The Best Cantonese Food in New York

Calvin Eng's Cantonese restaurant and bar sits on a nondescript east Williamsburg corner, close enough to the BQE that you'll feel the trucks. Inside, it reads like a retro Hong Kong diner, but the kitchen runs modern interpretations of regional Cantonese food, and the MSG Martini earned a spot on Esquire's national list. The Michelin Guide gives it a Bib Gourmand, and the James Beard Foundation named Eng an Emerging Chef nominee.

1. Esquire MSG Martini · The Best Martinis in America
2. James Beard Awards 2022 · Nominee · Emerging Chef · Calvin Eng
3. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

Wonton soup, congee, and lacquered duck are the foundation, but the menu at this Cantonese restaurant keeps going through whole fish, stir-fries, and enough elaborate dishes to keep a large table busy for hours. The BYOB policy makes group birthdays feel practically festive on a budget. It sits at a corner where the Lower East Side runs into Chinatown, and the room fills accordingly with the full diversity of both neighborhoods.

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Hong Kong cinema posters line the walls and a glowing marquee floats above the chef's counter at this high-energy Cantonese American restaurant on Chrystie. The cooking is generous and unfussy, built on good ingredients without making a big speech about it. The XO fried rice and salt and pepper fried chicken pull regulars back repeatedly. A Michelin Bib Gourmand, and priced like they mean it.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
2. The New York Times 2023 · 1 star · Restaurant Review

On weekends, an announcer calls reservation numbers over a booming speaker like high-stakes bingo, and the crowd outside barely fits through the door. Inside, this cavernous Brooklyn dim sum palace runs on steaming carts and trays shuttled through a gold-accented dining room. Eyes do most of the ordering. Weekdays are considerably calmer, which some people quietly prefer.

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Dim sum made to order rather than wheeled around on carts sets this Chinatown shop apart from its neighbors. The photo menu keeps things moving, which helps on weekends when the room is full and tables are shared with strangers as a matter of course. Rice rolls, pan-fried pork dumplings, and soup dumplings all come out fresh. It holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand, and the portions are generous enough that the slightly higher prices barely register.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

Dale Talde's Hong Kong-style restaurant sits inside a carriage house on a sprawling Hudson Valley estate, where the dining rooms look like someone inherited very good furniture and actually kept it. The menu runs kung pao wings alongside bao stuffed with crispy shrimp and daikon, the kind of cooking that's both nostalgic and quietly restless. Dressy-casual crowd, unhurried pace, and a setting that makes Tarrytown feel like a reasonable destination.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
2. James Beard Awards 2022 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: New York State · Dale Talde

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1. The New York Times 2022 · Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review
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The rice noodles here are stubby and chewy rather than the thin, rippling sheets you'd find elsewhere in Chinatown, and that texture is the whole point. Chang Lai is a tiny Cantonese noodle shop on Bayard where the regulars from the old street cart days have simply followed the owners indoors. Curry fish balls and noodles with all the sauces will run you around five dollars, which leaves you no excuse not to go twice.

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1. The New York Times 2012 · 1 star, Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review
2. Eater The Best Places to Eat in Chinatown

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Rice ground daily on-site in electric stone mills is the tell at this no-frills Flushing counter, a Cantonese cheong fun spot tucked into a minimall off Roosevelt Avenue. The noodle sheets come out nearly translucent, rolled around pork, shrimp, or egg to order. The New York Times gave it a Critic's Pick, which tracks: there are very few places in the city where the rice noodle itself is this clearly the point.

1. The New York Times 2019 · Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review

1. The New York Times 2017 · 1 star · Restaurant Review

1. The New York Times 2013 · 2 stars, Critic's Pick · Restaurant Review