Where to Eat Chinese Food in Boston

Boston’s Chinatown is one of the best places to eat in the country, but it’s not the only neighborhood with good Chinese food in the city. Eaters can find great hand-pulled noodles, for example — both Xi’an-style biang biang noodles and the kind typical of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China — in Allston, Brighton, a mall food court in Downtown Crossing, and a hospital food court in Longwood. There’s excellent Chinese-American food near Fenway; there’s Chinese-inspired fusion in the tragically hip South End. Chinatown is of course still the hub — but the spokes aren’t half bad, either.

This map includes food from a variety of regions in China, with an emphasis on Sichuan and Cantonese. It also includes several restaurants that specialize in Taiwanese cuisine but also offer foods from various regions in China. (Taiwan is an island state located to China’s east. Taiwan and China have a long and fraught relationship, due in large part to China’s history of colonialist rule over Taiwan and its unwillingness to recognize Taiwan as a free and sovereign nation. The U.N. also does not recognize Taiwan’s sovereignty. This puts Taiwan in a precarious position politically and societally.)

Here are 22 of the best restaurants in Boston that serve Chinese food. (Note: This map includes restaurants only within Boston proper; Boston-area cities like Quincy, Cambridge, and beyond have their own excellent Chinese options, which will be highlighted in a future map.)

Please note that a number of Boston restaurants have resumed dine-in service, and the level of service offered is indicated on each map point. However, this should not be taken as endorsement for dining in, as there are still safety concerns: For updated information on coronavirus cases in the area, please visit the Massachusetts coronavirus website.

Studies indicate that there is a lower exposure risk when outdoors, but the level of risk involved with patio dining is contingent on restaurants following strict social distancing and other safety guidelines.