wah show the strength of Chinatown’s historic food culture, from dim sum and soup dumplings to roast pork buns and bakery classics. MaLa Project brings a more modern Sichuan dry pot experience to the East Village, with bold spice and customizable meals.
For a more polished or nightlife-driven meal, Mr. Chow – 57th, TAO Downtown, Buddakan, Sei Less, Brooklyn Chop House, and Pinch Chinese each offer a different kind of Chinese or Chinese-influenced dining experience. Some are traditional, some are fusion, and some are built for celebration more than quiet dining. Together, they show why Chinese food in New York is so varied: it can be historic, casual, elegant, spicy, glamorous, fast, social, modern, and deeply tied to the city’s neighborhoods.