Little Chinatown on Williams Boulevard near the airport offers a massive menu of darn good traditional Chinese fare. Get the salt and pepper wings or try the roast duck, a somewhat rare find at most New Orleans Chinese spots. The pancakes are bun style, not the thin kind, but very good. Avoiding fried? Try the chicken lettuce wraps, a light dish that satisfies.

The menu at China Rose comes in an English and Chinese version, a good sign. If dishes like bean curd skin, beef tendon in brown sauce, and fried pork intestines aren’t your jam, crispy duck, orange beef, and other traditional dishes await. The $9.95 appetizer platter delivers egg rolls, fried wonton, fried shrimp, shrimp toast, crab rangoon, and ribs, a good deal.

China Orchid in the Riverbend neighborhood has been around for more than 25 years, first opened by Susan Ming, whose chef son now runs Ming’s in Lakeview. Although no longer in the Ming family, this neighborhood go-to for Chinese takeout offers an extensive menu, lunch specials and speedy service for take out.

While Wishing Town is also a bakery, Guangzhou-born couple Vivi and Kevin Zheng’s Chinese specialties are some of the best in town. An extensive array of dim sum and cold noodle salads round out a menu of beautiful cakes and pastries, perfect for a celebration. There is a wide array of dumplings including scallop and shrimp; crawfish; onion and beef; crispy fried chicken; and char siu tofu pockets to a bustling Magazine Street corner.

Tucked away by a Lakeview shopping center, this Cantonese restaurant is open, airy, and offers outside seating. Chef Ming channels recipes from his Hong Kong birthplace with Cantonese options like shrimp with lobster sauce, shrimp lo mein, and salt and pepper pork. Regulars miss the lunch specials, as for now Ming’s is open only for dinner.

Five Happiness opened on Carrollton Avenue in 1979 when Chinese food options were minimal. Named for the Chinese tradition of five kinds of happiness: longevity, wealth, health, virtue, and peaceful death, Five Happiness adds a full belly to the list. The crispy whole fish with black bean sauce is a winner, ditto the duck, which comes with 10 thin crepes for bundling.

Trey Yuen is a bright spot on the local Chinese food horizon, although you need to travel across the 24-mile causeway to the other side of the lake to find it. In the hands of the third generation of Wongs, who opened their first eatery in Hammond in 1971, this restaurant is full of Chinese art and artifacts and includes a pretty koi pond (ask about fish food for the kids). A few dishes to try: the ethereal shrimp and crab in a cloud, rich with egg and flavors of the sea; a bracing crawfish in spicy lobster and black bean sauce; and for the intrepid, marinated alligator stir-fried with fresh mushrooms. 

Shirley and Tang Lee, the original proprietors of Royal China in Metairie, brought Miss Shirley’s famed cuisine to the former home of Jung’s Golden Dragon II in late 2022, a happy new life for the space. Serving a new, smaller menu than at Royal China, Miss Shirley’s focuses on dim sum, as well as rich, brothy soups and a few Chinese-American staples. The recent refresh adds comforting blues, festive lights, and bigger tables, as dim sum is best enjoyed with a group.

Arguably the West Bank’s favorite Chinese restaurant, China Doll’s Cantonese delights are well-informed by the family who founded it, the mother and siblings of the owner of Ming’s in Lakeview (the family also founded China Orchid). Try their version of barbecue shrimp and the catfish or crab fingers Cantonese.

Zhang Bistro is a family-run restaurant on the Esplanade side of Decatur serving a full menu of Chinese and Thai specialties. It’s a pretty, modern space, with great cocktails, lo mein, roasted duck, and the hot wok, a Sichuan-style dish of meat, onion, green pepper, cauliflower, jalapeno, and garlic tossed with spicy brown sauce. Cool down with the mango sticky rice.

The joy of having spicy Sichuan food in the French Quarter is boundless for fans of the chili-driven fare from the province in southwest China. Absolutely try Dian Xin’s xiao long bao, or soup dumplings, made with ground pork, ginger, and garlic swimming in a searing hot broth — best to coddle the dumpling in a spoon and gently poke it with the chopstick to let the steam out, making it easier to slurp. Also say yes to pan-fried pork dumplings and for heat lovers, the chili chicken is incendiary. A second location in the Quarter serves staples along with a hot pot menu.

Although it’s not a restaurant, this spacious Asian supermarket carries a spinning globe of international ingredients along with prepared foods to take away. Head towards the back at Hong Kong Market on the right for glistening, lacquered duck and slices of red-hued char siu (Chinese barbecued pork), fragrant with soy sauce, hoisin sauce, and Chinese five-spice powder.

The only place around that serves traditional dim sum from pushcarts, Panda King on the West Bank has always drawn hordes to the Hong Kong brunch of steamed dumplings, baked buns, roasted duck, and pork. It’s still serving authentic dim sum off the menu for dining in and for takeout, with push cart service offered on weekends, 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.