Seattle has so many (more) delicious Chinese restaurants

Seattle food writer Hsiao-Ching Chou used to lament how there wasn’t much variety when it came to Chinese restaurants; they practically had the same menu.

But now new restaurants have popped up in Seattle and they’ve abandoned beef broccoli and other standard dishes for more regional cuisines.

I met with Chou for lunch recently at Xi’an Noodles in Seattle’s University District to ask her if she had changed her mind.

She has, she said, as her bowl of spicy, tingly beef in noodle soup arrived.

“It’s steaming delicious and it smells wonderful,” Chou said. “I can’t wait to tackle it.”

The bowl was filled with wide, flat noodles and shredded beef. The broth was topped with chili oil and finished with a crown of cilantro.

Just several years ago, most Chinese restaurants catered to their mainly Western customers. You could tell by their menus, which have a lot in common, but they tended to focus on the cuisine from the Pearl River Delta region of China.

With the influx of tech workers and students from China, the newer restaurants have shifted their focus.

“We are seeing some of the more regional cuisines represented because they know the audience is there,” Chou said. And instead of toning down the flavors to appeal to a wider audience, they remain true to the region; they’re unapologetically Chinese.

Chou said access to certain ingredients, like Szechuan peppercorns, for example, is easier these days in the U.S. But not back then.

“If that is a key ingredient to a lot of this type of cuisine,” Chou said, “then it’s hard to recreate those flavor profiles.”

Wearing a vintage Seattle Sonics T-shirt, Lily Wu, the 35-year-old owner and chef of Xi'an Noodle, took a break to chat with us. Wu hails from northeast China.

Wu started opened her restaurant because she craved noodles from her home country.

“I choose this noodle because I love the texture, and big, flat, and easier to make,” she said.

Wu was living in Seattle at the time, and took some classes at South Seattle Community College. To truly learn the noodle craft, though, she returned to China.

Learning to make noodles, it turned out, was easy. Sauce was a different story.

“The good flavor they never want to teach you no matter how much you’ll pay,” Wu said. “So I create my own flavor and do a lot of research.”

Wu said she wants people to enjoy her food, even those who aren’t familiar with Chinese spices, but without compromising the flavors. Her restaurant has a sauce bar so people can adjust the seasonings and heat to their liking.

“I want to teach people ... how to eat this food," she said. "I want to spread this culture to American people.”

Wu told us about plans to open a second noodle restaurant in downtown Seattle in May. (Westlake Mall, second floor: You read it here first!)

Chou and I returned to our bowls and discussed other Seattle Chinese restaurants. She said she doesn’t go out for Chinese food because she cooks it at home. But these are the places she frequents for specific dishes, and because the food is consistently good. Chou emphasized this is not a ranking of the “best” restaurants in Seattle:

Boiling Point, Bellevue, Edmonds, Tukwila, Seattle, Redmond

Open Christmas, regular hours.

"There are multiple locations, but I usually go to the one in the International District. Hot pot typically is a communal dish, but I like that Boiling Point does individual ones. I have had days where I have gone there by myself to find solace in a steaming, spicy pot of soup. I also went there with my mom on the day my book was released."

Din Tai Fung — Bellevue, University Village (Seattle), Pacific Place (Seattle), Tukwila

Open Christmas, regular hours.

"My kids like soup dumplings and Din Tai Fung is consistent. I like the spicy wontons and the pork chop fried rice."

Qq Bites by Facing East — Seattle

Closed on Christmas.

"I like the super flaky shao bing sandwiches. They’re so flaky that they shatter the minute you look at them. Just had the bacon and egg shao bing today. It was awesome."

...And here are Chinese restaurants I like:

Facing East — Bellevue

Open on Christmas, 11:30 a.m. - 3 p.m.; 5 p.m. - 9p.m.

Facing East is the Bellevue-based sister restaurant of QQ Bites. Facing East makes dishes that I remember from my childhood in Taiwan, like the braised pork stew over rice or the stir-fried swamp cabbage. We always get an order of the Taiwanese pork burger.

Din Tai Fung — Bellevue, University Village (Seattle), Pacific Place (Seattle), Tukwila

Open Christmas, regular hours.

I agree with Hsiao-Ching; the soup dumplings are consistently good. Ditto the pork chop fried rice. Save room for dessert; try the Black Sesame Bun, or in ice cream form at the U-Village branch.

Dough Zone — Bellevue (two locations), Redmond, Seattle, Issaquah, Seattle (International District)

Open Christmas, regular hours.

My other go-to place for soup dumplings. The Q-baos look like regular hum baos, but they’re moist inside and the seared bottoms add a surprise light crunch.