The 10 best Chinese restaurants in Boston
This list covers ten Chinese restaurants inside the City of Boston, from the basement seafood rooms and dim sum halls of Chinatown to a Hunan kitchen at Cleveland Circle, a Yunnan specialist in the South End and a dumpling factory in South Boston. The list is for residents planning a weeknight dinner and for visitors who want to eat well within a few blocks of the Chinatown gate.
The picks lean toward independent, locally run restaurants with a regional focus: Cantonese seafood, Taiwanese rice plates, Xi’an noodles, Hunan stir-fries and Mongolian hot pot. Prices run from under $10 for a bowl of hand-pulled noodles to $80 for a set dinner for two.
How we chose
The list is alphabetical, not ranked. Each restaurant is inside Boston city limits, was confirmed open from the restaurant’s own website or recent press, and has a record in local coverage such as Time Out, The Boston Globe, Boston.com, Boston magazine and The Infatuation. Independent restaurants were favored over chains, and the ten were chosen to cover several regional styles and more than one neighborhood. No single site’s star rating decided a place.
Hours and prices below come from each business and change without notice. Call ahead if you are making a special trip.
Gene’s Chinese Flatbread Cafe
Gene’s is a counter-service noodle shop on Bedford Street, on the line between Downtown Crossing and Chinatown, that cooks the food of Xi’an. The order most people place is a bowl of wide hand-pulled noodles dressed with garlic and chili; the shop’s ordering page lists hand-pulled noodles at $6.87, hot and sour noodle soup at $8.97 and lamb noodle soup at $12.15. Pork and beef flatbread sandwiches fill out the menu. Time Out described the room in 2018 as a 20-seat, cash-only space where most customers take food to go, so bring cash and plan to eat elsewhere at the lunch rush. A second Gene’s is in Woburn.
Hours: Monday through Saturday 11 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Closed Sunday.
Address: 86 Bedford St., Boston, MA 02111
Why they made the list
- Boston.com included Gene’s among 20 Chinatown-area restaurants to try in December 2021.
- The Infatuation named the shop in guides to downtown lunch and to very cheap meals in Boston.
- Spicy cumin lamb skewers are $17.55 on the shop’s ordering page, the highest price among the featured items.
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Great Taste Bakery & Restaurant
Two connected storefronts on Beach Street make up Great Taste: a Hong Kong-style bakery on one side and a sit-down restaurant on the other. Dim sum here is ordered from a menu and cooked to order instead of arriving on carts, and Frommer’s points to the shrimp and chive dumplings. The kitchen also sends out congee, rice noodles, hot pots, seafood and wok dishes, and the bakery case holds egg tarts, buns and layer cakes. Doors open at 7 a.m. every day, and the menu includes an early bird breakfast. The restaurant sets a $10 minimum on credit card charges, so carry a little cash for a bun and tea.
Hours: Sunday through Thursday 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Friday and Saturday 7 a.m. to 11 p.m.
Address: 61-63 Beach St., Boston, MA 02111
Why they made the list
- The Boston Globe’s May 2024 dim sum survey named Great Taste among the smaller Chinatown rooms for dim sum.
- Boston magazine picked the bakery’s Portuguese egg tart for a February 2019 roundup of Chinatown pastries.
- The restaurant’s website says the dining room is open on Thanksgiving and Christmas.
- A Boston University neighborhood guide updated in March 2025 called the dim sum the highlight of the menu.
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Hei La Moon
Cart dim sum is the reason to go to Hei La Moon, which moved from 88 Beach Street to a two-floor space on Essex Street. Servers push carts of shumai, har gow, pork buns, chive dumplings and sticky rice in lotus leaf past the tables, and diners point at what they want. Egg tarts and soybean pudding come around for dessert. A full menu of Chinese dishes is available alongside the carts. The Globe wrote in May 2024 that the restaurant was still a regular stop for many diners after the move, though the reviewers found the food a step below earlier years. Weekend mornings are the busiest time; the doors open an hour earlier on Saturday and Sunday.
Hours: Monday through Friday 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Address: 83 Essex St., Boston, MA 02111
Why they made the list
- Dim sum still arrives on rolling carts, according to the restaurant’s website.
- The Infatuation reviewed the Essex Street location in July 2024 and singled out the shrimp rice noodle rolls.
- Boston.com readers named the restaurant in a December 2021 survey of favorite dim sum spots.
Mei Mei Dumplings
Irene Li started Mei Mei with her two older siblings in 2012, and in 2020 she and partners Alyssa Lee and Annie Campbell turned the business into a dumpling factory with a cafe and classroom in South Boston, according to the company. The cafe sells the dumplings made on site in flavors such as lemongrass pork, ginger chicken, cheddar scallion potato and five spice tofu shiitake. Time Out’s order is the Double Awesome, a scallion pancake sandwich with two eggs, cheddar and pesto. Weekend brunch runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The factory also holds dumpling-making classes in person and online; book those ahead through the Mei Mei website.
Hours: Wednesday through Friday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Closed Monday and Tuesday.
Address: 58 Old Colony Ave., Boston, MA 02127
Why they made the list
- Irene Li won the James Beard Foundation’s Leadership Award in 2022.
- Mei Mei says more than 70 percent of the ingredients come from the Northeast.
- Time Out included Mei Mei in a guide to Chinese food in the Boston area dated February 2026.
- Bags of frozen dumplings are sold for cooking at home.
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My Happy Hunan Kitchen
Hunan cooking, with its fresh and pickled chilies, is the subject at this Cleveland Circle restaurant, which opened in April 2020 in the former Feng Shui space on Beacon Street in Brighton. The online menu lists stir-fried pork with long horn pepper at $22, Mao’s red-braised pork at $25.95 and fish fillet in sour broth at $28.95, along with steamed dishes, sizzling plates and a short dim sum section. Cold rice noodles in the Changsha style are $11.95 and work as a starter for the table. Diners who want something milder will find General Gao’s chicken at $18.95. Rice box specials are on the menu for a faster, cheaper meal.
Hours: Check current hours before you go.
Address: 1926 Beacon St., Brighton, MA 02135
Why they made the list
- My Happy Hunan Kitchen puts a regional Hunan menu at Cleveland Circle in Brighton, well outside Chinatown.
- The menu runs to about 20 sections, including a hot braised combo, noodle soups and frozen items to cook at home.
- Chef Hua’s Rice Pot, a pork and rice soup, is $24.95 on the online menu.
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Myers + Chang
Joanne Chang is chef and co-owner of this South End dining room on Washington Street, where the menu draws on Chinese, Taiwanese, Korean and other Asian cooking. Mama Chang’s pork and chive dumplings and the braised pork belly buns are $15 each, tea-smoked pork spare ribs are $20 and spicy wild boar dan dan noodles are $28. Dim sum brunch is served Wednesday through Sunday from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Date night, Monday through Thursday from 4 p.m., brings three set menus for two at $70 or $80, with no substitutions. Reservations are taken through Resy, and parties of six or more pay a 20 percent service charge.
Hours: Monday through Wednesday 4 p.m. to 9 p.m.; Thursday through Saturday 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Sunday 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Address: 1145 Washington St., Boston, MA 02118
Why they made the list
- Time Out placed Myers + Chang in a February 2026 guide to Chinese food in the Boston area.
- Separate nut-free, shellfish-free, gluten-free and vegetarian menus are available, according to Time Out.
- Benjamin Hoxsie is the executive chef, according to the restaurant’s website.
Peach Farm
Lobsters wait in tanks near the door at Peach Farm, a Cantonese seafood restaurant on Tyler Street in Chinatown. Lobster with ginger and scallions is the dish most guides name first; The Infatuation also recommends the spicy dry-fried salted squid, head-on salt-and-pepper shrimp and a Peking duck that does not have to be ordered in advance. Boston.com points to clams in black bean sauce and a sizzling flounder. Dishes are meant to be shared, so the restaurant suits groups of four or more. Peach Farm has long kept late hours, though published closing times range from midnight to 12:30 a.m., so phone before planning an after-theater dinner.
Hours: Check current hours before you go.
Address: 4 Tyler St., Boston, MA 02111
Why they made the list
- The Infatuation’s review, updated in July 2025, called Peach Farm a reliable choice in Chinatown.
- Time Out listed the restaurant in a February 2026 guide and noted seasonal seafood such as spot prawns and razor clams.
- Meet Boston, the city’s tourism bureau, lists Peach Farm among Chinatown’s Cantonese restaurants.
Q Restaurant
Hot pot is the main event at Q Restaurant, a large dining room on Washington Street at the edge of Chinatown. Each table picks a broth and cooks sliced meat, seafood, vegetables and noodles in it; Boston.com counted more than a dozen broths in 2021 and named wagyu short rib, lobster tail and Chinese fried dough among the add-ons. The kitchen also has a Chinese menu and a sushi bar for anyone who does not want to cook at the table. The business began in 2006 in Quincy as Little Q Hot Pot, by the restaurant’s own account. Hot pot works best with a group, and the room stays open until midnight on Friday and Saturday.
Hours: Monday through Wednesday 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Thursday and Sunday 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m.; Friday and Saturday 11:30 a.m. to midnight.
Address: 660 Washington St., Boston, MA 02111
Why they made the list
- Boston.com recommended Q Restaurant for larger groups in a December 2021 Chinatown guide.
- The restaurant describes the house specialty as Mongolian hot pot, a northern Chinese style.
- The Infatuation includes Q Restaurant in a Chinatown neighborhood guide.
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Taiwan Cafe
Up a flight of stairs on Oxford Street, Taiwan Cafe cooks from a long Taiwanese menu that Time Out puts at more than 100 items. Rice platters anchor the online ordering page: stewed minced pork over rice, a house special fried pork chop, crispy chicken quarter leg and thick-cut braised pork. Fried stinky tofu, oyster omelets, scallion pancakes and pan-fried pork buns are the dishes guides mention most. The Infatuation singled out the fried pork chop and the salt and pepper shrimp. The dining room is small and fills at dinner; the kitchen runs until midnight most nights and 1 a.m. on Friday and Saturday, which makes a late meal the easier seat.
Hours: Sunday through Thursday 11 a.m. to midnight; Friday and Saturday 11 a.m. to 1 a.m.
Address: 34 Oxford St., Boston, MA 02111
Why they made the list
- Time Out included Taiwan Cafe in a February 2026 guide to Chinese food in the Boston area.
- Boston magazine recommended the gua bao and braised eggplant with basil in a Chinatown dining guide first published in 2013.
- Beer-braised duck was among the family-style dishes Boston.com named in December 2021.
Yunnan Kitchen
Chef Yisha Siu opened Yunnan Kitchen on Washington Street in the South End in 2022 to cook Dian cuisine, the food of China’s Yunnan province. Boston magazine describes heat from fresh chilies and Sichuan peppercorns, plenty of raw garlic and aromatics such as tsaoko, and recommends the boiled pork in chili oil and the Yongping braised chicken. Time Out adds Grandma’s Potatoes, a wood ear mushroom salad, mint beef and a lemongrass tilapia sized for two. The restaurant is a sibling of South of the Clouds in Brighton, according to Time Out. Food and drink menus are posted as PDFs on the restaurant’s website; read them first if anyone at the table avoids spice.
Hours: Sunday through Thursday 11:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.; Friday and Saturday 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Address: 1721B Washington St., Boston, MA 02118
Why they made the list
- Boston magazine gave Yunnan Kitchen its Best of Boston award for Chinese food in 2023, and the restaurant lists the same award for 2026.
- Yisha Siu was a James Beard Foundation nominee for Best Chef: Northeast in 2023.
- Boston magazine counted Yunnan Kitchen among 15 new full-service restaurants the editors liked in 2022, according to the restaurant.
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