Seattle’s Chinese language restaurant scene continues to enhance, increase, shock, and delight at an absurd tempo. New locations pop up quicker than you possibly can go to the “must-tries” that had been already in your listing. The classics would be the classics and the acquainted chains—Din Tai Fung, Dough Zone—proceed to thrive. This tour of Chinese language eating places spotlights locations which have a specific specialty, or an particularly good model of a selected dish.
Whereas we divvy the listing as much as make it simpler to determine the place to eat, understand that, for eating places to fulfill the calls for of the eating public, they have an inclination to attract influences from throughout regional Chinese language and Taiwanese cuisines. These are normal classes; a Sichuanese restaurant may have Northern-style dumplings or Cantonese-style dim sum. Being inflexible alongside regional boundaries will be detrimental to a restaurant’s survival, and the range gives extra possibilities to discover a new favourite meals.
Spice Specialists: Sichuan and Hunan Delicacies
Spicy Model of Sichuan
Northgate
The restaurant’s Mandarin identify is a intelligent play on a phrase meaning “we’re No. 1 and No. 2 finest Sichuan” restaurant. The boast is smart whenever you style dishes such because the stir-fried sour-and-spicy shredded potatoes, eggplant with chili peppers and preserved eggs, dry-fried inexperienced beans, and steamed pork stomach with buns. The potato dish (a telltale benchmark of the kitchen’s consideration to element) hits all the correct notes. The ma la tingling of Sichuan pepper isn’t shy within the ma po tofu and it’ll require additional rice as a companion. Spicy Model is positioned on the Asian Household Heart on Aurora Avenue North, so time your go to for when you’ll want to fill up on Asian substances.
Chengdu Style’s crispy rooster with pink chili pepper packs extra spice than the identify lets on.
Chengdu Style
Chinatown–Worldwide District
A Southern California favourite—began by a pair of Chengdu natives nostalgic for break-a-sweat spicy Sichuan—expanded to incorporate a good-looking eating room within the Publix constructing. Basic Sichuan dishes are uniformly nice, the laziji rooster exceptionally so. On the menu, it goes by a deceptively tame moniker: crispy rooster with pink chili pepper. Chunk-size morsels get a deep-fry to lock in moisture, then a wokked follow-up tossed with Sichuan peppercorns, toasted sesame seeds, and beneficiant lengths of pink chilies. Chengdu Style gives two variations of this dish, a standard bone-in rooster and a boneless take that’s simpler to eat.
Dan Gui
Bellevue/Bel-Purple, Inexperienced Lake
Deciding what to order is less complicated in the event you’re with a bigger group that may deal with ma la and pungent meals. You’ll be able to’t go unsuitable with classics: ma po tofu, dry-fried inexperienced beans, toothpick lamb, eggplant with preserved egg. Do give fish or rooster with inexperienced sichuan peppercorns a strive, in addition to the sauerkraut beef or fish. For one thing candy, the fermented glutinous rice ball “soup” might help tame a number of the fireplace in your palate. The restaurant takes its identify from the aromatic osmanthus flower and gives a particular shiny spot in a sprawling strip mall. They now have a second location, Dan Gui Blossoms, in Inexperienced Lake.
Shaoshan Impression
Bellevue/Bel-red
Whereas everybody deserves to strive the silky umami of Shaoshan Impression’s celtuce (listed as “asparagus lettuce” on the menu), the remainder of the menu begs you to depart any tender-palated mates at house. The impeccably white partitions, spotless white tablecloths, and parade of white tableware showcase the electrical pink oils and fiery inexperienced peppers that outline Hunan delicacies. The menu helpfully guides potential rookies by the comparative spice of staples like crispy-edged fried pork ribs (medium spicy) and sauteed beef (massive spicy), and holds gems just like the steamed fish fillets, which come as a duo with pink and inexperienced pepper sauces, or the crispy, black-sesame-stuffed candy dumplings, stir-fried with peppers and preserved greens.
That is Dough Good: Dumplings and Noodles
Dumpling Era
Edmonds, Lake Forest Park
Because the identify implies, baskets of steamed dumplings are the transfer right here. The wrappers are hand-rolled—not too skinny or thick—and the fillings are savory and juicy. In the event you want some pungency, get the dumplings that embrace Chinese language chives, which have massive, flat leaves that aren’t afraid to announce their presence. The kitchen makes its personal noodles, upping the sport on dishes like beef noodle soup and tomato egg and noodles. It’s all the time a delight to come across tomato egg on a menu. To search out this dish with noodles doubles the pleasure.
Mama Dough
Kent
The soup dumpling recreation within the Seattle space has its camps. Mama Dough can maintain its personal with its xiao lengthy bao, which have skinny wrappers which can be gorgeously pleated. Filling choices embrace pork, crab, or greens—although the vegetarian model doesn’t have soup in them. Surprisingly few eating places on the town serve braised beef pancake rolls; the model right here wraps a scallion pancake round sliced shank to create a filling appetizer, albeit powerful to share past two folks. Spherical out your meal with a couple of chilly dishes, such because the seaweed or cucumber salad.
Xi’an Noodles
Downtown Seattle, Downtown Bellevue, College District
Biang biang noodles take their identify from the satisfying thwack you hear when cooks slap skeins of dough on the counter. The affect creates fissures that result in huge ribbons with ragged edges, the specialty of the northwest Chinese language metropolis of Xi’an. These chewy, hand-ripped noodles heart in most dishes on the menu. Organize them as a soup, or as a bowl tossed with spicy cumin lamb or simply some chili-flecked sizzling oil. The unique U District location simply acquired a radical rework; the downtown outpost is a counter on the second flooring of Westlake Heart.
Triumph Valley
Renton
If it feels such as you simply arrived to eat dim sum amid the darkish wooden paneling of an upscale chain restaurant, you may have doubtless stepped into considered one of Triumph Valley’s a number of sprawling eating rooms, previously a location of The Keg Steakhouse. Instead of salad bars and massive hunks of beef are dwell tanks of seafood and tables crammed with multigenerational households passing purple mochi crammed with molten salted egg yolk throughout the desk. The dumplings are massive, with the telltale rusticity of being hand-made. Although it opened with wide-ranging ambitions, together with changing to a sizzling pot restaurant at evening, the in-table stoves keep lined now, because the restaurant focuses its consideration on dim sum and seafood—and diners ought to too.
Solar Sui Wah
Bellevue/Bel-Purple
Vancouver’s superior dim sum lengthy drew Seattleites north to locations like Solar Sui Wah, which first opened there in 1988. In 2024, Solar Sui Wah determined to make issues simpler by bringing the dim sum south. Seattle now not lags thus far behind in high quality, however the modern, fashionable type and formal nature of the service that’s widespread there’s a rarity right here. The excellent menu, photo-illustrated and laminated for diners to verify off objects with a dry-erase pen, hews pretty traditional by worldwide requirements. However few locations in Seattle have this type of vary—from the restaurant’s signature roasted squab to a chocolate mousse dessert formed like a sleeping pet. Although the large tv the width of the room does disrupt the upscale chandeliered vibes a bit when it exhibits sports activities highlights, it additionally makes for an attractive Sunday mixture of Seahawks and siu mai. And people siu mai, together with lacy-crusted taro dumplings and different dim sum favorites, come plump and exact.
Wonton Noodle Home
Edmonds
Consolation is available in greater than 100 totally different kinds right here, with the handfuls of sorts of the eponymous signature dish combining beef brisket, bouncy wontons, fish balls, and extra with a tangle of yellow noodles in translucent golden broth. The opposite 4 pages of the menu showcase almost as many sorts of congee (pumpkin and fish fillet is a star), dry and fried noodles, and traditional Hong Kong dishes. Whereas loads of noodle homes on the town do an honest impression of those specialties, the duo of housemade sauces—the XO utilized by the kitchen and the chili oil on the desk—retains clients coming again. Even (particularly) after a fireplace in 2021 destroyed the unique location and compelled the restaurant to maneuver north into this bigger house, conveniently tucked into the north aspect of Ranch 99.
Sizzling Pot Sizzling Spots
Qiao Lin Sizzling Pot
Downtown
On the grand axis of sizzling pot restaurant traits on, each the standard and number of every component—broth, sauces, and slate of dippable objects—deserves scrutiny. This Chicago-based mini-chain crushes on all of them, plus racks up bonus factors for issues like having an enormous stuffed panda bear to hang around with whereas ready (and ready and ready, this place isn’t any secret) and probably the most sturdy “sauce bar” (suppose snacks-and-desserts buffet) on the town. It’s open late, it serves beef on golden cow statues, and even gives a 64-item tasting menu for the indecisive or curious on the market.
The Dolar Store
Bellevue
The Dolar Store is additional, in that almost all early 2000s sense of the phrase; in its monumental platters of geoduck and shows of recent shrimp, high-end meat and house-made meatballs, and the in depth sauce bars. Even when black truffle sizzling pot isn’t your vibe, the person pots enable everybody to decide on their very own type, one thing notably useful for vegetarians and folk with allergic reactions, for whom sizzling pot can in any other case be a minefield.
All Below Heaven
Searching for Chai
Bellevue, Edmonds
When the Three Spiced Rooster with Basil (aka three-cup rooster) arrives on the desk, it’s a second of exaltation and appreciation. Chunks of bone-in rooster have the correct quantity of seared edges; sauce is a caramelized stability of soy sauce and wine. The basil ties all of it collectively. For followers of dry-fried inexperienced beans, Searching for Chai’s model comprises bits of pork and dried shrimp. The scorching platter with rooster steak or pork chop is a large number of meals that many of us discover irresistible.
A+ Hong Kong Restaurant
Chinatown-Worldwide District
If the opinion of an 80-year-old Chinese language grandma issues to you, the braised beef brisket stone pot at A+ Hong Kong Restaurant is the perfect in Seattle. Certainly, the brisket and tendon maintain collectively till you’re taking a chew. The mattress of napa cabbage underneath the braised beef deserves its personal award, cooked to the purpose of translucence, however earlier than it loses structural integrity. Different stone pots embrace the eggplant with XO sauce and sliced beef, which has simply sufficient funk and arrives nonetheless effervescent in its cauldron. If amount of meals is a crucial measure, the lunch plates supply sufficient rice for 2 meals. The salt and pepper rooster wings are deep-fried crispy and laced with simply sufficient curry to make you obsess about it however not a lot to overwhelm the flavour profile. We might go on. Or you possibly can simply go now.
151 Days Rooster Soup Home
Redmond
In the event you go to a rooster soup home that raises its personal Arlington Bresse chickens on a farm an hour north of Seattle, it stands to purpose: You get the rooster noodle soup. 151 Days serves its signature noodle soup with slivers of rooster, chopped cilantro and inexperienced onions, fried shallots, soft-cooked egg, and greens. The sunshine-bodied broth goes down simply. Potstickers shine because of Berkshire pork filling that tastes memorably recent and clear. The tofu salad combines slivers of potato and radish alongside the fried tofu. It’s a can’t-stop-eating-it dish that’s luxurious sufficient to be an entree salad.
Vivienne’s Bistro
Mercer Island, Downtown
Chef Danna Hwang, beforehand of Peony Kitchen, now oversees these upscale eating rooms, marked by picket lanterns, high-backed cubicles, and a preponderance of citrusy cocktails. Hwang’s menu begins with Cantonese flavors, then strikes in sudden instructions like mu shu tacos, clam chowder croquettes, or squid ink rice baked with a decadent topping of cheese. Even acquainted dishes like honey walnut prawns or wontons get plated for appears as a lot as taste; Vivienne’s showstopper is the Forbidden Roast Duck platter, a five-spiced chook with crackling pores and skin that arrives with a DIY array of herbs, radish, delicate lemon slices, and monogrammed bao buns.
Fortunate Barbecue and Noodle Home
Bellevue/Bel-Purple
That they had us at “chubby duck.” This fast-casual spot for Hong Kong–type noodle soups, rice dishes, and congee is a part of the meals courtroom space adjoining to Asian Household Heart. Noodle varieties embrace thick or skinny egg noodles, or a number of totally different rice noodles; you possibly can prime them with duck, beef brisket and tendon, fish balls, squid balls, and barbecued pork. Roast pork, ribs, rooster, and duck are all on the barbecue menu. When you choose a duck from the case, you possibly can specify a thin or chubby duck. Convey on the fats.
Imperial Backyard
Kent
The dim sum menu comprises all of the favorites and any extras make nice takeaway. The kitchen makes use of lump shrimp in its har gow, delivers completely fried (i.e., not greasy) sesame balls, and focuses on making nice pork for its steamed barbecue pork bao. However Imperial Backyard’s star stays the Beijing Duck—shaved items of meat topped with planks of lacquered duck pores and skin, served with condiments and translucent steamed pancakes. A complete order instructions the desk; a half order allows you to discover extra of the menu. Whereas the restaurant makes use of white tablecloths and is spacious sufficient to accommodate massive banquets, the vibe isn’t formal. People are as more likely to come after purchasing subsequent door at 99 Ranch Market as they’re for a special day.
Completely satisfied Meals
Chinatown–Worldwide District
As I began a meal at Completely satisfied Meals, a gaggle ending up at one of many different 5 tables was discussing each how quickly they may return and if they need to order one other dish simply to take house. A single chew of the scallion oil fish filet, tender curls of sole swimming in a lightweight, allium-infused oil tub, and anybody would do the identical. The dish embodies the fragile, seafood-based delicacies of Zhejiang, the province from which proprietor Ye AiFang hails, and Ye, together with her honest and enthusiastic service, embodies the restaurant’s cheery identify. After digging into heaping plates of frilly edged noodles, candy fermented rice ball soup, and an order of vinegar cabbage, any diner will, too.
A particular charcoal grill infuses Wild Cumin’s lamb with a transportive smokiness.
Wild Cumin
Kent
The dusky smoke distinctive to smoldering coals permeates the chunks of skewered lamb, themselves tenderized by tidbits of fats threaded onto the skewer and almost crusted in cumin and chili powder. Cooking the Xinjiang Uyghur meals of in Wild Cumin’s kitchen is Chengbiao Yang, founding father of Seven Stars Pepper Szechuan Restaurant, one of many first Sichuan eating places within the metropolis. He stays a grasp noodle-maker and shines elsewhere right here, too: The marginally candy Xinjiang salad of pink onions, tomatoes, and cucumbers, and the resplendently recent housemade yogurt. However whereas the grilled meat at Wild Cumin is great, it will enhance significantly with a dollop of acknowledgement that the delicacies comes from the Uyghur folks, towards whom (and whose tradition) China has been on a genocidal marketing campaign since at the very least 2017.
