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A decorated arch is visible at the start of Chinatown’s main street.
Excellent eating awaits.
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Where to Eat in Boston’s Chinatown

The neighborhood’s best restaurants for dumplings and dim sum and noodles and sushi and so much more

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Excellent eating awaits.
| f11photo/Shutterstock

Chinatown is, without a doubt, one of Boston’s best food neighborhoods. Want to eat the greatest dumplings in the city? Head to Chinatown. Dim sum? Check. Offal? Check. Peking duck? You got it. Chinatown has ramen; Chinatown has udon; Chinatown has sushi; Chinatown has pho; Chinatown has hot pot. Chinatown is where you bring your friend who’s visiting from out of town and wants to eat the best food the city has to offer.

It’s a dense, food-packed neighborhood to explore, but start with these 15 excellent options.

See also: Great Bakeries in Boston’s Chinatown

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Hei La Moon

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Grab a seat in Hei La Moon’s light-filled, bi-level space (it’s new!) and tuck into bountiful spreads of seafood, dumplings, and sizzling plates of beef and chicken. Dim sum cart service is available on the weekends.

The menu at the Q is massive and offers diners a mix of Japanese and Chinese food, but the play here is the Mongolian hot pot. Get the spicy beef tallow broth, and pack it with noodles, vegetables, and protein.

Taiwan Cafe

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The Taiwan-style pan-fried dumplings at Taiwan Cafe are the truth, but don’t ignore other dishes such as sauteed pickled mustard greens with pork intestines, sauteed blood pudding, or Sichuan-style white fish in a pot of bubbling chile oil.

Slices of a flaky white fish sit in a fiery red broth in a metal bowl over a flame. It’s on a table inside a busy, casual restaurant.
Sichuan fish at Taiwan Cafe.
Rachel Leah Blumenthal/Eater Boston

Pho Pasteur

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This Vietnamese restaurant is a Chinatown staple. Pho Pasteur opened in 1991, and it has been serving an extensive menu of Vietnamese food — including, yes, some of the best pho in the city — ever since.

The exterior of Pho Pasteur Vietnamese restaurant in Boston’s Chinatown, with maroon signage and light pink paint.
Pho Pasteur.
Pho Pasteur

Penang Malaysian Cuisine

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Penang’s roti canai is a sort of crispy pancake served with curry chicken dipping sauce, and it — along with the nasi lemak, which is a coconut-flavored rice dish served with a chile- and anchovy-spiked curry chicken and a hard-boiled egg — is what you should order at one of the area’s only Malaysian restaurants. (There’s also a Waltham location.)

A Malaysian fish — curry chicken, rice, and a hard-boiled egg — on a banana leaf on a blue plate
Nasi lemak at Penang.
Dippy_Duck/Flickr (Creative Commons)

Empire Garden

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This eye-catching space was formerly a Vaudeville theater. (And no, it wasn’t a porn theater.) Peking duck is an option, making Empire Garden one of the very few restaurants in the city doing the dish.

The facade of Empire Garden restaurant in Boston’s Chinatown. The sign is red with yellow lettering. The building looks like an old theater, because it was once a theater.
Empire Garden.
Terrence B. Doyle/Eater Boston

Dumpling Cafe

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Dumpling Cafe is the spot for Taiwan-style pan-fried dumplings and pork soup dumplings. Not to be missed, however, is the Taiwan-style eggplant, which is sweet and spicy and gooey and perfect.

A wooden steamer holds half a dozen plump soup dumplings. The steamer sits on a round white plate on a wooden table.
Soup dumplings at Dumpling Cafe.
Rachel Leah Blumenthal/Eater Boston

Peach Farm

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Peach Farm was a late-night favorite among restaurant industry types before the pandemic struck, but it doesn’t stay open quite as late anymore. Still, it’s worth a visit. Its menu is overwhelming — there are literally hundreds of options — but that’s part of the allure. One could eat food from Peach Farm every night for a year before trying everything on the menu, but start with seafood, especially lobster with ginger and scallions. There’s also Peking duck, and — unlike other neighborhood destinations for it — you don’t have to order in advance.

A plate with a blue border embellished by birds holds a portion of lobster with scallions and ginger
Lobster with scallions and ginger at Peach Farm.
Rachel Leah Blumenthal/Eater Boston

This extraordinarily hip spot is known for its inspired cocktails, but don’t miss the sesame charred greens, the tiger-style ribs, the shadowless fries, and whatever bao options are currently on offer.

Hong Kong Eatery

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This Cantonese restaurant has been open since the 1980s and has since become a stalwart of Chinatown’s dining scene. The sauteed duck tongues in Maggi sauce are worth an order, as is anything made with XO sauce, which is a spicy, umami-rich fish sauce that originated in Hong Kong.

Winsor Dim Sum Cafe

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Winsor Dim Sum Cafe’s dim sum menu is expansive, and one of the best in the city. The restaurant also serves great congee, and its shredded pig ears in mala sauce are not to be missed.

New Jumbo Seafood

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New Jumbo Seafood obviously has its fair share of seafood options, but it also serves braised spareribs, roasted squab, and Peking duck.

Signage for New Jumbo Seafood Restaurant in Boston’s Chinatown — raised red lettering on a gold background
New Jumbo Seafood Restaurant.
Rachel Leah Blumenthal/Eater Boston

Shabu Zen

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Shabu Zen is one of the city’s best hot pot spots (there’s also a location in Allston), and it’s been around for 20 years. Splurge and get the prime ribeye, and pair it with the Mongolian-style spicy broth.

Double Chin

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It’s a fun name for a fun place: Double Chin, founded by sisters Gloria and Emily Chin, is a self-described modern Asian fusion restaurant that doesn’t take itself too seriously. There’s Peking duck fries, double chinwiches (with char siu, or roast pork, wrapped in a scallion pancake), and the over-the-top Cube Toast.

Tora Japanese Restaurant

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One of several excellent Japanese options in a neighborhood more focused around Chinese food, the subterranean Tora opened in late 2017, featuring kaisen don — rice bowls with sashimi — and describing itself as the first local restaurant to do so. There’s also makimono, poke, hot entrees (such as broiled teriyaki eel over rice), and more.

A bowl of raw seafood, including salmon and salmon roe, on rice, served on a wooden tray with miso soup.
The Tokyo don, plus extra salmon, at Tora Japanese Restaurant in Chinatown.
Rachel Leah Blumenthal/Eater Boston

Hei La Moon

Grab a seat in Hei La Moon’s light-filled, bi-level space (it’s new!) and tuck into bountiful spreads of seafood, dumplings, and sizzling plates of beef and chicken. Dim sum cart service is available on the weekends.

The Q

The menu at the Q is massive and offers diners a mix of Japanese and Chinese food, but the play here is the Mongolian hot pot. Get the spicy beef tallow broth, and pack it with noodles, vegetables, and protein.

Taiwan Cafe

The Taiwan-style pan-fried dumplings at Taiwan Cafe are the truth, but don’t ignore other dishes such as sauteed pickled mustard greens with pork intestines, sauteed blood pudding, or Sichuan-style white fish in a pot of bubbling chile oil.

Slices of a flaky white fish sit in a fiery red broth in a metal bowl over a flame. It’s on a table inside a busy, casual restaurant.
Sichuan fish at Taiwan Cafe.
Rachel Leah Blumenthal/Eater Boston

Pho Pasteur

This Vietnamese restaurant is a Chinatown staple. Pho Pasteur opened in 1991, and it has been serving an extensive menu of Vietnamese food — including, yes, some of the best pho in the city — ever since.

The exterior of Pho Pasteur Vietnamese restaurant in Boston’s Chinatown, with maroon signage and light pink paint.
Pho Pasteur.
Pho Pasteur

Penang Malaysian Cuisine

Penang’s roti canai is a sort of crispy pancake served with curry chicken dipping sauce, and it — along with the nasi lemak, which is a coconut-flavored rice dish served with a chile- and anchovy-spiked curry chicken and a hard-boiled egg — is what you should order at one of the area’s only Malaysian restaurants. (There’s also a Waltham location.)

A Malaysian fish — curry chicken, rice, and a hard-boiled egg — on a banana leaf on a blue plate
Nasi lemak at Penang.
Dippy_Duck/Flickr (Creative Commons)

Empire Garden

This eye-catching space was formerly a Vaudeville theater. (And no, it wasn’t a porn theater.) Peking duck is an option, making Empire Garden one of the very few restaurants in the city doing the dish.

The facade of Empire Garden restaurant in Boston’s Chinatown. The sign is red with yellow lettering. The building looks like an old theater, because it was once a theater.
Empire Garden.
Terrence B. Doyle/Eater Boston

Dumpling Cafe

Dumpling Cafe is the spot for Taiwan-style pan-fried dumplings and pork soup dumplings. Not to be missed, however, is the Taiwan-style eggplant, which is sweet and spicy and gooey and perfect.

A wooden steamer holds half a dozen plump soup dumplings. The steamer sits on a round white plate on a wooden table.
Soup dumplings at Dumpling Cafe.
Rachel Leah Blumenthal/Eater Boston

Peach Farm

Peach Farm was a late-night favorite among restaurant industry types before the pandemic struck, but it doesn’t stay open quite as late anymore. Still, it’s worth a visit. Its menu is overwhelming — there are literally hundreds of options — but that’s part of the allure. One could eat food from Peach Farm every night for a year before trying everything on the menu, but start with seafood, especially lobster with ginger and scallions. There’s also Peking duck, and — unlike other neighborhood destinations for it — you don’t have to order in advance.

A plate with a blue border embellished by birds holds a portion of lobster with scallions and ginger
Lobster with scallions and ginger at Peach Farm.
Rachel Leah Blumenthal/Eater Boston

Shojo

This extraordinarily hip spot is known for its inspired cocktails, but don’t miss the sesame charred greens, the tiger-style ribs, the shadowless fries, and whatever bao options are currently on offer.

Hong Kong Eatery

This Cantonese restaurant has been open since the 1980s and has since become a stalwart of Chinatown’s dining scene. The sauteed duck tongues in Maggi sauce are worth an order, as is anything made with XO sauce, which is a spicy, umami-rich fish sauce that originated in Hong Kong.

Winsor Dim Sum Cafe

Winsor Dim Sum Cafe’s dim sum menu is expansive, and one of the best in the city. The restaurant also serves great congee, and its shredded pig ears in mala sauce are not to be missed.

New Jumbo Seafood

New Jumbo Seafood obviously has its fair share of seafood options, but it also serves braised spareribs, roasted squab, and Peking duck.

Signage for New Jumbo Seafood Restaurant in Boston’s Chinatown — raised red lettering on a gold background
New Jumbo Seafood Restaurant.
Rachel Leah Blumenthal/Eater Boston

Shabu Zen

Shabu Zen is one of the city’s best hot pot spots (there’s also a location in Allston), and it’s been around for 20 years. Splurge and get the prime ribeye, and pair it with the Mongolian-style spicy broth.

Double Chin

It’s a fun name for a fun place: Double Chin, founded by sisters Gloria and Emily Chin, is a self-described modern Asian fusion restaurant that doesn’t take itself too seriously. There’s Peking duck fries, double chinwiches (with char siu, or roast pork, wrapped in a scallion pancake), and the over-the-top Cube Toast.

Tora Japanese Restaurant

One of several excellent Japanese options in a neighborhood more focused around Chinese food, the subterranean Tora opened in late 2017, featuring kaisen don — rice bowls with sashimi — and describing itself as the first local restaurant to do so. There’s also makimono, poke, hot entrees (such as broiled teriyaki eel over rice), and more.

A bowl of raw seafood, including salmon and salmon roe, on rice, served on a wooden tray with miso soup.
The Tokyo don, plus extra salmon, at Tora Japanese Restaurant in Chinatown.
Rachel Leah Blumenthal/Eater Boston

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