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6 Essential Spots For A Chinatown Food Crawl
photo credit: Emily Schindler
Manhattan’s Chinatown is, arguably, the top food neighborhood in NYC. The area isn’t huge, but it would take you roughly a year to fully eat your way through it, and that would be a very good year. Assuming you don’t have that kind of time, we put together a list of essential spots where you can pop in and grab some pork buns, dumplings, rice rolls, and ice cream. All of these places are within walking distance of each other, and they all do takeout, so you can keep your crawl moving and wrap things up in about half a day.
photo credit: Alex Staniloff
Start your day at Golden Steamer on Mott Street. Open at 7am daily, this little Chinese bakery is a great place to pop in for a quick grab-and-go steamed bun that’ll cost you less than $2. Try the one filled with pumpkin custard first, then go for the steamed pork and salted egg yolk varieties. If you develop strong feelings, grab one of the bulk packages to take with you.
photo credit: Noah Devereaux
The baked pork buns at Mei Lai Wah are New York City icons, right up there alongside Rosie Perez and the Wu-Tang Clan. They’re dense and glossy, with a sweet, meaty filling, and you’ll see people walking away with big boxes of them. There’s often a line outside, but don’t worry about that. It moves quickly. If you want to get a few different things, add a flaky pineapple bun to your order.
photo credit: Emily Schindler
Shu Ziao Fu Zhou is one of the main perks of living in New York City. The silky steamed dumplings are the main attraction at this counter-service, cash-only spot, starting at $3 for a plate of six. Get the ones with pork and cabbage, and, if you’re feeling optimistic about how much you can consume on this crawl, supplement your dumplings with a $3 plate of peanut noodles. Shu Ziao Fu Zhou has a good amount of seating, so this is a nice place to sit down and take a breather in the middle of your tour.
photo credit: Bryan Kim
Will there be a line outside of Wah Fung when you visit? Yes, probably. If you stop by around lunch, you might even have to wait 20 minutes or so. Use that time to digest all the food you just ate, and look up directions for your next destination. Once you make it inside the closet-sized space, order the roast pork over rice, then eat your sweet, caramelized meat on a bench across the street.
photo credit: Bryan Kim
Everyone has their own personal favorite place to get rice rolls in Chinatown, and every option —like Sun Hing Lung and Yin Ji Chang Fen— is perfectly valid. But Yi Ji Shi Mo is the correct answer. The rice rolls here are especially thin and delicate, stuffed with your choice of filling like shrimp, roast pork, and curry fish balls. Your food will be scorching hot when it’s passed across the counter, and the container may even burn your hands, but stay strong, and eat your rolls before they cool down.
photo credit: Noah Devereaux
Every day in Chinatown should end at Chinatown Ice Cream factory. Established in the ’70s, this narrow ice cream parlor offers an ever-changing range of flavors, from pistachio and pumpkin pie to red bean and black sesame. Get a few scoops topped with mochi, boba, or coconut, and grab a bright yellow t-shirt with the store’s logo on it to commemorate a successful Chinatown food crawl.
