The 12 best Chinese food restaurants in Houston

If you hail from the Northeast and are missing the thick Chinese American-style egg rolls you often find up there, we’ve got great news. This longtime favorite Chinese restaurant has got ’em. China Garden is a family-owned haunt that has been serving Houstonians in downtown since 1969 (the original location sat on Jackson, but it’s been in its Leeland location for decades now). Experience those egg rolls and partner them with pork dumplings, egg drop soup, saucy beef and broccoli, and sweet and sour chicken. We suggest you do all of this before a Rockets game (the Garden is just a short walk to Toyota Center).

Find it: 1602 Leeland St., Houston, TX 77003; 713-652-0745

Fung’s Kitchen

After nearly two years, dim sum royalty Fung’s Kitchen recently made its triumphant return after temporarily closing due to the catastrophic fire damage it sustained at the beginning of 2021. The family-owned Hong Kong-style Cantonese restaurant has been a Houston staple since 1990, known for its colossal menu and epic push cart dim sum experience. Score a reservation for the dine-in dim sum service and you’ll be treated to a sweet symphony of steamed shrimp dumplings, barbecue pork rice noodles, golden egg yolk lava buns, Peking duck rolls, sticky rice, jellyfish salad and chicken feet in black bean sauce. And don’t forget to say “hey” to the Buddha statue to get some good fortune on the way in and out.

Find it: 7320 Southwest Freeway, Houston, TX; 713-779-2288

House of Bowls

You can travel to Hong Kong without the flight with a quick visit to this Asiatown strip center joint. At House of Bowls, Cantonese cuisine comes in the form of jumbo shrimp swimming in a silky smooth egg sauce, dry-style beef chow fun and fish porridge. Another favorite? The house special spaghetti topped with a fried egg.

Find it: 6650 Corporate Dr., Houston, TX 77036; 713-776-2288

Mala Sichuan Bistro

The Chinese province of Sichuan is renowned for its culinary prowess, with cuisine often noted for its spicy flavor profile. More specifically, the flavors of “ma” (the pleasing numbing sensation of a Sichuan peppercorn) and “la” (a hot, tongue-singing feeling from the capsaicin in chile peppers). Enter Mala Sichuan, which lives up to its name by bringing all kinds of fiery sensations to your world. With its roots in Asiatown before burgeoning into a mini empire with five locations across town, Mala offers fan favorites like the pork-stuffed red oil dumplings, dan dan noodles, water-boiled beef in spicy bean curd sauce, and green peppercorn fish.

Find it:

9348 Bellaire Blvd., Houston, TX; 713-995-1889
600 N. Shepherd Dr., Suite 453, Houston TX; 832-767-5402 
1201 Westheimer Rd., Houston, TX; 832-767-0911
3412 Hwy 6 Ste.P, Sugar Land, TX 77478; 832-532-7744
23119 Colonial Pkwy Suite C1, Katy, TX 77449; 281-665-3300

Mein

Part of powerhouse restaurateur Mike Tran’s impressive Asia-spanning restaurant collective (Tiger Den, Ohn Korean Eatery and Ramen Moto are just some of the others), Mein zeroes in on the Cantonese eats born from the historic Guangdong Province—and it gets things right. Consider the sleek, dimly lit restaurant for your next date night, one where you can share plates of clams in black bean sauce and silken egg shrimp, feast on garlic eggplant and dry beef hor fun, and get all googly eyed over Hong Kong-style lava toast.

Find it: 9630 Clarewood Dr., Houston, TX 77036; 713-923-7488

Ocean Palace

Fans of dim sum will be pleased with the bounty of offerings at Hong Kong City Mall favorite Ocean Palace, where you’ll have the burden of choosing from all things steamed, fried, crispy and slurpy. Go for oxtail soup dumplings, shrimp shu mai and soft-shell crab rice noodle rolls. Or chicken feet in black sauce, crispy egg rolls and pan-fried taro cake. Or how about steamed barbecue pork buns, sea scallop dumplings and baked custard cream bao? Probably best to bring along some friends.

Find it: 11215 Bellaire Blvd., Houston, TX 77072; 281-988-8898

One Dragon Restaurant

Biting into the xiao long bao at this tiny husband-and-wife-run shop is like wrapping yourself in a warm fuzzy blanket. To say the puffy steamed soup dumplings at One Dragon Restaurant are comforting is totally an understatement. After snagging some of those delicious numbers, choose from a stable of other flawlessly executed Hu-style comfort foods: drunken chicken, Shanghai-style fried fish, the popular noodle soup and poppable pork shu mai.

Find it: 9310 Bellaire Blvd., Houston, TX 77036; 713-995-6545

Pepper Twins

Founded by a former doctor specializing in the research of early stage cancer, Pepper Twins brings high-quality ingredients to its classic Sichuan menu—think peppercorns imported from the Sichuan province, farm-raised Berkshire pork and organic eggs and Kokuho rice. These shine in dishes like silky and crisp pork and shrimp dumplings, spicy wood ear mushroom salad with pickled pepper, perfectly done mapo tofu, hot diving fish made with local and fresh tilapia, and anise- and cinnamon-kissed tea-smoked duck.

Find it:

1915 W. Gray St., Houston, TX 77019; 346-204-5644
3915 Kirby Dr., Houston, TX 77098; 346-444-6493 
5161 San Felipe St., Houston, TX 77056; 832-831-2163

Shanghai Restaurant

This Asiatown mom and pop has been slinging real deal Cantonese fare for nearly two decades, and after a recent facelift, the restaurant is all set to keep your belly happily full of grandma-style meals. Cozy up to pork and preserved duck egg congee, dig in to the famous crispy and punched up salt-toasted pork ribs, and satisfy your craving for saucy, spicy Mongolian beef at Shanghai Restaurant.

Find it: 9116 Bellaire Blvd., Suite B, Houston, TX; 713-988-7288

San Dong Noodle House

Some of Houston’s most reliable restaurants can be found tucked away in Asiatown strip malls, and Chinese and Taiwanese noodle shop San Dong Noodle House just so happens to be one of them. All you need to do is take the ride over to Bellaire Boulevard, then grab a table and order top hits from dumplings with beef soup to noodles packed with roast beef and sour mustard pork. Before you head home, make sure you grab some pre-packed bao buns and frozen dumplings to go.

Find it: 9938 Bellaire Blvd., Houston, TX 77036; 713-988-8802

Siu Lap City

Over in Midtown lies an often overlooked gem rocking some of the best Chinese barbecue in town. It comes from the family behind the old Long Sing Supermarket in East Downtown (formerly a thriving Chinatown). Its counter-service ordering is simple: Choose from steamed or fried rice, make your plate small or large (we suggest large because even the leftovers are that good) and add your veggies and meats, including gorgeously crispy skinned and succulent roasted pork, pork belly, cold braised and soy chicken, beef tripe and braised organs and (not included in the plate but available by the bird) Peking-style duck.

Find it: 2808 Milam St., Houston, TX 77006; 713-236-8171

Wing Kee

This Hong Kong-style shop closed its doors for a decade, but it has risen like a phoenix once again. And the best part? It’s still offering easy-on-the-wallet lunch specials and insanely good roast pork with skin that snaps, crackles and pops. Make sure you try the pork, and when you’re satisfied to move on to other offerings, go for underdogs like the shrimp and egg, beef flat noodles, spare ribs with honey sauce, soy chicken and minced pork congee.

Find it: 6938 Wilcrest Dr., Houston, TX 77072; 281-741-7118