Believe It or Not, New York City Has Nine Chinatowns

Think Chinese food in New York City, and three main hubs immediately come to mind: Manhattan’s Chinatown, Flushing in Queens, and Brooklyn’s Sunset Park. Those destinations have long been filled with Chinese food catering to both Chinese and American tastes, available at all price points, and from many regions in China.

But the number of Chinese immigrants in NYC has risen sharply in recent years — with Chinese people only trailing Dominicans as the largest foreign-born population in NYC. People of Chinese descent have spread farther out in larger numbers and developed communities along the way that at this point can be considered mini Chinatowns. There are in fact now nine Chinatowns in New York City, all in various stages of development but worthy in their own right. Add Little Neck, the East Village, Forest Hills, Homecrest, Bensonhurst, and Elmhurst to the list of established Chinatowns around the city.

There’s never been a better time to eat Chinese food in NYC. Here’s where to go and how it happened.

Elmhurst

Elmhurst is often called the city’s fourth Chinatown. Like others across the city, it began with the opening of a Chinese supermarket, named US, in the early ’90s, according to neighborhood native and Douglas Elliman real estate broker Luis Noe. Once those native ingredients were available, Chinese people flooded the neighborhood: In the 25 years since, China became the top country of origin for foreign-born residents, with more than 19,000 Chinese speakers of 142,289 people as of 2016, or about 14 percent.

Wang Yan, owner of the 15-year-old dumpling house Lao Bei Fang, ascribes it to Flushing getting too crowded. “The people! You can barely walk,” she says. Elmhurst, by contrast, offers a chiller place for Chinese people to reside. She estimates that 70 percent of her clientele is Chinese neighborhood residents, with a significant uptick in recent years of Chinese university students.

Chinese restaurants cluster around Broadway Avenue, near the Elmhurst Avenue M/R subway station and US Supermarket, with popular options like Taiwanese noodle soup spot Happy Stony Noodle, fiery Sichuan place Sweet Yummy House, hot pot house Shell Cove, and burger joint Chinger.

The neighborhood is also home to many southeast Asian people and businesses, with an especially recent uptick in Thai spots, and there aren’t as many Chinese-serving businesses such as accountants, immigration consultation, and nail salons as in nearby Flushing. It’s a reason why Po Toi O HK Tea House owner Sidney Han doesn’t think Elmhurst is a Chinatown, per se.

But the concentration of Chinese people, and thus restaurants, cannot be denied, so much that news of the neighborhood has even found its way to China. Noe says some clients from Shanghai specifically request the neighborhood when looking to buy in NYC.

Restaurants to try

Lao Bei Fang: Longtime dumpling house, 83-05 Broadway
Chinger: Fun Chinese hamburgers, 83-02 Broadway
Happy Stony Noodle: Taiwanese noodles and other dishes, 83-47 Dongan Ave.
Hua Rong: Fujianese fare, 8323 Broadway #1
Shun Wang: Old-fashioned Cantonese, 81-25 Broadway
Shell Cove: Hot pots, 83-02 Broadway
Ru Yi: Seafood, 8334 Broadway,
Sweet Yummy House: Ultra-spicy Sichuan, 83-13 Broadway

Bensonhurst

The unassuming neighborhood of Bensonhurst quietly became home to New York City’s largest Chinese population as of a 2013 city report, the latest data available on NYC immigrants. Out of 31,700 Chinese immigrants at that time, 27,300 were from mainland China and the rest from Hong Kong. As such, 86th Street — where the D line rumbles above ground — has become a mini Chinatown in itself.

“You can spot the change just by looking at Christmas lights,” Chen Won Dim Sum owner Jin Cai Chen says in Cantonese. “A few years back the homes were packed with Christmas lights, but now the lights are nowhere to be found.”

Chen’s Cantonese bakery and barbecue restaurant lies among dozens of other Chinese bakeries, herbal medicine shops, restaurants, and grocers. He says the neighborhood businesses mainly cater to locals, since Sunset Park is so close and a more known Chinese food destination.

Nearby Duck Wong Wonton owner Yee Mon Yau agrees. “In Chinatown you eat ‘brand.’ The older the brand is, the more people visit,” he says in Cantonese. “In Bensonhurst you eat ‘reputation.’ As long as you have a good reputation, you’ll build a loyal customer base.”

Yau has lived in Bensonhurst for 23 years, and witnessed the drastic Chinese growth and Italian “retreat,” he says. The neighborhood is still home to several other populations, with Caucasians leading the way, but Asians come in second at 39 percent of locals, according to another city report. In between the burgeoning Chinese businesses, there are steakhouses, delis, pizzerias, sushi spots, and several Vietnamese options. Banks and clothing stores exist amid a beauty school and fast-food joints — of which some signs, like at Popeyes, are in Chinese.

But markedly, when Yau first moved here, there were only a couple of Chinese restaurants. Now there’s a whole avenue — 86th Street, mainly clustered around each subway stop — filled with Chinese food. Particularly around the Bay Parkway D subway station the street is packed with Chinese shops, grocers, and restaurants. It’s a global bazaar of sorts, with crowded sidewalk displays hawking tchotchkes, clothing, produce, and the like. A 30-stall regional Chinese food hall is even coming this year.

It’s enough that Yau now definitively declares: “A Chinatown has already formed here.”

Restaurants to try

Duck Wong Wonton: Wonton and noodle soups, 2341 86th St.
Chen Won Dim Sum: Dim sum and baked goods, 2480 86th St.
86 Best Bakery: Dim sum and baked goods, 1957 86th St.
New Taste to Go Corp: Roast duck and chicken over rice , 2310 86th St.
Mr. Bun: Modern dumpling house and other Shanghai fare, 2048 86th St.
New Ruan’s: Upscale Chinese-American restaurant with a sprawling menu and tiki drinks, 1955 86th St.

East Village

The East Village is NYC’s hippest Chinese dining destination. In the last eight years, the Manhattan neighborhood more historically known for Japanese, Jewish, and Mexican food, as well as a hangout in the punk scene, has seen a huge rise in the number of modern Chinese regional restaurants aimed at discerning millennials.

There’s Yunnan-style mifen (rice noodles) at Little Tong Noodle Shop, Sichuan dry pot at MáLà Project, Cajun-Chinese seafood boil at Le Sia, and Taiwanese beef noodle soup at Ho Foods, among several other stylish spots. And they all sport an atmosphere that differs from those seen at takeout shops and and old-fashioned Cantonese or dim sum parlors — here, younger owners are prioritizing decor and branding along with the food.

It’s largely thanks to nearby New York University, where a surge of Chinese citizens come to the U.S. to attend school — the number of Chinese students at NYU more than doubled to 6,500 in 2016 from 2,200 in 2012. They’ve got money to spend, and they’re seeking familiar food. As a result, these hyper-specific regional Chinese cuisines can now be found.

While there isn’t a huge influx of Chinese nationals as in other neighborhoods, the East Village is notable as a sleeker and hipper member of the Chinatown group. Restaurants are more spread out and integrated into the neighborhood, though often congregating on or near St. Mark’s Place. It’s a very specific choice for these owners to open here rather than in a more established area, like Manhattan’s Chinatown or Sunset Park.

“Chinese and Taiwanese culture in general are very underrepresented in America,” playful Taiwanese restaurant 886 owner Eric Sze told Eater in June. “All of these people, including myself, grew up in a whole other country, came here, and are trying to rep the culture.” He pointed out that food is the best way to do that.

Eric Guo, general manager of the East Village location of the Flushing restaurant Szechuan Mountain House, agreed: “We want to spread the knowledge of what contemporary people are eating in China right now.”

Restaurants to try

Szechuan Mountain House: Outpost of a Flushing Sichuan standby, 23 St. Mark’s Pl.
MáLà Project: Dry pot in a hip atmosphere, 122 First Ave.
Le Sia: Crawfish and other seafood with Chinese spicing, 11 East Seventh St.
Hunan Slurp Shop: Arty space with Hunan rice noodles, 112 First Ave.
Ho Foods: Taiwanese beef noodle soup, 110 East Seventh St.
Spicy Moon: Vegan Sichuan fare, 328 East Sixth St.

Homecrest

Sheepshead Bay and Gravesend’s Avenue U is often associated with longtime Italian, American, or Russian places like Joe’s of Avenue U and Brennan & Carr. But nestled between those two legacy restaurants is a bustling Chinatown, primarily full of Cantonese fare, grocery stores, and bakeries.

A little slice of Homecrest, along Avenue U from Ocean to Coney Island avenues near the Q subway station, is a third Chinatown in Brooklyn. It’s smaller than Bensonhurst, though older, and primarily caters to Chinese locals who live there. That’s why there are far more bakeries and grocery stores than sit-down restaurants, appealing to residents looking for snacks and ingredients to cook at home.

Six bakeries run along the stretch. It’s so many that Ming Bakery owner Ming Li says that it’s not a great business because there’s so much competition. He took over Spring Bakery three months ago, selling various pastries like pineapple and pork buns. Except — so do the other five on the street, with some going further, like Good Family Bakery with rice rolls, or Yummy Cafe House with Japanese dishes like sushi and onigiri.

On an average weekday, many ethnicities stream into the lively bakeries and restaurants. The majority of clientele is Asian, but African Americans, Hispanics, and Russians mix in. Older couples sit down for tea and a full meal, area workers grab a $5.75 plate of roast duck over rice at Cantonese carryout Golden Z, and families get their food shopping done at the various markets.

It may be a lower-key destination, but people are taking notice. A 20-stall Chinese food hall called BKU Food City is opening at 1809 Ave. U later this year, planning to serve various regional snacks. The food court is meant to “promote the Chinese food culture of Chinatown in Brooklyn Avenue U and enhance the understanding and love of Chinese people,” says the real estate listing through a translation. A company receptionist adds that the food court hopes to appeal beyond local Chinese residents to Turkish and Russians, too.

Restaurants to try

Wing Hing: Cantonese seafood, 1217 Ave. U
Shing Wong: Dim sum, charcuterie, and seafood, 1232 Ave. U
Golden Z: Cantonese carryout and roast duck specialist, 1410 Ave. U
Season: Cantonese seafood, 1321 Ave. U
East Ocean: Seafood-focused Cantonese, 1818 Ave. U
Golden Sands: Baked goods and Vietnamese sandwiches, 1924 Ave. U

Little Neck

Little Dumpling/Facebook

A whopping 43 percent of Little Neck — a suburban town right on the border of Queens and Long Island — is Asian. The most common non-English language spoken there is Chinese. It’s why Beichen Hu, who owned a popular, but now-closed, Sichuan restaurant in the neighborhood, decided to open there.

He says wealthy Chinese immigrants have been flooding the neighborhood because it’s near Flushing and Great Neck South High School is highly rated. “New immigrants know English, they’re rich, and they want to live in an American neighborhood,” so they move to Great Neck, Little Neck, and Bayside, he says.

Chinese restaurants have followed. His Grain House was popular, but didn’t have parking, which limited who would come in such a suburban area. He and his partner eventually decided to sell, and it’s now a Shanghainese dumpling spot.

Despite that, Hu says four or five Chinese restaurants opened in the last year. There’s dim sum, Hong Kong-style noodles, and several dumpling houses. By his estimation, Little Neck isn’t a Chinatown yet but will be in two to three years.

But for now, Hu is focusing his energy on his new venture near Columbus University. As at NYU, he says, there are a lot of wealthy university students. “They’re international students and pay lots of tuition so they miss Chinese food,” he says. “And they’re rich kids.”

He predicts that area will be the next Chinatown to add to this list, with a handful of Chinese restaurants opening in the last year and another bunch on the way.

Restaurants to try

Sifu Chio: Hong Kong noodle house, 251-28 Northern Blvd.
LN 1380: Cantonese and dim sum, 251-03 Northern Blvd.
Little Dumpling: Shanghainese and Taiwanese fare, 252-20 Northern Blvd.
Northern Manor: Cantonese and dim sum, 251-15 Northern Blvd.
Shanghai Dumpling: Shanghai, Sichuan, Cantonese, and Northern Chinese fare, 252-20 Northern Blvd.

Forest Hills

“They’re calling Forest Hills the next Flushing,” says Compass real estate broker Tammy Lee.

More than a handful of Chinese restaurants and grocers opened in the last two years. Austin Street is now lined with places to get Taiwanese shaved ice tea, jianbing, Shanghainese dumplings, bubble tea, hand-pulled noodles, and mapo tofu — but there’s also a Bareburger and a TGI Friday’s.

At Memories of Shanghai, owner Xueling Zhang can reportedly go up to 50 orders of xiao long bao a day, while most workers at nearby Spy C Cuisine are not fluent in English. These are restaurants meant to appeal to the area’s growing Chinese population, lured by cheaper rents and less competition than in Flushing.

Neighborhood local and Taiwan native Lee considers the area a second stop for immigrants when they want to graduate past Flushing. Indeed, the neighborhood’s Asian population went up 2 percentage points, to 30 percent, from 2015 to 2018.

“It’s coming up,” Lee says.

Restaurants to try

Xin Taste Hand Pulled Noodle: Noodle shop newcomer, 72-38 Austin St.
New East Ocean Palace: Large dim sum spot, 113-09 Queens Blvd.
Spy C Cuisine: Sichuan plates, 72-06 Austin St.
Memories of Shanghai: Soup dumpling specialist, 68-60 Austin St. #10A
Pink Forest: Bubble tea and jianbing, 7201 Austin St.
The Bund: Modern space with classic Shanghainese fare, 100-30 Queens Blvd.

Additional reporting by Tony Lin and Robert Sietsema