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A decorated arch is visible at the start of Chinatown’s main street. — Excellent eating awaits.

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

by Valerie Li Stack and Eater Staff Updated Jun 13, 2023, 11:22am EDT

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Excellent eating awaits.

| f11photo/Shutterstock

by Valerie Li Stack and Eater Staff Updated Jun 13, 2023, 11:22am EDT

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. Hand-pulled noodles? Check. Beijing-style 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 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 (Food Opera)

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.

Open in Google Maps

83 Essex St, Boston, MA 02111

Visit Website

Also featured in:

Friendship BBQ Boston

Chinese barbecue is similar to yakitori in format, where bite-sized cuts of meat are skewered on a bamboo stick, grilled over open fire, and seasoned with dry spices right before serving. At this place, they grill and season the skewers for you. Options range from pork, chicken, beef, and lamb to a variety of vegetables and mushrooms. It has a second location in Brighton.

Open in Google Maps

42 Beach St, Boston, MA 02111

Visit Website

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.

34 Oxford St, Boston, MA 02111

Visit Website

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.

Also featured in:

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. Looking for a quick lunch to go? Head over to Banh Mi Huong Que, just two stores down the street.

682 Washington St, Boston, MA 02111

Visit Website

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

Open in Google Maps

685 Washington St, Boston, MA 02116

Visit Website

A Malaysian fish — curry chicken, rice, and a hard-boiled egg — on a banana leaf on a blue plate — Nasi lemak at Penang.

Also featured in:

12 Excellent Chinatown and Leather District Restaurants That Deliver

Hunan Gourmet 异国他湘

This Hunanese restaurant took over the old dim sum establishment Bubor Cha Cha a few years ago. As Hunan is known for spicy, and sour flavors, its menu items lean heavily on those bold flavors and some must-haves include the steamed pork with preserved mustard greens and Xiang-style cured ham stir fry.

Open in Google Maps

45 Beach St, Boston, MA 02111

Visit Website

Empire Garden

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

690 Washington St, Boston, MA 02111

Visit Website

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.

Also featured in:

Happy Lamb Hot Pot

Hot pot restaurants are having a moment in Chinatown. Looking for meat-heavy Mongolian hot pot? Don’t look any further than Happy Lamb, where a large selection of lamb and beef cuts are offered alongside vegetables, mushrooms, and different styles of broths. For something spicy, Chongqing-style Liuyishou is your best bet. There’s also the Q, a Chinatown classic that serves a mix of Japanese and Chinese dishes, as well as Mongolian-style hot pot.

Open in Google Maps

693 Washington St, Boston, MA 02116

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 Beijing-style roasted duck, and — unlike other neighborhood destinations for it — you don’t have to order in advance.

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 — Lobster with scallions and ginger at Peach Farm.

Also featured in:

Shojo

This extraordinarily hip spot is known for its inventive cocktails, but don’t miss the sesame charred greens, the tiger-style ribs, the shadowless fries, and whatever bao options are currently on offer. It has recently opened a second location in the bustling Central Square in Cambridge.

9 Tyler St, Boston, MA 02111

Visit Website

Also featured in:

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 seafood-based sauce that originated in Hong Kong.

79 Harrison Ave, Boston, MA 02111

Visit Website

Also featured in:

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.

10 Tyler St, Boston, MA 02111

Visit Website

Also featured in:

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.

Open in Google Maps

86 Harrison Ave, Boston, MA 02111

Visit Website

Also featured in:

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.

Open in Google Maps

20B Tyler St, Boston, MA 02111

Visit Website

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.

Also featured in:

Clay Pot Cafe

In Hong Kong, people line up for hours just to get a taste of the best clay pot rice in town, a rice-based casserole with various toppings and crunchy socarrat-like bottom. You don’t have to travel far for it; this unassuming establishment does the dish so well that it captures the flavor and texture of the dish, with a massive selection of toppings to pick from.

74 Kneeland St, Boston, MA 02111

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Hei La Moon (Food Opera)

83 Essex St, Boston, MA 02111

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.

Open in Google Maps

83 Essex St, Boston, MA 02111

Visit Website

Friendship BBQ Boston

42 Beach St, Boston, MA 02111

Chinese barbecue is similar to yakitori in format, where bite-sized cuts of meat are skewered on a bamboo stick, grilled over open fire, and seasoned with dry spices right before serving. At this place, they grill and season the skewers for you. Options range from pork, chicken, beef, and lamb to a variety of vegetables and mushrooms. It has a second location in Brighton.

Open in Google Maps

42 Beach St, Boston, MA 02111

Visit Website

Taiwan Cafe

34 Oxford St, Boston, MA 02111

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.

34 Oxford St, Boston, MA 02111

Visit Website

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.

Pho Pasteur

682 Washington St, Boston, MA 02111

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. Looking for a quick lunch to go? Head over to Banh Mi Huong Que, just two stores down the street.

682 Washington St, Boston, MA 02111

Visit Website

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

Penang Malaysian Cuisine

685 Washington St, Boston, MA 02116

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.)

Open in Google Maps

685 Washington St, Boston, MA 02116

Visit Website

A Malaysian fish — curry chicken, rice, and a hard-boiled egg — on a banana leaf on a blue plate — Nasi lemak at Penang.

Hunan Gourmet 异国他湘

45 Beach St, Boston, MA 02111

This Hunanese restaurant took over the old dim sum establishment Bubor Cha Cha a few years ago. As Hunan is known for spicy, and sour flavors, its menu items lean heavily on those bold flavors and some must-haves include the steamed pork with preserved mustard greens and Xiang-style cured ham stir fry.

Open in Google Maps

45 Beach St, Boston, MA 02111

Visit Website

Empire Garden

690 Washington St, Boston, MA 02111

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

690 Washington St, Boston, MA 02111

Visit Website

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.

Happy Lamb Hot Pot

693 Washington St, Boston, MA 02116

Hot pot restaurants are having a moment in Chinatown. Looking for meat-heavy Mongolian hot pot? Don’t look any further than Happy Lamb, where a large selection of lamb and beef cuts are offered alongside vegetables, mushrooms, and different styles of broths. For something spicy, Chongqing-style Liuyishou is your best bet. There’s also the Q, a Chinatown classic that serves a mix of Japanese and Chinese dishes, as well as Mongolian-style hot pot.

Open in Google Maps

693 Washington St, Boston, MA 02116

Peach Farm

4 Tyler St, Boston, MA 02111

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 Beijing-style roasted duck, and — unlike other neighborhood destinations for it — you don’t have to order in advance.

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 — Lobster with scallions and ginger at Peach Farm.

Shojo

9 Tyler St, Boston, MA 02111

This extraordinarily hip spot is known for its inventive cocktails, but don’t miss the sesame charred greens, the tiger-style ribs, the shadowless fries, and whatever bao options are currently on offer. It has recently opened a second location in the bustling Central Square in Cambridge.

9 Tyler St, Boston, MA 02111

Visit Website

Hong Kong Eatery

79 Harrison Ave, Boston, MA 02111

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 seafood-based sauce that originated in Hong Kong.

79 Harrison Ave, Boston, MA 02111

Visit Website

Winsor Dim Sum Cafe

10 Tyler St, Boston, MA 02111

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.

10 Tyler St, Boston, MA 02111

Visit Website

Double Chin

86 Harrison Ave, Boston, MA 02111

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.

Open in Google Maps

86 Harrison Ave, Boston, MA 02111

Visit Website

Tora Japanese Restaurant

20B Tyler St, Boston, MA 02111

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.

Open in Google Maps

20B Tyler St, Boston, MA 02111

Visit Website

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.

Clay Pot Cafe

74 Kneeland St, Boston, MA 02111

In Hong Kong, people line up for hours just to get a taste of the best clay pot rice in town, a rice-based casserole with various toppings and crunchy socarrat-like bottom. You don’t have to travel far for it; this unassuming establishment does the dish so well that it captures the flavor and texture of the dish, with a massive selection of toppings to pick from.

74 Kneeland St, Boston, MA 02111

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