Skip to primary navigation Skip to content Skip to footer

Ahoy NY Food Tours Blog

Back to Ahoy NY Food Tours Blog

Know Before You Go: Tips on Visiting Chinatown and Little Italy, NYC

Ahoy New York Walking Food Tour Doyers Street

Planning a fun trip or vacation? We are here to help! Here is our know before you go guide with tips on visiting Chinatown and Little Italy, New York City including how to get here, where to stay, where to eat and fun things to do.

How to Get Here and Where to Stay:

New York City has two airports, John F. Kennedy International and LaGuardia Airport. Newark Liberty International Airport is nearby too but we don’t recommend it especially since there has been a lot of construction disrupting traveling to and from there.

To get around New York City and to get to Chinatown and Little Italy we recommend taking the subway. The 4, 5, 6, N, R, W, Q, J, Z, D, B and F trains all go here. If you are visiting for about a week, we recommend getting a weekly unlimited MetroCard so you can go back and forth to wherever you want to go in NYC. You can find Uber, Lyft or taxis easily too but they can get expensive especially during peak hours.

Three hotels we like in the area are Wyndham Garden Chinatown (93 Bowery), NobleDEN (196 Grand Street) and Hotel 50 Bowery (50 Bowery). The Wyndham Garden and Hotel 50 Bowery are located right in the heart of Chinatown and offer plenty of amenities and great views of the city. NobleDEN is located in the heart of Little Italy.

W Subway TrainP.C.: wikipedia, GeneralPunger

Where to Eat:

Chinatown is renowned for its top notch food options. Our go-to spots in Chinatown include Nom Wah Tea Parlor (13 Doyers St) & Golden Unicorn (18 E Broadway) for dim sum, Tasty Dumpling (42 Mulberry St) for juicy fried dumplings, Tonii’s Fresh Rice Noodle (83 Bayard St) for both rice noodle rolls and sponge cakes and Cafe Hong Kong (51 Bayard St) for their amazing Hong Kong style dishes.

Little Italy also has no shortage of tempting lunch and dinner options too. We recommend Lunella (173 Mulberry St) and Benito One (174 Mulberry St) for classic Italian dishes including many delicious pastas, Alleva Dairy (188 Grand St) for the best mozzarella in NYC and hearty sandwiches and Margherita NYC (197 Grand St) & Gelso & Grand (186 Grand St) for yummy pizzas.

Looking for snacks or desserts? You have to check out Chinatown Ice Cream Factory (65 Bayard St) for Asian inspired ice cream flavors, Harper’s Bread House (271 Grand St) for egg tarts and Ferrara Bakery and Cafe (195 Grand St) for gelato, cannoli and other scrumptious Italian pastries.

There are so many more can’t miss restaurants and shops in Chinatown and Little Italy so be sure to follow our blog for even more delicious options!

Chinatown Ice Cream FactoryP.C.: Chinatown Ice Cream Factory

Fun Things to Do:

One of the best ways to explore Chinatown and Little Italy is to go on an Ahoy New York walking food tour! We offer to two fun tours, Chinatown and Little Italy Food Fest and Taste Mulberry Street – A Culinary Journey, that explore the best these two neighborhoods have to offer. We also offer private tours too.

There are a lot of interesting shops in Chinatown and Little Italy. If you are looking for unique gifts to bring back home, we recommend checking out Yùnhóng Chopsticks (50 Mott St) in Chinatown and E.Rossi & Company (193 Grand St) in Little Italy. Di Palo’s Fine Foods (200 Grand St) can also be a fun shop to check out. It has an amazing variety of Italian cheeses, snacks, pastas and more!

Other places we recommend visiting include Columbus Park, Museum of Chinese in America (215 Centre St) and just walking up and down Mulberry Street.

Finally Chinese New Year (which is usually in January or February) and Feast of San Gennaro (which starts in the middle of September, September 19 in 2021) are great times to visit the area. These festivities are huge highlights in the year and are a ton of fun to join.

Ahoy New York Food Tours Corporate Team Building Events Cannoli Tasting