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A plate of wide wheat noodles topped with ground chilis, oil, and box choy.
The biang biang noodles at Xi’an Noodles.
Jay Friedman

20 Phenomenal Chinese and Taiwanese Restaurants in the Seattle Area

With chewy biang biang noodles, chile pig ears, xiao long bao, and more

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The biang biang noodles at Xi’an Noodles.
| Jay Friedman

Seattle’s Chinese and Taiwanese food scenes have offered diverse culinary experiences for decades, with options that span dumplings, noodles, barbecue, hot pot, and more. Historically, restaurants have been concentrated in the Chinatown-International District, but in recent years, Chinese and Taiwanese restaurants have opened all over the Seattle area, with dozens of new spots reflecting various regional cuisines on the Eastside and beyond.

Note: There’s also a burgeoning hot-pot scene in Seattle, which has a separate map, and dozens of excellent boba tea spots to calm your taste buds after all of the spicy food.

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Little Ting’s Dumplings

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The boiled dumplings at Little Ting’s Dumplings, both in Seattle and Bellevue, are juicy and delicious. Also available as pan-fried pot stickers, they come in many varieties, from pork and fennel to chive and scallop to sea cucumber and pork. There are even occasional specials, like sea urchin dumplings. Ordering them pan-fried adds an extra layer of crispy goodness.

Xi’an Noodles

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Xi’an Noodles has been slinging some of the city’s best Chinese food since it opened on the Ave in the University District in 2016, with success bringing more recent expansions to downtown’s Westlake Center and Bellevue. Bowls of hand-pulled, wide biang-biang noodles are made from scratch every day. They’re delightfully springy, and the simplicity of hot chile oil showcases their texture best, though meat toppings like spicy cumin lamb are also available.

A plate of wide wheat noodles topped with ground chilis, oil, and box choy.
The biang-biang noodles in hot chili oil at Xi’an Noodles.
Jay Friedman

Little Duck

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This pint-sized restaurant (with just a few tables inside) next to a laundromat in the University District serves some of the best Chinese food in the city. The focus here is on Northeastern Chinese dishes, like the braised pork ribs potatoes and green beans, but the menu also includes dishes from other parts of China, and the fried rice dishes here are consistently satisfying. Little Duck also serves particularly refreshing jellyfish salad with cucumber matchsticks.

19 Gold

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A modest little restaurant in Fremont, 19 Gold is a popular destination for Taiwanese food and bubble tea. The braised combination platters are a good place to start, featuring duck wings and pork intestines, while the main draw is the malatang bowls. They feature 19 different spices, hence the name of the restaurant, and you can order them with meat, seafood, vegetables, dumplings, and even udon noodles. The minced pork over rice or noodles is seemingly simple but spectacular. Unsurprisingly, 19 GOLD is also a perfect place to sample the national dish of Taiwan: bone marrow-rich beef noodle soup with a slightly spicy kick.

A bowl of vermicelli noodles, sliced beef, and other meats and vegetables in chili-red broth in a black bowl.
The house special malatang at 19 gold.
Jay Friedman

151 Days

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Yongshen Guo raises his own Bresse breed chickens for at least 150 days (longer than average, for more flavor) at his farm in Arlington to serve at his restaurant, which he opened in 2021 under a new apartment complex in Redmond. Guo grew up in Inner Mongolia, and that region’s influence shows up in dishes not normally found at other Chinese restaurants. Try the chicken noodle soup to experience the flavor of properly matured chicken firsthand.

Noodles, hard boiled egg and shredded chicken float in broth in a bowl.
151 Days chicken noodle soup is made with chickens raised on a farm for 150 days by owner Yongshen Guo.
151 Days

Buerjia Chinese Sauerkraut Fish

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The Seattle area has a growing number of hot pot restaurants with endless choices of broths and add-ins. Buerjia is an exception, focusing mainly on the dish in its full name, Chinese sauerkraut fish (suan cai yu). Pickled mustard greens constitute the “sauerkraut” portion, with big bowls of hot-and-sour broth containing chunks of fish topped with chile peppers and Sichuan peppercorns. Diners decide the size of their fish orders as well as what else to put in the broth.

Buerjia Chinese Sauerkraut Fish’s namesake dish.
Jay Friedman

Dan Gui Sichuan Cuisine

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This restaurant in a strip mall in Bellevue’s Bel-Red neighborhood serves some of the best Sichuan food in the Seattle area, at much lower prices than most of its competitors. Dan Gui’s mapo tofu (made with fermented black beans and chile fava bean paste) has unparalleled depth. The cold dishes, like cucumber salad and wood-ear salad, are refreshing. And the restaurant also serves excellent renditions of American Chinese dishes like sweet and sour chicken — something that not all Sichuan restaurants in the area offer.

Frying Fish

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Sichuan is the Chinese regional cuisine represented best in Seattle, and Frying Fish is one of the best of the bunch. The Bellevue restaurant has a reputation for consistency, so it’s constantly packed with people eating chile-laden dishes like the chef’s specialty “FeiTang” platters with crab, carp head, frog, and even fish fresh from the on-site tanks. Assorted cold appetizers like the pig ear with chile oil along with spicy and sour dumplings are a great way to start the meal.

A dish at Frying Fish in Bellevue.
Frying Fish specializes in Sichuan cuisine.
Jay Friedman

Monga Cafe

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This small Taiwanese restaurant in the same strip mall as Asian Family Market in Bellevue is one of the best around the Seattle area, and the dishes are remarkably affordable. Lunch plates of lu rou fan (braised Taiwanese pork belly over rice) come with sides of perfectly executed chile pork ear, braised pork trotters, and all kinds of Taiwanese pickles. Monga Cafe also serves solid Taiwanese beef noodles and an excellent selection of boba tea drinks.

Ten Seconds Yunnan Rice Noodle

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Ten Seconds Yunnan Rice Noodle is a chain with hundreds of locations in China and a few in the U.S., including in a strip mall in Bellevue’s Crossroads neighborhood. The restaurant finishes its signature dish, Crossing the Bridge Noodles, in 10 seconds. Thin-sliced meat, a braised chicken wing, veggies, and condiments come separately to be combined at the table, and the result is one of the best rice noodle soups in the Seattle area.

Din Tai Fung

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Washington is one of only four states in North America where you’ll find the xiao long bao soup dumpling palace known as Din Tai Fung, which now has several Seattle-area locations including University Village and Pacific Place downtown. This Taiwanese import is a great place to explore a diverse menu of dumpling, noodle, and rice dishes. It’s almost hypnotizing to watch through the window as workers make the chain’s famous soup dumplings, which are as delicate and delicious as everyone says, and the shrimp and pork shao mai are arguably even better.

Dim Sum King

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Chinatown-International District’s location of the Dim Sum King chain offers an affordable price for fast dim sum by the piece, from various baked buns and crispy treats like egg rolls and pot stickers to steamed shrimp or pork dumplings and chicken feet. Boxes of chow mein are also a bargain. On the sweet side, in addition to flaky egg tarts, check out the massive portions of sponge cake. Best of all, Dim Sum King opens at 7 a.m. and has a handy online ordering system.

Mike's Noodle House

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Mike’s Noodle House may be the ultimate in Chinese comfort food. For a quick and inexpensive meal, it’s hard to beat this Chinatown-International District shop’s bowls of wontons, dumplings, and toothpick-thin noodles. The place gets especially crowded on weekends when diners start their day choosing from a wide variety of congee bowls (choices include preserved egg, rock cod, and pork liver) paired with a youtiao (savory Chinese cruller).

Wonton and sui-kau soup at Mike’s Noodle House.
Wonton and sui-kau soup at Mike’s Noodle House.
Jay Friedman

Jade Garden Restaurant

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Har gow (shrimp dumplings), shumai, beef tripe, chicken feet, rice noodle rolls: These are the classic dim sum items, and you’ll find them done right at Chinatown-International District’s Jade Garden. You won’t be the only one. Wait times on weekend mornings can be long (dim sum is a popular breakfast food), so show up before the restaurant opens to ensure you get a seat.

A+ Hong Kong Kitchen

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Bustling A+ Hong Kong Kitchen in the Chinatown-International District has an expansive menu featuring the subdued flavors of Cantonese cuisine. Stone pots topped with a variety of meats (spare ribs with Chinese sausage is especially popular) cover many tables in the restaurant, filled with rice that’s fluffy in the middle and crispy along the edges of the pot. Stir-fried rice rolls with XO sauce are kissed by the wok for the perfect pan-sear. For a unique taste of Hong Kong, try the baked pork chop with spaghetti and add a pineapple bun stuffed with a generous pat of chilled butter.

A plate of X.O. rice rolls at A+ Hong Kong Kitchen.
The XO rice rolls at A+ Hong Kong Kitchen.
Jay Friedman

Sizzling Pot King

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Sizzling Pot King, a Hunan-inspired restaurant in the Chinatown-International District, uses pickled chiles in contrast to the dry chiles synonymous with the numerous Sichuan restaurants in the area. Mortar and pestle-pounded eggplant with bell pepper and century egg is a must-order, as are the dry pots — customizable with a wide variety of meats, vegetables, sauce flavors, and spice levels — that indeed sizzle upon arrival to your table. Smoky plum juice pairs nicely with the sour, salty, and spicy elements in the food.

Pieces of fried eggplant, bell pepper, and century egg in a wooden mortar and pestle.
The eggplant with bell pepper and century egg at Sizzling Pot King.
Jay Friedman

Chengdu Taste 滋味成都

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The celebrated Sichuan chain from Southern California opened its first Seattle location in the Chinatown-International District in 2020, serving popular specialties such as toothpick lamb with cumin, mung bean jelly noodles drenched in chile sauce, and a cold spring onion chicken in pepper sauce. Diners will delight in the ma la (numbing and spicy) aftermath of the Sichuan peppercorn and chile-laden dishes; boiled beef in hot sauce offers a double whammy of chiles and chile paste, and mapo tofu aficionados should definitely give Chengdu Taste’s version a try.

A closeup view of Chengdu Taste’s mung bean jelly noodles with chili sauce.
Mung bean jelly noodles with chili sauce.
Amaelinda B Lee

Tai Tung Restaurant

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One of the Chinatown-International District’s best-known and oldest restaurants, Tai Tung has been open since 1935 and is as solid as ever. Many Seattle legends have dined at Tai Tung — you can sit in the Bruce Lee Memorial Booth where his cut-out will watch while you eat his beloved beef with oyster sauce — and even international celebrities, like the late Anthony Bourdain, have visited the place. The extensive menu is full of classics from chop suey to egg foo young to chow mein, especially fun to eat family-style.

Ton Kiang Barbeque Noodle House

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It’s easy to overlook this sliver of a storefront in the Chinatown-International District, but the sight of hanging meats draws people in, and the flavors ensure return visits. The roasted duck has crackly skin, while poached free-range chicken comes with a bright ginger-scallion sauce. With an advance order, the restaurant will even set up a whole pig to go for your special occasion.

Roasted duck at Ton Kiang Barbeque Noodle House.
Roasted duck is one of Ton Kiang’s specialties.
Jay Friedman

Mama’s Dough

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Mama’s Dough is perfect for soup dumpling lovers who want to try spots beyond large chains like Din Tai Fung. Mama’s frozen varieties can be ordered in bulk, but even the made-to-order ones hold up well for dining at home. You’ll find the restaurant in Kent’s Great Wall Shopping Mall, a serious hub for Chinese food that includes about a half dozen restaurants and a location of Chinese supermarket 99 Ranch Market.

Little Ting’s Dumplings

The boiled dumplings at Little Ting’s Dumplings, both in Seattle and Bellevue, are juicy and delicious. Also available as pan-fried pot stickers, they come in many varieties, from pork and fennel to chive and scallop to sea cucumber and pork. There are even occasional specials, like sea urchin dumplings. Ordering them pan-fried adds an extra layer of crispy goodness.

Xi’an Noodles

Xi’an Noodles has been slinging some of the city’s best Chinese food since it opened on the Ave in the University District in 2016, with success bringing more recent expansions to downtown’s Westlake Center and Bellevue. Bowls of hand-pulled, wide biang-biang noodles are made from scratch every day. They’re delightfully springy, and the simplicity of hot chile oil showcases their texture best, though meat toppings like spicy cumin lamb are also available.

A plate of wide wheat noodles topped with ground chilis, oil, and box choy.
The biang-biang noodles in hot chili oil at Xi’an Noodles.
Jay Friedman

Little Duck

This pint-sized restaurant (with just a few tables inside) next to a laundromat in the University District serves some of the best Chinese food in the city. The focus here is on Northeastern Chinese dishes, like the braised pork ribs potatoes and green beans, but the menu also includes dishes from other parts of China, and the fried rice dishes here are consistently satisfying. Little Duck also serves particularly refreshing jellyfish salad with cucumber matchsticks.

19 Gold

A modest little restaurant in Fremont, 19 Gold is a popular destination for Taiwanese food and bubble tea. The braised combination platters are a good place to start, featuring duck wings and pork intestines, while the main draw is the malatang bowls. They feature 19 different spices, hence the name of the restaurant, and you can order them with meat, seafood, vegetables, dumplings, and even udon noodles. The minced pork over rice or noodles is seemingly simple but spectacular. Unsurprisingly, 19 GOLD is also a perfect place to sample the national dish of Taiwan: bone marrow-rich beef noodle soup with a slightly spicy kick.

A bowl of vermicelli noodles, sliced beef, and other meats and vegetables in chili-red broth in a black bowl.
The house special malatang at 19 gold.
Jay Friedman

151 Days

Yongshen Guo raises his own Bresse breed chickens for at least 150 days (longer than average, for more flavor) at his farm in Arlington to serve at his restaurant, which he opened in 2021 under a new apartment complex in Redmond. Guo grew up in Inner Mongolia, and that region’s influence shows up in dishes not normally found at other Chinese restaurants. Try the chicken noodle soup to experience the flavor of properly matured chicken firsthand.

Noodles, hard boiled egg and shredded chicken float in broth in a bowl.
151 Days chicken noodle soup is made with chickens raised on a farm for 150 days by owner Yongshen Guo.
151 Days

Buerjia Chinese Sauerkraut Fish

The Seattle area has a growing number of hot pot restaurants with endless choices of broths and add-ins. Buerjia is an exception, focusing mainly on the dish in its full name, Chinese sauerkraut fish (suan cai yu). Pickled mustard greens constitute the “sauerkraut” portion, with big bowls of hot-and-sour broth containing chunks of fish topped with chile peppers and Sichuan peppercorns. Diners decide the size of their fish orders as well as what else to put in the broth.

Buerjia Chinese Sauerkraut Fish’s namesake dish.
Jay Friedman

Dan Gui Sichuan Cuisine

This restaurant in a strip mall in Bellevue’s Bel-Red neighborhood serves some of the best Sichuan food in the Seattle area, at much lower prices than most of its competitors. Dan Gui’s mapo tofu (made with fermented black beans and chile fava bean paste) has unparalleled depth. The cold dishes, like cucumber salad and wood-ear salad, are refreshing. And the restaurant also serves excellent renditions of American Chinese dishes like sweet and sour chicken — something that not all Sichuan restaurants in the area offer.

Frying Fish

Sichuan is the Chinese regional cuisine represented best in Seattle, and Frying Fish is one of the best of the bunch. The Bellevue restaurant has a reputation for consistency, so it’s constantly packed with people eating chile-laden dishes like the chef’s specialty “FeiTang” platters with crab, carp head, frog, and even fish fresh from the on-site tanks. Assorted cold appetizers like the pig ear with chile oil along with spicy and sour dumplings are a great way to start the meal.

A dish at Frying Fish in Bellevue.
Frying Fish specializes in Sichuan cuisine.
Jay Friedman

Monga Cafe

This small Taiwanese restaurant in the same strip mall as Asian Family Market in Bellevue is one of the best around the Seattle area, and the dishes are remarkably affordable. Lunch plates of lu rou fan (braised Taiwanese pork belly over rice) come with sides of perfectly executed chile pork ear, braised pork trotters, and all kinds of Taiwanese pickles. Monga Cafe also serves solid Taiwanese beef noodles and an excellent selection of boba tea drinks.

Ten Seconds Yunnan Rice Noodle

Ten Seconds Yunnan Rice Noodle is a chain with hundreds of locations in China and a few in the U.S., including in a strip mall in Bellevue’s Crossroads neighborhood. The restaurant finishes its signature dish, Crossing the Bridge Noodles, in 10 seconds. Thin-sliced meat, a braised chicken wing, veggies, and condiments come separately to be combined at the table, and the result is one of the best rice noodle soups in the Seattle area.

Din Tai Fung

Washington is one of only four states in North America where you’ll find the xiao long bao soup dumpling palace known as Din Tai Fung, which now has several Seattle-area locations including University Village and Pacific Place downtown. This Taiwanese import is a great place to explore a diverse menu of dumpling, noodle, and rice dishes. It’s almost hypnotizing to watch through the window as workers make the chain’s famous soup dumplings, which are as delicate and delicious as everyone says, and the shrimp and pork shao mai are arguably even better.

Dim Sum King

Chinatown-International District’s location of the Dim Sum King chain offers an affordable price for fast dim sum by the piece, from various baked buns and crispy treats like egg rolls and pot stickers to steamed shrimp or pork dumplings and chicken feet. Boxes of chow mein are also a bargain. On the sweet side, in addition to flaky egg tarts, check out the massive portions of sponge cake. Best of all, Dim Sum King opens at 7 a.m. and has a handy online ordering system.

Mike's Noodle House

Mike’s Noodle House may be the ultimate in Chinese comfort food. For a quick and inexpensive meal, it’s hard to beat this Chinatown-International District shop’s bowls of wontons, dumplings, and toothpick-thin noodles. The place gets especially crowded on weekends when diners start their day choosing from a wide variety of congee bowls (choices include preserved egg, rock cod, and pork liver) paired with a youtiao (savory Chinese cruller).

Wonton and sui-kau soup at Mike’s Noodle House.
Wonton and sui-kau soup at Mike’s Noodle House.
Jay Friedman

Jade Garden Restaurant

Har gow (shrimp dumplings), shumai, beef tripe, chicken feet, rice noodle rolls: These are the classic dim sum items, and you’ll find them done right at Chinatown-International District’s Jade Garden. You won’t be the only one. Wait times on weekend mornings can be long (dim sum is a popular breakfast food), so show up before the restaurant opens to ensure you get a seat.

A+ Hong Kong Kitchen

Bustling A+ Hong Kong Kitchen in the Chinatown-International District has an expansive menu featuring the subdued flavors of Cantonese cuisine. Stone pots topped with a variety of meats (spare ribs with Chinese sausage is especially popular) cover many tables in the restaurant, filled with rice that’s fluffy in the middle and crispy along the edges of the pot. Stir-fried rice rolls with XO sauce are kissed by the wok for the perfect pan-sear. For a unique taste of Hong Kong, try the baked pork chop with spaghetti and add a pineapple bun stuffed with a generous pat of chilled butter.

A plate of X.O. rice rolls at A+ Hong Kong Kitchen.
The XO rice rolls at A+ Hong Kong Kitchen.
Jay Friedman

Related Maps

Sizzling Pot King

Sizzling Pot King, a Hunan-inspired restaurant in the Chinatown-International District, uses pickled chiles in contrast to the dry chiles synonymous with the numerous Sichuan restaurants in the area. Mortar and pestle-pounded eggplant with bell pepper and century egg is a must-order, as are the dry pots — customizable with a wide variety of meats, vegetables, sauce flavors, and spice levels — that indeed sizzle upon arrival to your table. Smoky plum juice pairs nicely with the sour, salty, and spicy elements in the food.

Pieces of fried eggplant, bell pepper, and century egg in a wooden mortar and pestle.
The eggplant with bell pepper and century egg at Sizzling Pot King.
Jay Friedman

Chengdu Taste 滋味成都

The celebrated Sichuan chain from Southern California opened its first Seattle location in the Chinatown-International District in 2020, serving popular specialties such as toothpick lamb with cumin, mung bean jelly noodles drenched in chile sauce, and a cold spring onion chicken in pepper sauce. Diners will delight in the ma la (numbing and spicy) aftermath of the Sichuan peppercorn and chile-laden dishes; boiled beef in hot sauce offers a double whammy of chiles and chile paste, and mapo tofu aficionados should definitely give Chengdu Taste’s version a try.

A closeup view of Chengdu Taste’s mung bean jelly noodles with chili sauce.
Mung bean jelly noodles with chili sauce.
Amaelinda B Lee

Tai Tung Restaurant

One of the Chinatown-International District’s best-known and oldest restaurants, Tai Tung has been open since 1935 and is as solid as ever. Many Seattle legends have dined at Tai Tung — you can sit in the Bruce Lee Memorial Booth where his cut-out will watch while you eat his beloved beef with oyster sauce — and even international celebrities, like the late Anthony Bourdain, have visited the place. The extensive menu is full of classics from chop suey to egg foo young to chow mein, especially fun to eat family-style.

Ton Kiang Barbeque Noodle House

It’s easy to overlook this sliver of a storefront in the Chinatown-International District, but the sight of hanging meats draws people in, and the flavors ensure return visits. The roasted duck has crackly skin, while poached free-range chicken comes with a bright ginger-scallion sauce. With an advance order, the restaurant will even set up a whole pig to go for your special occasion.

Roasted duck at Ton Kiang Barbeque Noodle House.
Roasted duck is one of Ton Kiang’s specialties.
Jay Friedman

Mama’s Dough

Mama’s Dough is perfect for soup dumpling lovers who want to try spots beyond large chains like Din Tai Fung. Mama’s frozen varieties can be ordered in bulk, but even the made-to-order ones hold up well for dining at home. You’ll find the restaurant in Kent’s Great Wall Shopping Mall, a serious hub for Chinese food that includes about a half dozen restaurants and a location of Chinese supermarket 99 Ranch Market.

Related Maps