13 Fantastic Chinese Restaurants

From dim sum to carry-out, and from authentic to Americanized, these 13 outstanding restaurants run the gamut of what great Chinese food can offer.

Broward-Palm Beach

China Dumpling
Let the gastronomic jetset bicker about which Chinatown restaurant serves the grossest whole flash-fried crabs, stinky tofu, 1,000-year-old eggs, or shark fin soup. When it comes to carry-out, you want your egg roll ($1.95). You want your fried rice ($4.50 small, $8.50 large). You want your…More >>

Dallas

Yao Fuzi Cuisine
Yao Fuzi Shanghainese style blends in bits of Mandarin and even Japanese, keeping it floating atop the mainstream in North Texas. You can savor fried calamari in curry dust, spicy tuna summer rolls, pan-fried duck in Mandarin sauce, and sweet and sour chicken. For the authentically adventurous,…More >>

Deep fried fish at Yao Fuzi Cuisine in Dallas

Denver

Chopsticks China Bistro
Chopsticks is a strange restaurant: It’s one of the city’s most authentic Chinese spots, yet it also serves some completely inauthentic dishes. At Chopsticks, you can eat Chinese pocket sandwiches full of delicious, saucy, shredded meat or completely non-threatening chicken lo mein — and…More >>

Szechuan Chinese Restaurant
For thirty years, Szechuan Chinese Restaurant has been doing business in one of the worst imaginable locations in all of restaurantdom — but somehow it’s managed to build, and keep, a dedicated crowd of regulars. They flock here for the friendly, accommodating service, the huge menu with…More >>

Houston

Fung’s Kitchen
The sesame balls filled with sweetened red bean paste are hot out of the fryer — they taste like Chinese jelly doughnuts. The regular dim sum items are all nicely done, but it’s the upscale exotica that catches your attention here. The cart with the shell-shaped metallic dishes of seaweed…More >>

Exotic Fare at Fung’s Kitchen in Houston

Xiong’s Cafe
Tucked into one of the endless strip centers of Bellaire Chinatown, this tiny cafe offers some delicious traditional Chinese fare. And what Xiong’s lacks in size, it makes up for in dumplings. Steamed, boiled and pan-fried varieties are handmade, and show up at the table in generous portions….More >>

Miami

Chef Chen Chinese Restaurant
The history of the won ton dates to ancient Chinese times, and since then, people have had to choose their soup: egg drop or won ton? Well, maybe it hasn’t been that long — but it is a problem. Do you order the rich, thick egg drop or the savory won ton? If you go to Chef Chen’s, you won’t…More >>

China Steak House
Although you won’t find lou mei — a dish made from animals’ internal organs and entrails — at China Steak House, the eatery could hold its own in the Guangdong Province of Southern China. But the restaurant is located just a few blocks east of the NW 122nd Street exit off the…More >>

Lotus House
All right, we all know Miami isn’t renowned for high-quality Chinese food. Sometimes when you order in, the most you can hope for is a clearly understandable English speaker on the other line and an edible lukewarm meal when the delivery man eventually arrives. But hey, there’s Lotus House. The…More >>

New York

Lanzhou Hand Pull Noodle
Lanzhou is a city in central China famous for its hand-pulled noodles. In Sunset Park, Lanzhou Hand Pull Noodle fabricates those springy wheat noodles. Suck them down in our favorite soup: a tangle of noodles in beef broth with water spinach and salty, savory roast duck. More >>

Orange County

Formosa Chinese Food
With a menu spanning more than 150 dishes, cheap prices and specials on every page, Formosa is a foodie’s dimly lit, claustrophobic dream. But the real fun lies in the motel restaurant’s two hidden menus–the one written in Chinese characters on a whiteboard, and the one known only…More >>

Phoenix

Asian Café Express
What’s in a name? Well, not always what you might think. To the uninitiated, Asian Café Express might seem like a nondescript fast-food joint serving a mishmash of Asian food, but in truth, this unassuming eatery is pure Hong Kong, baby. Like so many good Chinese restaurants, Asian…More >>

Susan and Michael Leung of Asian Café Express

San Francisco

Shanghai House
Shanghai House is a tiny, gleaming white box, cash-only, that doesn’t take reservations (except for large parties), doesn’t offer alcohol, doesn’t have a Web site, and is way the hell out on Balboa. But aficionados of Chinese cuisine should beat a path to its door to sample its fresh and…More >>