What to See, Eat and Drink in New York City’s Chinatown
The Lunar New Year arrives on Feb. 17, and nowhere in New York celebrates with more firecracker-fueled fervor than Manhattan’s Chinatown, where lion dancers weave through the same narrow streets that have welcomed Chinese immigrants for over 150 years. It’s the perfect moment to explore a neighborhood that treats tradition as a living thing.
Tucked into Lower Manhattan and interlocking with Little Italy and the Lower East Side, Chinatown has been a sanctuary since the 1870s, when a small Cantonese community took root around Mott, Pell and Doyers streets. What began as a few blocks of herbal shops, theaters and tenements has grown into one of the largest and most vibrant Chinese communities in the Western Hemisphere.
Today, that vitality pulses through every corner. The heart beats along Mott, Pell, Bayard and Doyers, where the aroma of roast duck and incense drifts through the air and neon characters glow against century-old brick facades. Life here is lived on the sidewalks: elders practicing tai chi in Columbus Park at dawn, shoppers haggling over tropical fruits on Canal, diners spilling out of dim sum parlors into the street. Century-old family businesses sit next to buzzy cafes and bars opened by a younger generation eager to reinterpret their heritage—proof that Chinatown keeps reinventing itself without losing its soul.
The neighborhood has weathered plenty, yet its resilience only deepens its character. Chinatown remains a place where tradition is tangible—in the red lanterns, the temples, the time-honored recipes—and where change is always in the air. The best way to discover it is to wander with an open mind and an empty stomach, letting the neighborhood reveal its many layers.
A Guide to New York’s Chinatown, Past and Present
What to Eat
Nom Wah Tea Parlor
- 13 Doyers St, New York, NY 10013
The red vinyl booths at Nom Wah have absorbed 104 years of Chinatown gossip, first dates and funeral planning. On Doyers Street’s infamous “Bloody Angle,” the city’s oldest dim sum parlor operates on muscle memory: the same shrimp siu mai recipe, the same dented tea kettles, the same ceiling fans that once pushed opium smoke and now push Instagram vapors. Watch the room at 2 p.m. Saturday—third-generation regulars teaching NYU grandkids how to pour tea properly, kitchen staff who’ve worked here since Carter was president and still call customers by their parents’ names.
Cheong Fun Cart
- Corner of Hester St. and Elizabeth St., New York, NY 10013
Every morning, a plain silver cart parks outside Hong Kong Supermarket with no English signage and a line that moves faster than it looks. Two women work a steamer the size of a filing cabinet, rolling out cheung fun—silky rice noodle sheets wrapped around dried shrimp, roast pork or egg—and dousing them in soy sauce and chili oil before you’ve finished saying “large.” Orders start at $2; the most expensive thing costs $6. Eat standing on the sidewalk or walk two blocks to Sara D. Roosevelt Park with your takeout container.
Wo Hop
- 17 Mott St, New York, NY 10013
Down those greasy steps into fluorescent purgatory, Wo Hop’s basement hasn’t changed light bulbs or recipes since 1938. This is Chinese American food at its most comforting: egg foo young thick as mattresses, chow fun slicked with wok hei, wontons the size of a child’s fist. At 3 a.m., watch the beautiful dining democracy unfold—Chinatown uncles seated next to post-shoot models, everyone eating like no one’s watching. The upstairs is for tourists who fear sketchy basements; downstairs is for people who understand that authenticity sounds like Cantonese arguments about the Knicks.
Mei Lai Wah Bakery
- 41 Mott St, New York, NY 10013
Wait in the pork bun line at Mei Lai Wah long enough, and you’ll hear half the neighborhood’s news. Since the 1960s, this Hong Kong-style bakery has glazed its char siu bao with the same honey lacquer that makes them photograph like jewelry and taste like childhood. Watch the morning rush: contractors grabbing boxes of 20, grandmothers counting exact change from silk purses, and food bloggers trying to look casual while filming what everyone already knows is perfect.
Potluck Club
- 133 Chrystie St, New York, NY 10002
Potluck Club does what second-generation kids do best—love their parents’ culture while pushing it somewhere new. Opened in 2022 by a group of Chinatown childhood friends, the restaurant riffs on Cantonese American classics with precision: Berkshire pork and chive potstickers, tiger shrimp slicked with mayonnaise, oyster mushroom rice roll noodles. The signature is the salt-and-pepper chicken, a platter of perfectly fried pieces served with Southern-style scallion biscuits and a chili-plum jam that should be bottled and sold commercially. Stephen Chow movie posters and Old Master Q comics line the walls, the playlist runs Cantopop to Kendrick, and the Michelin Bib Gourmand arrived within a year.
Where to Drink
Apotheke
- 9 Doyers St, New York, NY 10013
A Chinatown classic in the truest sense, Apotheke has set the bar for speakeasy cool since 2008. Hidden behind an unmarked façade on Doyers Street—once the site of an actual opium den—this cocktail lair feels like a chemist’s secret lab, complete with bartenders in white coats and shelves lined with antique medicine bottles. Order the signature Dragonfly or an absinthe creation and let the dim lighting and marble bar work their spell.
Lei Wine Bar
- 15-17 Doyers St, New York, NY 10013
Founded by Chinese-American sommelier-restaurateur Annie Shi, this intimate wine bar opened to acclaim for championing natural and low-intervention bottles thoughtfully paired with Chinese-inspired small plates. The vibe is cozy and stylish—a warm counterpoint to the neighborhood’s frenetic streets—and dishes like cumin lamb “cat ears” noodles feel both playful and serious.
Mr. Fong’s
- 40 Market St, New York, NY 10002
Just under the Manhattan Bridge at the edge of Chinatown and Two Bridges, Mr. Fong’s is the neighborhood’s unofficial living room. Since 2015, it’s been a magnet for the downtown creative crowd: chefs, artists, night owls and anyone who likes a good jukebox soundtrack. The interior is delightfully lived-in—potted plants, a graffiti-marked bathroom, a laid-back dive vibe—but the drinks punch above their weight. The Salty Plum Old Fashioned is a fan favorite, and weekend DJs spin everything from hip-hop to R&B.
What to See and Do
Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA)
- 215 Centre St, New York, NY 10013
Start with some historical context at this institution, located just outside the traditional boundary of Chinatown. MOCA frames the neighborhood as an engine of American life: work, migration, exclusion, reinvention, the daily logistics of making a home in a city that rarely makes it easy. The galleries lean intimate and human, with photographs, ephemera and oral histories that land harder than any textbook summary. The context matters now, especially after the 2020 fire at MOCA’s former Mulberry Street collections site—a loss that underlined how fragile community memory can be.
Mahayana Buddhist Temple
- 133 Canal St, New York, NY 10002
Canal Street remains a thoroughfare defined by chaos, but this temple is its pause button. Walk in, let your eyes adjust, and you’re met by a monumental golden Buddha presiding over a hush of incense and low murmurs. Visitors drift through quietly, locals stop to light joss sticks, and the whole room carries that rare Manhattan feeling of being sheltered from the day’s noise without leaving the grid. Keep your voice down, move slowly and treat it like an active place of worship—because it is.
Columbus Park
- Mulberry St and Baxter St, New York, NY 10013
Pick up a Henan lamb pancake from Spicy Village or barbecue pork from Wah Fung No. 1 and claim a bench at Columbus Park, Chinatown’s living room, where the show is free. Mornings bring tai chi lines and measured fan forms. Midday turns competitive, with tight circles around Chinese chess boards, mahjong tables and improvised karaoke that sounds like it’s been going on for decades—because it has. Watch the neighborhood clock itself: elders, kids, delivery guys and tourists, with everyone passing through the same few paths.
Doyers Street
A short curve with a long memory, Doyers is Chinatown in miniature: history compressed into a single bend. In the early 1900s, it picked up the nickname “the Bloody Angle,” then outlived its own myth. Today, it plays as a little lane of low-rise façades, neon and tight doorways, where legacy anchors like Nom Wah sit near cocktail bars that treat the street like a set. Go early, before the lines and late-night crowds, when the curve feels like a movie set.
Chinatown Fair Arcade
- 8 Mott St, New York, NY 10038
A bit of quirky fun, this humble arcade is a piece of NYC lore. Chinatown Fair opened in the 1940s and became famous for its tic-tac-toe-playing chicken back in the day. After a brief closure and makeover, it’s still around as a family-friendly arcade. There’s no longer a live chicken, but you can play modern and retro video games, dance games and more. It’s a nostalgic stop for those who remember its cameo in indie films and for anyone who enjoys arcade vibes—plus, it’s one of the last classic video arcades left in Manhattan.
Where to Shop
Wing on Wo & Co.
- 26 Mott St, New York, NY 10013
This is Chinatown’s oldest continually operating store, founded in the 1890s and still run by the same family today. Wing On Wo (often abbreviated to W.O.W.) started as a general goods shop for immigrants, and later specialized in Chinese porcelain and ceramics. Stepping inside, you’ll find shelves filled with porcelain teapots, bowls, vases and jade accessories. The current owner, Mei Lum, runs community art initiatives out of the store to keep Chinatown’s culture thriving. Whether you’re looking for a hand-painted tea set or a meaningful souvenir, Wing On Wo is a living piece of history and a great place to support a legacy business.
Kamwo Herbal Pharmacy
- 211 Grand St, New York, NY 10013
Kamwo has been dispensing traditional Chinese herbs in the neighborhood since 1973, with walls of labeled jars and a counter culture that runs on specificity, not vibes. You can walk in for packaged teas and wellness staples like ginseng and dried botanicals, or talk with staff about custom blends and typical uses, just as the locals did in the 19th century. It’s part apothecary, part neighborhood institution, and a reminder that Chinatown’s idea of self-care predates the word by about a century.
Kam Man Supermarket
- 200 Canal St, New York, NY 10013
Founded in 1972, this fluorescent-bright, two-floor emporium remains relentlessly useful. Upstairs stocks everything a home cook needs, from soy sauces and dried noodles to hot pot packets, snacks and teas. The real draw is the roast meat counter, where lacquered ducks and char siu pork get pulled from heat lamps with deli-counter speed. Downstairs shifts to equipment and home goods—woks, cleavers, rice cookers, porcelain soup spoons and all the practical tools that make preparing those grocery finds easy.