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Eight assorted colorful dishes on plates.
A spread from Atlas Kitchen
Alex Staniloff/Eater

37 Top Chinese Restaurants Open in NYC Right Now

Where to still get spicy noodles, soup dumplings, big tray chicken, and other dishes for delivery and takeout

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A spread from Atlas Kitchen
| Alex Staniloff/Eater

One month ago, things were looking pretty bleak for the city’s multitudinous Chinese restaurants. Informal surveys suggested that as many as 95 percent were closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, many with little hope of opening anytime soon. The city’s nine Chinatowns were hardest hit, including Manhattan’s, where at one time we counted only a few restaurants open for carryout and delivery out of 200 or so in better days. The reasons for this extreme phenomenon were many: supply chain problems, staffing shortages, and prejudice against Chinese restaurants in the erroneous and racist belief that they had some vague connection with the origins of the virus in remote China.

Anyway, things have improved markedly since then, and just in the last two weeks, many of the restaurants have reopened, so that nearly every neighborhood — and not just Chinatowns — have a larger number of choices, including old-fashioned Cantonese, dumpling and noodle shops, bubble tea parlors, Sichuan, Hunan, Henan, Yunnan, Taiwanese, and Uyghur, with more spots popping up every day. Here is a list of some of our favorites, but note there are now many, many more.

Note: Links in entries in most cases connect directly to the restaurant, where takeout and local delivery are usually offered. It’s up to you to seek out the mosaic of delivery services that cover wider areas.

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Great Wall

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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. 

A corner Chinese restaurant over a subway stop. Google maps

The Handpulled Noodle

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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.

A storefront with a gray facade that sells noodles. Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Atlas Kitchen

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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.

Green stemmed cauliflower in a wok Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

108 Food Dried Hot Pot

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This very casual dry hot pot place took the Upper West Side by storm when it opened two years ago, with its picnic table seating and point-and-choose method of selecting the ingredients, constituting an altogether fun experience and an inexpensive one, too. The roster of ingredients favored diverse seafood, thin-shaved lamb, and a multitude of vegetables, both common and obscure. And extreme spiciness via Sichuan peppercorns and other vectors was always an option. Order online.

108 Food Dried Hot Pot Robert Sietsema/Eater

Grain House

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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.

A bowl of noodles with crushed peanuts and scallions on top. Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Hunan Cafe

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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.

A fish head pokes out of a lake of red and green chiles. Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Nan Xiang Xiao Long Bao

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Recently moved to more luxurious premises down Prince Street, Nan Xiang Xiao Long Bao opened its new digs last November with much fanfare. But carryout and delivery is still available from this place that helped popularize Shanghai soup dumplings. The restaurant now makes them in a rainbow of colors and also offers a menu rich in other regional specialties, from chicken in wine sauce to rice cake with mustard greens. Order online for pickup or local delivery.

Alley 41

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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.

Chinese beef burrito with squiggle of brown sauce on top. Robert Sietsema/Eater

Miss Li Henan Cuisine

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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.

A bowl of chicken and potatoes in sauce with white noodles. Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

MáLà Project

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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.

A Sichuan dry pot (upper left) and other dishes at MaLa project Anthony Bui/Eater

The Best Sichuan

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The new Sichuan spot near Times Square excels at its chosen cuisine, while adding Chinese-American and other regional flourishes to its menu. Dan dan noodles are spot on, with just the right complement of Sichuan peppercorns, and another star is pickled chiles with marbled beef. The menu is expansive and covers all the meats, including lamb, with many vegetarian options. Portions are profuse. Order online.

Noodles with meat sauce. Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Nurlan Uyghur Restaurant

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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.

Four kebabs on metal skewers. Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Happy Stony Noodle

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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.

Oyster omelet at Happy Stony Noodle with red sauce pooled on top and oysters poking out. Robert Sietsema/Eater

Golden Woks

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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.

Egg foo young with plenty of brown gravy and white rice. Robert Sietsema/Eater

South of the Clouds

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Soft and supple and made of rice, Yunnan mixian noodles became a fad in the city a couple of years ago, and perhaps a dozen restaurants in Manhattan, Queens, and Brooklyn came to concentrate on them. This casual spot just north of the NYU campus was not only good and reasonably priced, but offered an elegant setting, too. Crossing the Bridge noodles is its specialty, but other noodle main courses, along with apps and side dishes, are also offered. Order online.

Rice noodles at South of the Clouds Gary He/Eater

Szechuan Mountain House

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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.

Szechuan Mountain House’s grilled beef ribs. Jean Schwarzwalder

The Rice Noodle

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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.

Rice noodles in a bowl with greens and fatty beef. Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Jiang Diner

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Created in emulation of a diner, this restaurant surprised the East Village last year with Xinjiang food from China’s far northwest. Expect lots of lamb, as fatty kebabs and rice pilaf, and the giant bulging dumplings the menu describes as “shumai,” plus the legendary big tray of chicken. For a pleasant vegetable experience, don’t miss the steamed eggplant with fresh garlic paste. Menu here. Order online.

A spicy chicken melange on a bed of broad ruffled noodles. Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

The Bund

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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.

Soup filled with knotted sheets of tofu. Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Nom Wah Nolita

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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.

Dumplings from Nom Wah Nolita Nick Solares/Eater

Green Garden Village

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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 bowl of broth on the left, and plate of lo mein noodles, pork wonton dumplings, and green bok choy... Robert Sietsema/Eater

Golden Steamer

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Golden Steamer can’t be beat as a prelude or aftermath to a shopping trip to the streetside markets now open in Chinatown. Selling baked or steamed stuffed bao in their myriad variations, including ones bulging with hot dogs, choy sum, and chicken, the place billows with steam as you collect a meal from racks and cabinets. And the price remains as inexpensive as a meal gets.

Assorted dim sum, including a custard pie and a hot dog roll Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Yi Ji Shi Mo

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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.

Cheungfun at Yi Ji Shi Mo in a foil container
Cheungfun at Yi Ji Shi Mo
Ryan Sutton/Eater

Spicy Village

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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.

Spicy Village Dan Geneen/Eater

Yin Ji Chang Fen

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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.

The youtiao cruller rice roll at Yin Ji Chang Fen sits on a white plate, adjacent a shrimp rice roll. Ryan Sutton/Eater

Kong Sihk Tong

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Kong Sihk Tong in the heart of Chinatown represents the sort of newer, Hong Kong-style restaurants that have opened lately. Despite its budget pricing, the exterior and interior are uncommonly handsome and modern, while food is very good, mainly in a noodle and dumpling vein. Snacks include condensed milk toast, macaroni and tomato sauce, a variety of egg dishes, and Horlicks. Menu here. Call (646) 850-6140 to order

Xiamen mee fun Kong Sihk Tong Hong Kong Chinatown Robert Sietsema/Eater

Mee Sum Cafe

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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.

Rice noodle roll and char siu bao, with a shiny teapot. Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Hop Kee

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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.

Hop Kee chop suey Robert Sietsema/Eater

Birds of a Feather

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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.

A reddish bowl of ma po tofu. Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Carol's Bun

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This wonderful small cafe right on the Lower East Side’s East Broadway serves Cantonese and Fujianese food in a three dishes over rice format, and the cup of soup is free. Look through the window and select small fried fish, scrambled eggs with vegetables like bok choy and eggplant, tangy stir fries of pork and chicken, and, like the name says, buns and dumplings stuffed with pork or vegetables. Order online with free local delivery.

Over rice with three dishes, chicken, green beans, omelet. Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Win Son

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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.

An oyster omelet with a chiña colada cocktail.
Oyster omelet
Gary He/Eater

No Pork Halal Kitchen

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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.

A shrimp stir fry with plenty of veggies in a white plastic container. Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Szechuan Garden

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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.

A storefront in Park Slope shaded by trees. Szechuan Garden website

East Wind Snack Shop

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Delighting the neighborhood for five years now, East Wind is the dumpling king of Windsor Terrace. Pork pot stickers are the equal of anything one might find on Chinatown’s outskirts, and the menu also features modest innovations on other buns and dumplings, such as shrimp har gow with abalone sauce and pork belly bao with the filling piled on top. Main courses run to amped up stir fries in a Cantonese vein. Call (929) 295-0188​ to order.

Pot sticker dumplings sprinkled with chopped scallions East Wind Official Photo

Chuan Tian Xia

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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.