This purveyor of old fashioned Cantonese fare lies directly above the A train stop at 181st Street, and delivers free in a 10 block radius. Some of the most popular dishes include Chinese-American inventions like General Tso’s chicken and sesame chicken, in which the poultry is breaded and fried prior to stir frying. But Great Wall also does mu shu pork, shrimp egg foo young, and beef chow fun. This being a neighborhood Chinese restaurant in a largely Latin neighborhood, also look for green and yellow plantains and crispy chicken with garlic sauce. 

For noodles with plenty of Sichuan peppercorns, check out spicy tingly lamb soup, or go for more inventive dishes like the so called Beijing bolognese. The dumplings here come in four different flavor options and are served steamed or fried — opt for the latter. Scallion pancakes, vegetable sides, and ice teas also available. Order online.

Atlas Kitchen caused a stir when it opened a couple of years ago directly south of Columbia University. Seemingly aimed at the school’s faculty and students, the menu provided a compendium of dishes from all over China — though emphasizing northern fare, with some Hunan, Cantonese, and Sichuan also spotlit — in an elegant, bi-level dining room filled with art. Try steamed fish head with fresh chiles, beef flank in dry wok, or steamed eggs with seafood in a rich red sauce. Order online.

The owner hails from Beijing, and the menu reflects the cosmopolitan mix of dishes to be found in the Chinese capital. It started out in Little Neck, Queens, near the Long Island border, then established itself on the Upper West Side, where there are perhaps a dozen forward looking Chinese restaurants. Burning noodle is one standout dish, and so are kimchi fried rice, beef with long hot pepper, and eggplant with potato. Order online for pickup or delivery.

Founded a decade ago under a slightly different name, Hunan Cafe was one of the first restaurants to fully introduce Hunan food in faithful form to New York City. Fish head with pickled chiles, sautéed mustard leaf, and pig trotters in wooden pot are all especially delectable. The space on Northern Boulevard across from the Flushing Town Hall verges on elegant, and the food can be extremely spicy and pickly. Call (718) 353-1808 to order.

Boasting an obscure entranceway off the beaten path, Alley 41 is outfitted more like a dance club than the Sichuan restaurant it partly is. Enjoy all the classics, but all sorts of bar snacks and invented dishes, too, appearing on various separate menus. This place is loads of fun, with dish names like beef burrito (shown), mashed potatoes, and okra and peanut butter. Order online.

Henan is located in central China in the Yellow River Valley, and Miss Li’s reflects its vernacular cuisine. The sturdy beef soup with wheaten pancakes is a good thing to get on a menu that runs to 60 items, and so are spicy winkle, chicken and potatoes over rice, green pepper and pork chow mein, and lamb with wide hand pulled noodles. Order online.

This pioneering establishment was one of the first to introduce the dry hot pot to the city. The marquee menu item is a sort of stir fry that lets you customize the ingredients and level of heat. MaLa Project is also famous for offering a broad range of Chinese ingredients, including offal, and not just a rudimentary list of vegetables, meat, and seafood. Both the East Village and Midtown branches are now open, and ready to cook up a dry hot pot of your curation. Order online.

The advent of Uyghur restaurants run by Uyghurs, a persecuted minority in China, was big news a few months ago in Flushing, and this is the one still open. Feast on charcoal grilled kebabs (shown), the lamb pilaf here called polo, the triangular turnovers called samsa, and pearl noodles — little farinaceous nuggets interspersed with beef and tomato, a tuck-in of marvelous proportions. Call (347) 542-3324 to order.

This rollicking Elmhurst spot showcases the Taiwanese cuisine in its myriad variations, including beef stew and tendon with wide rice noodles, and pork and pickled cabbage rice cake. For the young ‘uns are modern dishes such as salt and pepper fried chicken nuggets and fried calamari; and, for the old folks, a menu of Taiwanese classics like oyster omelet (shown) and stinky tofu. The menu is all over the map, but everyone can agree as to the excellence of its three cup chicken, here called chicken with ginger and basil. Offal galore on the app menu. Order online.

West Villagers worried that this modest carryout Chinese spot was gone forever when it closed for two months, but now it’s back and better than ever. All the classics are there in splendid form, including egg foo young, beef chow fun with or without gravy, and chow mein in all its lovely guises. But over the years Sichuan, Hunan, Mandarin, and even Thai have been added, and they’re quite good, too. Order online.

Szechuan Mountain House was one of the first to offer a “rustic modern” take on Sichuan fare, not only tricking the dining room out with hut-like booths and waterfalls, but also offering dishes with gimmicky presentations that made dining a whole lot of fun. Traditional dishes like wontons in hot oil, Chongqing chicken, and ma po tofu are ably represented, but then so are more modern formulations like poached pork belly and cucumbers with a chile dipping sauce, and mung bean jelly salad. Phone to order: (917) 388-3866.

This Greenwich Village noodle shop, which opened two years ago, was one of the early introducers of mixian rice noodles from Yunnan to the city. The compact menu offers about a dozen uses of the noodle in stir fries and broths, and there are apps available, too. Particularly good are the tomato fatty beef rice noodle, and the so-called mommy noodle, a recipe of the owner’s mother. Order online.

Named after a waterfront neighborhood in Shanghai, the Bund in southern Elmhurst focuses on the city’s cuisine. The soup dumplings were spectacular, and this was one of the first places in town to introduce variations. Among the novel dishes are tofu knots in broth, crispy smoked fish, and salt pork and winter melon soup. Get takeout and local delivery by calling the restaurant at (718) 275-8000. The Bund’s sister restaurant, Bund on Broadway in Astoria, is providing frozen dumplings, spring rolls, and bao for delivery.

Only the northern Delancey branch of this Chinatown classic (in fact, it’s the oldest Chinese restaurant in the city, founded 100 years ago) is currently open, but there are plans to reopen the Doyers Street original. Expect some of the city’s best dim sum, now offered in frozen form, which is not a bad thing where dumplings are concerned. Shrimp rice roll, Shanghai soup dumplings, and rice cake are favorites. Order online.

With a liberal sprinkling of Hong Kong, Guangdong food is being remade in the city’s Chinatowns, and Green Garden Village is a good example. In addition to the charcuterie collectively known as shao la, and a full catalog of traditional Cantonese noodles, congee, and soups (a deconstructed wonton soup is shown), these places offer a very advanced and pricier take on seafood, all of it fit for carryout during this era. Order online.

A newcomer to NYC’s recent rice roll craze, Yi Ji Shi Mo has now reopened for takeout after initially shutting down for a couple of months. This cheung fun spot — like the most popular ones — is known for grinding its rice to make the roll batter. At Yi Ji Shi Mo, different stuffings, like char siu, beef, and shrimp, can be mixed in, too. Call 646-233-6311 to place an order.

Descended from a Flushing restaurant serving the food of the Henan province, Spicy Village popularized a peppercorn-studded version of what was originally a Uyghur dish, big tray chicken. The co-specialty is broad wheat noodles known as hui mei, used in two dozen soups and stir fries, plus dumplings and a series of pleasing side dishes involving ingredients like cucumber and kelp. Take your carryout to Sara D. Roosevelt Park, across the street, for consumption. Phone to order: (212) 625-8299.

Rice noodle rolls have been a Chinatown staple for decades, but then along came this international chain with outposts in Singapore, Toronto, and Los Angeles — in addition to roughly 45 separate locations back in Guangzhou. Like the New York City’s most heralded rice noodle spots, it milks its own rice and makes each order individually by hand, resulting in a preternaturally soft form of cheung fun. Call to order: (212) 227-4888 or (212) 227-7288.

This old timer is one of the small local cafes that flourished in 1960s Chinatown before immigration restrictions were lifted, though a recent renovation has given it a new sheen. Cantonese classics are the order of the day, including wonton soup bursting with greens, char siu bao filled with a sweet dice of pork, and shrimp rice noodle rolls to be sluiced with soy sauce. Call (212) 349-5260 for carryout, or just show up.

Plunge into the oldest part of Chinatown on lower Mott Street to discover Hop Kee, an old guard Cantonese place that showcases the historic Chinese-American menu in a big way. That means chow mein, chop suey, wonton and egg drop soups, fried rice, and egg rolls that paradoxically contain no egg, but are delicious nonetheless. Restaurant is downstairs, which may explain its longevity. Phone to order: (212) 964-8365.

The updated and slightly upscale Sichuan restaurant came as a surprise when it opened three years ago in Williamsburg, but it really hits the mark with dishes like ma po tofu, three pepper chicken, and sauteed duck with ginger, the latter served with steamed bao. The dim sum selection is particularly robust, much representing parts of China other than Sichuan. Order online.

The decidedly Taiwanese-American Win Son is typically a tough table at prime times, but now, it’s offering its take on classics like lu rou fan (minced pork over rice) for delivery and takeout through Caviar at dinner time. A slimmer-than-usual menu also includes top sellers like fried eggplant with black vinegar and sesame noodles. During the day, Win Son Bakery across the street offers baked goods and other twists on Taiwanese dishes like a bacon-egg-and-cheese scallion pancake, also through Caviar.

This emphatically named old-timer a stone’s throw from Barclays Center never had much seating anyway, so it’s operating just as it always has, even in the age of novel coronavirus. Nor do the delivery services pay any attention to it, despite its prominent and convenient location. Sichuan shrimp and bulky beef dumplings are the move here, and expect the servings to be generous. Carryout only, call (718) 875-9888.

This nine-year-old restaurant is a South Slope favorite, with fans particularly recommending the menu section called Authentic Szechuan Dishes. Many items therein use Sichuan peppercorns; in that section find beef and Napa cabbage with roasted chile, double-cooked streaky pork with spicy Sichuan capsicum, and smoky hot beef with dried tofu. Priced well under $10, lunch specials are a particularly good deal, each entree including fried rice and a choice of soups. Call (718) 788-0788 to order.

This fashion forward Sichuan restaurant electrified Sunset Park when it opened on Seventh Avenue in 2017, providing a decidedly modern take on the sometimes-fiery regional cuisine. Recommended selections that hit the spot include Chengdu dragon reading hands (wontons in chile oil), Chongqing spicy chicken, griddled cauliflower, fish filets in green broth, and mapo tofu, in which the tofu appeared sturdy but fell apart quickly in a soft mess of salty, spicy, garlicky goodness on top of white rice. Phone to order: 929-295-0128.

This carryout and delivery-only wonder has been delighting Staten Islanders for 45 years in its somewhat obscure location in Manor Heights just west of Todt Hill. The charcuterie often comes with thick sauce (the roast pork is a fave), but perhaps the best dish on the menu is Singapore curried noodles (shown), which unexpectedly packs quite a wallop of heat. A highly recommended spot in an unexpected place. Order online.