Cheap Eats: The Seven Best Restaurants in Chinatown, New York City
Chinatown is renowned for its plentiful cheap eats options. We narrowed it down and here are our cheap eats picks for the seven best restaurants in Chinatown, New York City. You can get a hearty lunch or dinner that won’t break the bank in any of these places.
Cafe Hong Kong – 51 Bayard St
P.C.: yelp, Chris E.
Like their name implies, this restaurant specializes in delicious Hong Kong style dishes. We especially love their beef chow fun and shrimp fried rice. Also this is a great option for a family style dinner since there so many tempting entrees to choose from like a whole steamed fish or stir fried beef and vegetables. One appetizer we definitely recommend is their crispy fried squid. It is so addictive!
Noodle Village – 13 Mott St
P.C.: yelp, Sandy L.
One of our favorite Chinese comfort foods is wonton noodle soup. It is perfect on a cold and chilly day and the wonton noodle soup from Noodle Village is always top notch. H K Wonton Garden (79 Mulberry St) and Wonton Noodle Garden (56 Mott St) are also good options for soup noodles in Chinatown.
Thai Son – 89 Baxter St
P.C.: yelp, Patrick W.
Similarly, we absolutely love a gigantic bowl of pho too. Our go to place for this classic Vietnamese dish is Thai Son. It loaded with a bunch of different cuts of meat and the broth is full of flavor. A meal here is fast, cheap and delicious. What more can you ask for?
Tasty Dumpling – 42 Mulberry St
The fried dumplings from Tasty Dumpling has been one of our most popular tastings on our food tour of Chinatown and Little Italy. The filling is bursting with flavor and the skin has the perfect crunch with every bite. Tasty Dumpling has also a scrumptious pancake with beef sandwich that is great as a quick lunch on the go.
Taiwan Pork Chop House – 3 Doyers St
P.C.: yelp, Scott C.
Taiwan Pork Chop House is a no frills, cheap eats spot on one of the most interesting streets in New York City, Doyers Street. The star dish here is easily their juicy Taiwanese style pork chop which we usually get over rice or noodles but we find everything on their menu delicious.
New Kim Tuong Restaurant – 83 Chrystie St
We find that some of the best cheap eats options in Chinatown are a bit off the beaten path. There is often a long line for char siu (roast pork) at Wah Fung Fast Food (79 Chrystie St) and it is very good but we prefer to get our char siu just three storefronts down. The wait is usually much shorter, there are plenty of seats in their dining area and their char siu is just as tasty. It pairs well with just about anything (rice, noodles or even by itself as a snack).
E Noodle – 5 Catherine St
P.C.: E Noodle Chinatown
Finally E Noodle has amazing rice orders for about $10. Our usual takeout order is their special three combination rice order which has char siu, soy sauce chicken and a fried egg so you get a little bit of everything. If you are having a sit down lunch or dinner here, you have to get their clay pot rice dishes. It is packed with an assortment of yummy Chinese meats, Chinese bacon, egg and more and all that flavor is sealed in a clay pot.