More Maps

Where to Eat New England Clam Chowder in Boston

15 Delightful Hidden Patios Around Boston

12 Solid Bets for Boston’s Restaurant Week

More in Boston See more maps

A black plastic bowl of thick hand-pulled noodles, heavily dusted with chile powder and topped with greens and a generous dollop of garlic. A wooden skewer of lamb pieces sits across the rim of the bowl, which is on a Chinese Zodiac placemat on a red tray. — Gene’s was at the vanguard of Boston’s hand-pulled noodle scene.

16 Excellent Chinese Restaurants in Boston

From Sichuan to Hunan to Cantonese to Chinese American

by Erika Adams and Terrence Doyle Updated Dec 16, 2022, 4:27pm EST

View as Map

Gene’s was at the vanguard of Boston’s hand-pulled noodle scene.

| Rachel Leah Blumenthal/Eater Boston

by Erika Adams and Terrence Doyle Updated Dec 16, 2022, 4:27pm EST

Boston’s Chinatown is one of the best places to eat in the country, but it’s not the only neighborhood with good Chinese food within Boston’s city limits. Diners can find great hand-pulled noodles, for example, in Brighton, a mall food court in Downtown Crossing, and a hospital food court in Longwood. Chinatown is of course still the hub — but the spokes aren’t half bad, either.

Here are 16 of the best restaurants in Boston that serve Chinese food. (Note: This map includes restaurants only within Boston proper; Boston-area cities like Quincy, Cambridge, and beyond also have their own excellent Chinese options.)

Read More

Xi'an Rougamo

Mall food courts are mostly filled with heart palpitation-inducing grease bombs. The food court at the Corner Mall in Downtown Crossing breaks that mold a bit. Go to Xi’an Rougamo for its eponymous treat — a burger-like sandwich, the English transliteration of which is rougamo, served on flaky, layered flatbread and packed with stewed meat. Also worth your coins: the garlicky hand-pulled noodles.

Open in Google Maps

417 Washington St, Boston, MA 02110

Chopsticks lift a thick hand-pulled noodle from a plastic bowl full of noodles, chili flakes, garlic, and vegetables — Mall food court delights

Also featured in:

Where to Eat Hand-Pulled Noodles in and Around Boston

Gene's Chinese Flatbread Cafe

Gene’s is the OG player in Boston’s growing hand-pulled noodle scene. Order the hand-pulled noodles in chile oil; order the hand-pulled noodles with cumin-spiked lamb; order some lamb skewers; order everything.

86 Bedford St, Boston, MA 02111

Visit Website

Patrons eat at Gene’s Chinese Flatbread Cafe in Downtown Crossing. — Gene’s Chinese Flatbread Cafe.

Also featured in:

Mala Restaurant

Mala is the hot spot for hot (as in spicy) food in Allston. The following dishes are compulsory: fresh whole fish with Sichuan hot and spicy sauce; dan dan noodles; mapo tofu; dry stir-fried chicken with spicy capsicum (a type of pepper); chile and cumin dry lamb; stir-fried string beans. This is good — no, great — beer-drinking food. Wash it all down with so many Tsingtaos (or another cold, crisp lager of your choice).

129 Brighton Ave, Allston, MA 02134

Visit Website

Also featured in:

Where to Eat Mapo Tofu in Greater Boston

Hei La Moon Restaurant

This gilded dim sum destination relocated to a smaller space in 2022, but the food and the experience remains top-notch. The menu is full of good bets here, including the taro dumplings, bok choy drizzled in oyster sauce, and steamed roast pork buns. (Looking for more dim sum? Empire Garden Restaurant and Winsor Dim Sum Cafe are two other go-tos in the neighborhood.)

Open in Google Maps

83 Essex St, Boston, MA 02111

Visit Website

Also featured in:

Five Spices House

The menu at this Sichuan spot is vast and therefore a little overwhelming. But you should definitely order the duck tongues with spicy green peppers, the hot and spicy pig intestines, the crispy beef, and the foil-wrapped lamb. And some dumplings. And the Chinese watercress. On the other side of the river? There’s a sibling spot in Cambridge’s Central Square.

Open in Google Maps

58 Beach St #2017, Boston, MA 02111

Visit Website

Also featured in:

Dumpling Cafe

Dumpling Cafe’s menu features cuisines from a number of regions and cities in China, and Taiwanese food features heavily too. Again, go for the thing that’s in the name — and specifically the mini juicy buns with pork, which are the best in the city.

695 Washington St, Boston, MA 02111

Visit Website

A plate of sauteed string beans sits beside a plate of spicy eggplant. They are accompanied by two bowls of rice and various sauces. — The sauteed string beans and the Taiwan-style spicy eggplant are among Boston’s best bites.

Also featured in:

Peach Farm

Before the pandemic, Peach Farm was a late-night favorite for restaurant industry types. It’s the spot for seafood — especially the lobster with ginger and scallions.

4 Tyler St, Boston, MA 02111

Visit Website

A plate with a blue border embellished by birds holds a portion of lobster with scallions and ginger — The lobster is the order at Peach Farm.

Also featured in:

Hong Kong Eatery

Hong Kong Eatery is an old-school spot for Cantonese food. Order the barbecued meats, fried pork chop with rice, or anything with XO sauce, a spicy fish sauce from Hong Kong.

79 Harrison Ave, Boston, MA 02111

Visit Website

A white plate with a blue floral pattern around the edge holds a Chinese beef and rice dish. — Beef in Beijing sauce at Hong Kong Eatery.

Also featured in:

New Jumbo Seafood Restaurant

New Jumbo is also among the few restaurants that offer Peking duck, but it’s all about seafood here. The scallops cooked in black pepper, clams in black bean sauce, and seafood soaked in XO sauce are good places to start.

Open in Google Maps

5 Hudson St, Boston, MA 02111

Visit Website

Signage for New Jumbo Seafood Restaurant in Boston’s Chinatown — raised red lettering on a gold background — New Jumbo is one of the best spots for seafood in Chinatown

Also featured in:

Little Tao

Little Tao is a Sichuan newcomer in Allston led by chef Tao Liu, who hails from Chengdu, the capital city of Sichuan. Whatever you do, don’t pass up the Sichuan special noodle menu — the tao tao noodles, with minced pork and beans in a zingy chile sauce, are excellent.

Open in Google Maps

1153 Commonwealth Ave, Boston, MA 02134

Visit Website

Also featured in:

21 Date-Night Destinations Around Boston

Clay Pot Cafe

Clay Pot Cafe specializes in food prepared in clay pots, which is typical of Cantonese cuisine and popular in cities such as Hong Kong. The play here: the minced beef and egg clay pot.

Open in Google Maps

74 Kneeland St, Boston, MA 02111

MDM Noodles

MDM is another part of the small but growing cadre of hand-pulled noodle shops in and around Boston serving Xi’an-style biang biang noodles. Order one of each of the following: hand-pulled noodles with beef and scallions; hand-pulled noodles with scrambled eggs and tomatoes; and spicy hand-pulled noodles with boiled lamb.

351 Washington St, Brighton, MA 02135

The facade of MDM Noodles in Brighton. An orange sign is adorned with white type and sits above two glass doors and two windows. — MDM Noodles is worth a ride on the Green Line.

Also featured in:

Myers + Chang

Open for over a decade, this South End restaurant has a menu inspired by a variety of Asian cuisines, including Chinese. (The food is “‘Asian-ish,’ if you need a label,” according to the restaurant.) If it’s currently on the menu, order the grilled mushroom longevity noodles, and don’t miss the classic Mama Chang’s pork and chive dumplings, served with a black pepper and scallion dipping sauce.

Open in Google Maps

1145 Washington St, Boston, MA 02118

Visit Website

A brightly lit restaurant interior with a high-top table and some standard tables, all with white chairs. The sun-lit window is decorated by a large red and yellow dragon. — Myers + Chang.

Also featured in:

Noodles King

Did you think you’d find a restaurant located inside a hospital food court on this map? Probably not, right? Well, think again. Noodles King serves some of the very best hand-pulled noodles in the city. Order them with spicy chile oil and vegetables.

Open in Google Maps

400 Brookline Ave, Boston, MA 02215

A white plastic bowl, sitting on a purple table, is filled with hand-pulled noodles, bok choy, chile flakes, and bean sprouts. A plastic Coke bottle appears to the side. — Hospital food courts don’t have to mean a trip to McDonald’s — sometimes they’ve got exceptional hand-pulled noodles.

Also featured in:

Yunnan Kitchen

The team behind Brighton Yunnan rice noodle restaurant South of the Clouds expanded to the South End in 2022 with the debut of Yunnan Kitchen, a welcome addition to the neighborhood. The menu goes well beyond noodles here, with a far more expansive range of Yunnan, or Dian, fare including pea jelly salad (or fried pea jelly, either version is deeply satisfying), and bite-sized sticky rice meatballs garnished with goji berries.

Open in Google Maps

1721 Washington St Unit B, Boston, MA 02118

Visit Website

A dark bowl filled with sticky rice-covered meatballs each topped with a red berry and steamed broccoli arranged around the outer rim. — The sticky rice meatballs at Yunnan Kitchen.

Also featured in:

Where to Eat in the South End

My Happy Hunan Kitchen

My Happy Hunan Kitchen is chef Wei Ding’s first U.S. restaurant, which he launched after running a successful chain of restaurants out of Changsha, the capital city of Hunan. The menu takes its spice levels seriously: Dishes like the sizzling cumin beef can be made “normal spicy” or “Hunan spicy,” depending on your palate. Ding recreated some of his favorite Hunan recipes here, including a golden beef soup with thinly sliced strips of beef and enoki mushrooms bathing in a pumpkin broth.

Open in Google Maps

1926 Beacon St, Brighton, MA 02135

Visit Website

A quart container filled with a light yellow broth, shaved beef, white mushrooms, and green and red garnishes. — The golden beef soup, in takeout form.

© 2023 Vox Media, Inc. All rights reserved.

Link copied to the clipboard.

Xi'an Rougamo

417 Washington St, Boston, MA 02110

Mall food courts are mostly filled with heart palpitation-inducing grease bombs. The food court at the Corner Mall in Downtown Crossing breaks that mold a bit. Go to Xi’an Rougamo for its eponymous treat — a burger-like sandwich, the English transliteration of which is rougamo, served on flaky, layered flatbread and packed with stewed meat. Also worth your coins: the garlicky hand-pulled noodles.

Open in Google Maps

417 Washington St, Boston, MA 02110

Chopsticks lift a thick hand-pulled noodle from a plastic bowl full of noodles, chili flakes, garlic, and vegetables — Mall food court delights

Gene's Chinese Flatbread Cafe

86 Bedford St, Boston, MA 02111

Gene’s is the OG player in Boston’s growing hand-pulled noodle scene. Order the hand-pulled noodles in chile oil; order the hand-pulled noodles with cumin-spiked lamb; order some lamb skewers; order everything.

86 Bedford St, Boston, MA 02111

Visit Website

Patrons eat at Gene’s Chinese Flatbread Cafe in Downtown Crossing. — Gene’s Chinese Flatbread Cafe.

Mala Restaurant

129 Brighton Ave, Allston, MA 02134

Mala is the hot spot for hot (as in spicy) food in Allston. The following dishes are compulsory: fresh whole fish with Sichuan hot and spicy sauce; dan dan noodles; mapo tofu; dry stir-fried chicken with spicy capsicum (a type of pepper); chile and cumin dry lamb; stir-fried string beans. This is good — no, great — beer-drinking food. Wash it all down with so many Tsingtaos (or another cold, crisp lager of your choice).

129 Brighton Ave, Allston, MA 02134

Visit Website

Hei La Moon Restaurant

83 Essex St, Boston, MA 02111

This gilded dim sum destination relocated to a smaller space in 2022, but the food and the experience remains top-notch. The menu is full of good bets here, including the taro dumplings, bok choy drizzled in oyster sauce, and steamed roast pork buns. (Looking for more dim sum? Empire Garden Restaurant and Winsor Dim Sum Cafe are two other go-tos in the neighborhood.)

Open in Google Maps

83 Essex St, Boston, MA 02111

Visit Website

Five Spices House

58 Beach St #2017, Boston, MA 02111

The menu at this Sichuan spot is vast and therefore a little overwhelming. But you should definitely order the duck tongues with spicy green peppers, the hot and spicy pig intestines, the crispy beef, and the foil-wrapped lamb. And some dumplings. And the Chinese watercress. On the other side of the river? There’s a sibling spot in Cambridge’s Central Square.

Open in Google Maps

58 Beach St #2017, Boston, MA 02111

Visit Website

Dumpling Cafe

695 Washington St, Boston, MA 02111

Dumpling Cafe’s menu features cuisines from a number of regions and cities in China, and Taiwanese food features heavily too. Again, go for the thing that’s in the name — and specifically the mini juicy buns with pork, which are the best in the city.

695 Washington St, Boston, MA 02111

Visit Website

A plate of sauteed string beans sits beside a plate of spicy eggplant. They are accompanied by two bowls of rice and various sauces. — The sauteed string beans and the Taiwan-style spicy eggplant are among Boston’s best bites.

Peach Farm

4 Tyler St, Boston, MA 02111

Before the pandemic, Peach Farm was a late-night favorite for restaurant industry types. It’s the spot for seafood — especially the lobster with ginger and scallions.

4 Tyler St, Boston, MA 02111

Visit Website

A plate with a blue border embellished by birds holds a portion of lobster with scallions and ginger — The lobster is the order at Peach Farm.

Hong Kong Eatery

79 Harrison Ave, Boston, MA 02111

Hong Kong Eatery is an old-school spot for Cantonese food. Order the barbecued meats, fried pork chop with rice, or anything with XO sauce, a spicy fish sauce from Hong Kong.

79 Harrison Ave, Boston, MA 02111

Visit Website

A white plate with a blue floral pattern around the edge holds a Chinese beef and rice dish. — Beef in Beijing sauce at Hong Kong Eatery.

New Jumbo Seafood Restaurant

5 Hudson St, Boston, MA 02111

New Jumbo is also among the few restaurants that offer Peking duck, but it’s all about seafood here. The scallops cooked in black pepper, clams in black bean sauce, and seafood soaked in XO sauce are good places to start.

Open in Google Maps

5 Hudson St, Boston, MA 02111

Visit Website

Signage for New Jumbo Seafood Restaurant in Boston’s Chinatown — raised red lettering on a gold background — New Jumbo is one of the best spots for seafood in Chinatown

Little Tao

1153 Commonwealth Ave, Boston, MA 02134

Little Tao is a Sichuan newcomer in Allston led by chef Tao Liu, who hails from Chengdu, the capital city of Sichuan. Whatever you do, don’t pass up the Sichuan special noodle menu — the tao tao noodles, with minced pork and beans in a zingy chile sauce, are excellent.

Open in Google Maps

1153 Commonwealth Ave, Boston, MA 02134

Visit Website

Clay Pot Cafe

74 Kneeland St, Boston, MA 02111

Clay Pot Cafe specializes in food prepared in clay pots, which is typical of Cantonese cuisine and popular in cities such as Hong Kong. The play here: the minced beef and egg clay pot.

Open in Google Maps

74 Kneeland St, Boston, MA 02111

MDM Noodles

351 Washington St, Brighton, MA 02135

MDM is another part of the small but growing cadre of hand-pulled noodle shops in and around Boston serving Xi’an-style biang biang noodles. Order one of each of the following: hand-pulled noodles with beef and scallions; hand-pulled noodles with scrambled eggs and tomatoes; and spicy hand-pulled noodles with boiled lamb.

351 Washington St, Brighton, MA 02135

The facade of MDM Noodles in Brighton. An orange sign is adorned with white type and sits above two glass doors and two windows. — MDM Noodles is worth a ride on the Green Line.

Myers + Chang

1145 Washington St, Boston, MA 02118

Open for over a decade, this South End restaurant has a menu inspired by a variety of Asian cuisines, including Chinese. (The food is “‘Asian-ish,’ if you need a label,” according to the restaurant.) If it’s currently on the menu, order the grilled mushroom longevity noodles, and don’t miss the classic Mama Chang’s pork and chive dumplings, served with a black pepper and scallion dipping sauce.

Open in Google Maps

1145 Washington St, Boston, MA 02118

Visit Website

A brightly lit restaurant interior with a high-top table and some standard tables, all with white chairs. The sun-lit window is decorated by a large red and yellow dragon. — Myers + Chang.

Noodles King

400 Brookline Ave, Boston, MA 02215

Did you think you’d find a restaurant located inside a hospital food court on this map? Probably not, right? Well, think again. Noodles King serves some of the very best hand-pulled noodles in the city. Order them with spicy chile oil and vegetables.

Open in Google Maps

400 Brookline Ave, Boston, MA 02215

A white plastic bowl, sitting on a purple table, is filled with hand-pulled noodles, bok choy, chile flakes, and bean sprouts. A plastic Coke bottle appears to the side. — Hospital food courts don’t have to mean a trip to McDonald’s — sometimes they’ve got exceptional hand-pulled noodles.

Yunnan Kitchen

1721 Washington St Unit B, Boston, MA 02118

The team behind Brighton Yunnan rice noodle restaurant South of the Clouds expanded to the South End in 2022 with the debut of Yunnan Kitchen, a welcome addition to the neighborhood. The menu goes well beyond noodles here, with a far more expansive range of Yunnan, or Dian, fare including pea jelly salad (or fried pea jelly, either version is deeply satisfying), and bite-sized sticky rice meatballs garnished with goji berries.

Open in Google Maps

1721 Washington St Unit B, Boston, MA 02118

Visit Website

A dark bowl filled with sticky rice-covered meatballs each topped with a red berry and steamed broccoli arranged around the outer rim. — The sticky rice meatballs at Yunnan Kitchen.

Related Maps

My Happy Hunan Kitchen

1926 Beacon St, Brighton, MA 02135

My Happy Hunan Kitchen is chef Wei Ding’s first U.S. restaurant, which he launched after running a successful chain of restaurants out of Changsha, the capital city of Hunan. The menu takes its spice levels seriously: Dishes like the sizzling cumin beef can be made “normal spicy” or “Hunan spicy,” depending on your palate. Ding recreated some of his favorite Hunan recipes here, including a golden beef soup with thinly sliced strips of beef and enoki mushrooms bathing in a pumpkin broth.

Open in Google Maps

1926 Beacon St, Brighton, MA 02135

Visit Website

A quart container filled with a light yellow broth, shaved beef, white mushrooms, and green and red garnishes. — The golden beef soup, in takeout form.

Related Maps