Manhattan’s Chinatown is still one of the last places in New York City where ten dollars buys an actual meal, not a garnish.
This cheap eats Chinatown crawl skips the tourist-trap steam tables on Mott Street’s main drag and sticks to the counters where locals actually eat: cash-only roast meat spots, a dim sum parlor that’s been open since 1920, and the Fujianese noodle counter that’s been all over TikTok this year.
Here are the 7 spots serving the best cheap eats Chinatown has right now, whether you’ve got five dollars or fifteen.
Wah Fung No. 1 – 🏆 Bowery Beat Editor Top Choice
Address: 79 Chrystie St, New York, NY 10002
Phone: (212) 925-5175
Style: Cantonese roast meats over rice
Vibe: Steel counter, one line, no seats
Price: $ (roast pork, duck, or chicken over rice from $5.50)
Wah Fung No. 1 is the platonic ideal of a cheap eats Chinatown spot: a steel counter, three meats hanging in the window, and a to-go container of roast pork or duck over rice and cabbage that costs about the same as a fancy coffee.
Order by pointing. Pay in cash, because that’s all they take. Eat standing up, or find a step outside, since there’s no real seating to speak of.
It’s closed Mondays and the line moves fast even when it looks long, so don’t let a dozen people out front scare you off.
Mei Lai Wah Bakery
Address: 41 Mott St, New York, NY 10013
Phone: (212) 966-7866
Style: Hong Kong-style bakery and dim sum counter
Vibe: Chinatown institution since 1968, line moves fast
Price: $ (char siu bun from $2.50)
Website: meilaiwahnyc.com
The pineapple pork bun is the reason people cross the neighborhood for this bakery, and it earns the hype: a sweet, craggy top over a savory char siu filling, all for around three dollars.
Get there before the early afternoon if you want the good stuff, since the popular buns have a habit of selling out.
Nom Wah Tea Parlor
Address: 13 Doyers St, New York, NY 10013
Phone: (212) 962-6047
Style: Hong Kong-style dim sum, made to order
Vibe: Century-old tea parlor on the Bloody Angle
Price: $$ (dim sum plates roughly $2.50 to $9.95)
Website: nomwah.com
Nom Wah has been serving dim sum on Doyers Street since 1920, which makes it the oldest restaurant in Chinatown and one of the few places on this list with actual sit-down seating.
It’s pricier per plate than the counters on this list, but the egg roll and the roast pork buns alone are worth the extra couple of dollars. For a deeper dive on the neighborhood’s dumpling and dim sum scene, see our guide to the best dim sum in Chinatown.
Shu Jiao Fu Zhou
Address: 295 Grand St, New York, NY 10002
Phone: (212) 625-2532
Style: Fujianese noodles and boiled dumplings
Vibe: Order-at-the-counter, limited tables
Price: $ (peanut butter noodles $4.25, dumplings from $6.50)
This is the newer name on the list, and it became a cheap eats Chinatown favorite practically overnight after a wave of TikToks put its peanut butter noodles in front of everyone under 30 in the city.
The noodles are the headliner, but the boiled dumplings and the fish ball soup are just as good a reason to wait for one of the handful of tables.
Fried Dumpling
Address: 106 Mosco St, New York, NY 10013
Phone: (212) 693-1060
Style: Fried and steamed pork dumplings
Vibe: Tiny counter tucked into a Chinatown alley
Price: $ (around $5 for a dozen-plus dumplings)
Mosco Street is a narrow alley connecting Mott and Mulberry, and Fried Dumpling sits right in the middle of it doing exactly one thing well: cheap, crispy-bottomed pork dumplings by the dozen.
There’s no menu to agonize over. Cash only, order fast, eat on the walk to wherever you’re headed next.
Tasty Dumpling
Address: 42 Mulberry St, New York, NY 10013
Phone: (212) 349-0070
Style: Steamed and fried dumplings, scallion pancakes
Vibe: No-frills counter near the courthouses
Price: $
Website: tastydumplingny.com
Tasty Dumpling has been feeding the jury-duty crowd from the nearby courthouses for years, and the scallion pancake is the sleeper hit most people miss because they came just for the dumplings.
It’s a solid backup any time the line at Fried Dumpling or Shu Jiao Fu Zhou looks brutal, since it’s rarely more than a two-minute wait.
Super Taste
Address: 26 Eldridge St, New York, NY 10002
Phone: (646) 283-0999
Style: Lanzhou hand-pulled noodles
Vibe: Open kitchen, noodles pulled to order
Price: $$ (dumplings from $5.25, noodle soups roughly $7 to $9)
Website: noodle5888.com
Super Taste has been pulling noodles by hand on Eldridge Street since 2005, and watching the dough get stretched and slapped before it hits the broth is half the show.
The hand-pulled noodle soups run a little higher than everything else on this list, but they’re still a filling dinner for under ten dollars, and the dumplings on the side barely move the total.
Cheap Eats Chinatown NYC: Which Spot Should You Hit First?
Finding the best cheap eats Chinatown has to offer really depends on what you’re in the mood for.
If you want the fastest, cheapest lunch on the list, Wah Fung No. 1 wins outright.
If you want history with your dumplings, Nom Wah Tea Parlor delivers it.
If you want the spot everyone’s currently posting about, Shu Jiao Fu Zhou is leading the conversation.
If you just want a reliable backup with no line, Tasty Dumpling is hard to beat.
There isn’t one single answer, and that’s kind of the point of a cheap eats Chinatown crawl: you’re supposed to hit two or three of these in one afternoon and call it lunch.
Bring cash, bring an appetite, and if this list doesn’t scratch the itch, our guide to cheap eats in the East Village has more spots where fifteen dollars still gets you dinner.
