The restaurant owner Zongmin Li is from Yunan Province and after noticing a gap in the market for a restaurant serving Yunan style mixian rice noodles, she opened this restaurant in 2019. The restaurant has since had a full-page review in the Washington Post and was awarded Best Cheap Eats 2019 in Northern Virginia.

The restaurant has several authentic Chinese small plates including pork belly buns, pan fried potato with pickled radish, and spicy xishu angbanna salad. However, on my latest visit I ordered the dishes that this place is famous for–its steaming hot bowls of rice noodles. I ordered the Little Pot, which is a combination of pork and chicken broth with ground pork, chives, carrots, pickled mustard greens, and a tea egg over noodles. I also tried the Braised Beef Lu with braised beef chunk, beef jus, carrots, chives, mushrooms, crushed peanuts and a tea egg over noodles. All noodle dishes are garnished with green onions, cilantro, and spicy chili sauce.

I was very impressed with the quality of the noodle dishes at this restaurant and I am surprised not to have discovered it sooner. Overall, I would give Yunan by Potomac a tasty/authenticity score of 8/10.

This used to be your classic American-Chinese food restaurant with the typical sesame chicken, orange chicken, and beef and broccoli menu items. Last year the restaurant had a complete revamp, and now offers many authentic dishes in a more spacious and chic setting.

While still serving many of its western-style Chinese dishes, the restaurant also serves Taiwanese beef noodle soup, pork belly with garlic sprouts, and various Sichuan seafood dishes. For my recent visit I ordered a Shanghainese appetizer, Four Happiness Bean Curd (四喜烤麸). This dish includes bean curd, black fungus, lotus seeds, and bamboo shoots in a slightly sweet sauce. For the main dish I ordered the whole Sichuan fish in a spicy broth with vegetables, tofu and mushrooms.

This restaurant has moved significantly up my rankings since refurbishing last year. The increasing number of good authentic dishes on the menu is the greatest improvement. Overall, I would give TNR Cafe a tasty/authenticity score of 7.8.

If you enjoy Korean cuisine, whether Korean bbq, bibimbap, bulgogi, or japchae, then you have to visit this little establishment out in Annandale. The restaurant is also next door to Breeze Bakery under the same ownership, and I highly recommend you try out the deserts here after eating at Yechon.

To get the broadest taste of dishes possible, I recommend ordering one of the Yechon specials. For my last visit I ordered special menu 1–this is a selection of dishes for 2 people. This includes a sashimi appetizer with tuna and yellowtail sashimi, 2 dumpling soups, shredded beef ribs, a whole broiled mackrel, bean paste stew with tofu, and a selection of small dishes. The small dishes included kimchi, egg tofu, sesame bean sprouts, seaweed, acorn jelly and Korean spinach.

Every dish was delicious and I was particularly impressed by how much good food 2 people could get for less than $50. Overall, I would give Yechon a tasty/authenticity score of 8/10.

Since Queen Amannisa closed it doors last year, there are only two Uyghur restaurants left in the DC beltway. Dolan Uyghur is a great choice for trying the food of China’s Xinjiang region.

Upon entering the cozy little restaurant at the entrance of the Cleveland Park Metro station, you quickly realize this cuisine is more middle eastern than typically Chinese. The smells of cumin and singed lamb kebabs will make this abundantly clear.

If you’re on the keto diet, then maybe steer clear as dumplings and hand-pulled noodles are popular here. During my last visit I ordered the samsa to start–this is a baked bun filled with ground beef, onions and spices. As a side order I asked for the most popular item on the menu–the lamb kebab. For the main dishes, I order Korma chop, the signature fried noodles with sliced beef, chives, onions, and peppers. Alongside the noodles, I ordered the Goshnan, which is a crunchy, fried bread filled with ground beef, lamb and onions.

Of the dished I tried, the noodles were my favorite dish. The fresh hand made noodles fried with meat and veggetables made for a perfectly balanced and well seasoned meal. The Goshnan was underwhelming with a rather bland meat filling. Overall, I would give Dolan Uyghur a tasty/authenticity score of 7.3/10.

This new restaurant opened its doors about a month ago and I had heard that their Sichuan dry pot dish was worth a visit.

They currently have a deal that is perfect for 2 people which includes a cucumber salad, celery and bean curd, fried pork gyoza, Xinjiang beef and chicken skewers, spicy fried crabs and a large dry pot dish.

The cucumber salad is quite simple with chunky cuts of cucumber is a light vinegar and sesame oil dressing. The celery and bean curd dish is something that I have had previously at Taiwanese restaurants, which also has a light sesame oil dressing. The crabs were delicious and fried to the point where you could eat parts of the shell, but there wasn’t as much meat inside the crabs as I would have liked. The dry pot was delicious, although a little salty for my taste, with lamb slices, ham, bean curd, wood ear mushrooms, shrimp balls, seaweed and cabbage.

I prefer the dry pot dish here to the dry pot at Mala Tang. Overall, I would give JingDu 17 a tasty/authenticity score of 7.1/10.

After eating pho at Caphe Banh Mi in Old Town Alexandria, I had to try the upscale version run by the same owner at Sunday in Saigon. This place has only been open since 2017, but the dishes on the menu have been perfected.

For an appetizer I ordered the summer roll (Gỏi cuốn) filled with Chinese sausage, shrimp, egg, carrot, Jicama and bean sauce. The ingredients are very fresh and the fresh basil is a nice touch. For the main course I ordered two dishes: the Bún bò Huế is a beef broth with vermicelli noodles, pork hock and beef blood jelly. This dish is similar to a Taiwanese style beef noodle soup (with additional ingredients). The second dish I ordered was the Bún chả–this dish consists of pork belly slices, pork shoulder patties and rice noodles with a fish sauce broth. The noodles come beside the dish, so you can add it the broth depending on your taste.

Along with Caphe Banh Mi in Old Town, I would recommend Sunday in Saigon for those who enjoy trying new Vietnamese dishes. Overall, I rate a tasty/authenticity level of 7.9.

At first you might think that this is just another Japanese ramen restaurant, but this is actually a fusion of different Chinese cuisines. The most popular dish is of course the Lamen–handmade noodles that are the precursor of the Japanese ramen noodles everyone loves. The nooldes are made in-house, as are the soup broths and spiced sichuan chili oil. The restaurant is essentially a fusion northern style Chinese lamen, sichuan dishes and Taiwanese dishes.

I highly recommend the signature lamen, but other good dishes include the Chongqing style peppery chicken, Lee’s mapo tofu and the nanking duck appetizer. Overall, I rate a tasty/authenticity level of 7.9.

New York City, along with Los Angeles has a very diverse selection of authentic Chinese food. During a short weekend trip to NYC I decided to visit a few of my favorite foodie spots.

The first stop on my NYC food trip was Flushing in Queens. My favorite hot pot joint is Haidilao. This chain restaurant is famous for its excellent customer experience, so I would recommend this place to anyone who enjoys good hot pot. Be Aware, if you order noodles, there is a good chance your waiter will prepare your hand-pulled noodles while dancing, but if you can stomach that, the food is excellent. You can select your choice of broth, how many kinds (1,2,4 etc) and what items you want to add to the broth.

For breakfast in Flushing, i would recommend trying the jianbing at the New World Mall–look for the bright yellow food stand. The jianbing is a savory egg creppe filled with spicy bean paste, ham and crunchy fried wonton with green onions, cilantro and black sesame seeds.

The last leg on my journey was a dim sum restaurant in Manhattan. Nestled in the back streets of Chinatown you will find Nom Wah Tea Parlour. This place serves some of the best dim sum in NYC and for an affordable price too. I recommend ordering the sweet egg yolk buns, fried shrimp stuffed egg plant, shrimp and snow pea leaf dumplings and the turnip cake with Chinese sausage. Having said that, there wasn’t an item on the menu that i did not enjoy.

This is the second time I have written about Hunan Gate, but I wanted to write a post about the authentic Dongbei dishes served here. While the lady who runs the restaurant is from Nanjing (maybe try the Nanjing cold duck dish), the chef is from Dongbei, so these dishes are what you should order.

Make sure you order from the Chinese menu and not the American-Chinese food menu. I would recommend ordering the pork belly with potato noodles (东北白菜猪肉炖粉条)  as a main dish and then either the triple vegetable delight (Di San Xian, 地三鲜) or pickled cabbage with frozen tofu (Suan Cai Dun Dong Dou Fu, 酸菜炖冻豆腐). The pickled cabbage perfectly complements the fatty flavors of the pork belly, so I recommend those two dishes.
Below are pictures of the three dishes that i mentioned.

The chef and owner of this restaurant used to have a small restaurant in Alexandria that I would visit often, but moved to this new location earlier in the year. The chef being from Chongqing, the specialty dishes are of course Sichuan. Although the restaurant maintains the name that the previous owners chose, I would say that the hot pot is so-so–If you eat here you have to order the dishes, not the hot pot.

My favorite appetizer is the beef tripe and joint in chili oil (Fu Qi Fei Pian, 夫妻肺片). In terms of main course dishes, my two favorites are pork blood in chili sauce (Mao Xue Wang,重庆毛血旺)–this is a Chongqing dish which includes pork blood, tripe and intestines in a thick spicy Sichuan broth. And paper wrapped whole fish (重庆烤鱼)–this is a whole grilled fish in a spicy broth with potatoes, peanuts, vegetables and tofu.

This place serves some of the most authentic Chongqing food in the D.C. metro area, a must for lovers of spicy food! Overall, I would give Uncle Liu’s Hot Pot a tasty/authenticity score of 8.6/10.