Guides

Hand-written guides to Asian-owned restaurants, groceries, and shops across 25 US metros.

Los Angeles

Best Ramen in Los Angeles

LA ramen runs deeper than its short list here suggests, and this page will grow as the catalog does. What the current picks share is the thing that matters: broth with real depth, from tonkotsu simmered until it turns creamy to lighter shoyu bowls, noodles cooked with actual attention to firmness, and chashu that has not been sitting all day. Little Tokyo remains the historic center of LA ramen culture, but serious bowls now show up across the San Gabriel Valley and beyond. If a shop offers a firmness choice, take them up on it.

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Where to Buy Mooncakes in the San Gabriel Valley

Mid-Autumn Festival lands on Friday, September 25 in 2026, and mooncake season in the San Gabriel Valley starts well before it. The good boxes (lotus seed paste with double yolk, the tins people actually give as gifts) get reserved weeks ahead, and the dedicated bakeries sell out of their best runs before the supermarkets have even finished stocking. There are three ways to buy. Dedicated Chinese bakeries make the traditional baked mooncakes and take pre-orders for gift tins, which is what you want if the box is going to a relative or a business contact. Supermarkets stock a wide range of imported brands from mid-August, which is the practical option for eating rather than gifting. And Taiwanese bakeries carry the lighter, flakier styles alongside the Cantonese standard. A note on ordering: if you need a specific flavor or a gift box, call ahead rather than showing up. Availability moves fast in September, varies by year, and the counter staff will know what's actually coming in.

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Chinese Banquet Restaurants in the San Gabriel Valley

A Chinese banquet is a specific format, and not every good restaurant can host one. You need round tables of ten, a room that can be closed or separated, a kitchen that can fire a set menu for two hundred people at once, and staff who know the sequence: cold plate, soup, whole steamed fish, lobster or crab noodles, roast squab or chicken, a noodle or rice course, and dessert soup to close. The San Gabriel Valley has more of these rooms per square mile than anywhere else in the country, which is why families drive in from across Southern California for weddings, full-month and red egg parties, birthday banquets, and Lunar New Year company dinners. What to ask when you call: the per-table price and how many courses that covers, minimum and maximum table count, whether corkage applies, whether the room can be held privately, and how far ahead they book. Saturday evenings in the spring and fall go first. A wedding date usually needs six months or more. Set menus are priced per table of ten, and most kitchens will substitute courses if you ask early.

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Best Asian Grocery Stores in LA

A good Asian market is the difference between cooking a dish and approximating it. LA has the full spread: Korean supermarkets with banchan counters and hot-food bars, Japanese grocers stocking fresh sashimi and imported snacks, Chinese markets with live seafood tanks and roast-meat counters, and Filipino and pan-Asian stores filling every gap in between. The stores on this list earn their spot with the things Western supermarkets cannot do: produce for Asian cooking picked and priced honestly, in-house butchers who know the cuts, and pantry aisles deep enough that you never have to substitute.

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Best Bubble Tea in Los Angeles

The San Gabriel Valley is where Taiwanese tea chains tend to open their first American shops, so LA boba tracks what Taipei is drinking more closely than any other US region. That means real brewed tea rather than powder, brown sugar boba made in small batches, cheese foam done properly, and seasonal fruit teas that change with what is actually in season. The shops on this list run from international franchises with strict quality control to local studios doing their own thing. Most cluster in Arcadia, Alhambra, San Gabriel, and Rowland Heights, so you can try several in one afternoon. Sweetness and ice are always adjustable; ask for 50 percent sugar if you want to taste the tea.

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Best Dim Sum in Los Angeles

Weekend dim sum in the San Gabriel Valley is a ritual: big round tables, pots of pu-erh, and either carts rolling past or an order sheet and a golf pencil. The banquet halls of Monterey Park and Alhambra measure themselves against Hong Kong standards, which means thin-skinned har gow, siu mai with real snap, cheung fun that slides off the plate, and egg tarts from the kitchen still warm. Arrive before 11am on weekends or expect a wait with a number in hand. The places here range from white-tablecloth seafood palaces to no-frills rooms where the food does all the talking.

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Koreatown Essentials

LA Koreatown is a city within the city, and it barely sleeps. The essentials go well past barbecue: a jjimjilbang where you can sweat, soak, and eat all night; a supermarket whose banchan case outclasses most restaurants; K-beauty counters stocked ahead of the rest of the country; and dessert spots serving taiyaki and soft serve until late. This list is deliberately not restaurants-only, because Koreatown is not a dinner reservation, it is a full day. Park once, walk the blocks around Wilshire and Western, and let the neighborhood set the schedule.

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Bay Area

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Best Asian Grocery Stores in the Bay Area

The Bay Area's Asian markets are regional specialists. San Francisco's Japanese grocers emphasize fresh fish and imported staples, San Jose's Vietnamese and Korean supermarkets carry the full range of Southeast Asian herbs and banchan, and the Indian grocers of the Peninsula handle spices by the kilo. The stores here are the ones locals actually restock at: fresh produce that turns over daily, prepared-food counters worth a trip on their own, and the ingredients that determine whether pho, kimchi jjigae, or biryani tastes right at home.

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Best Ramen in the Bay Area

Bay Area ramen is quietly serious. San Francisco izakayas turn out focused winter bowls, Oakland has destination shops from Japanese ramen masters, and the South Bay chains imported straight from Hokkaido hold their standards. The list here is short and honest; it grows as the catalog does. What earns a spot: broth made in-house and simmered properly, noodles with bite, and toppings treated as more than garnish. Expect lines at peak hours at the well-known rooms, and note that several kitchens make limited batches and close when the broth runs out.

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Best Chinese Restaurants in San Francisco

San Francisco is home to the oldest Chinatown in North America, but the city's Chinese food story long ago spread to the Richmond and Sunset, where many locals do their regular eating. The range on this list is the point: Cantonese seafood houses and dim sum parlors, Sichuan noodle shops, Hakka and Hunan specialists, Shanghainese dumpling rooms, and modern kitchens rethinking the canon. Some of these dining rooms have been serving since the early twentieth century; others opened in the last few years. Together they cover a century of the city's Chinese cooking, from congee at dawn to banquet dinners.

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New York

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Best Soup Dumplings in New York

A proper xiao long bao is engineering: a skin thin enough to see through, pleated shut, holding hot soup that only releases when you bite. New York takes them seriously in two places at once. Flushing is the heavyweight, where Shanghainese kitchens fold to order and the standard is set. Manhattan holds its own with East Village dumpling shops and Midtown Shanghainese dining rooms. The technique to eat one without a burned mouth: lift by the knot, rest it on the spoon, bite a small hole, drink the soup, then finish it with black vinegar and ginger.

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NYC Chinatown Food Guide

Manhattan Chinatown rewards walking. Mott Street and East Broadway still hold dim sum parlors that have poured tea for a century, bakeries selling egg tarts and pork buns for pocket change, and roast-meat windows with lacquered ducks on hooks. Newer arrivals, from Malaysian kopitiams to hand-pulled noodle counters, keep the neighborhood moving rather than preserved in amber. Come hungry and graze: a bakery stop, a dumpling order, carts at a banquet hall, then dessert. Weekends are crowded for a reason, and most of the essential eating here still costs less than a Midtown lunch.

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