China is a country in the East Asia, with over 1 billion people in population, they’re also notable with their kind of delicious dishes.
If you’re a food lover like I and my spouse who could travel the world to have a taste of different dishes, you will definitely make Chinese dishes your favourite among many.
However, there are several Chinese restaurants in the United States today than ever and also spreading across other countries.
Today, you don’t have to travel to China to enjoy a portion of Chinese food. You can have the best Chinese food in San Francisco just like my friend Jessica would always do without having to book a flight to any of the popular cities in China.
In order not to waste your time, let’s head back to the topic of discussion “Best Chinese Food Dishes“.
I will make a list of the best Chinese restaurant dishes, the types of Chinese food mentioned in this post are healthy and delicious. They can also form part of what people refer to as the most popular Chinese food dishes and also the names of these Chinese dishes are properly indicated just in case you would want to get one at the restaurant or place your order through a Chinese food delivery agency.
If it is your first time to eat a Chinese dish, you should be careful not to over engage in it, although they’re delicious and rich in vegetable they can play with your stomach if you’re a first-time eater.
Let’s dive in to see the Chinese food list with pictures, do not hesitate to let us know any of these dishes you would like to see on a Chinese food menu, or would want to have as your Chinese takeout dishes.
List of best Chinese dishes
1. Egg Drop Soup | 蛋花汤
This is by far my favourite traditional Chinese cuisine. The Chinese Egg Drop Soup is usually made with pepper, scallions, beaten eggs, and tofu made up with boiled chicken broth.
Some popular Chinese restaurant in town might decide to add veggies in place of tofu or mix it both and it will still taste so delicious. The best egg drop soup might contain tofu or not, as this is optional.
Chinese egg drop soup is healthy and I like it served with fried rice or Quinoa Fried rice, why other people prefer to eat the egg drop soup with corn and it usually takes approximately 15 minutes to get done.
You can decide to have your own custom made egg drop soup recipe without cornstarch, the choice is yours but whichever way you want to make it, you will find out it is one of the fasted and easy to make Chinese dishes.
2. Sichuan Pork | 水煮肉片 shuizhu ròupiàn
During the weekends, whenever I get to a Chinese restaurant near me, I do love to have some Sichuan Crispy fried pork because of the aromatic crispy shell and tender meat inside and most of the times I eat it directly with the dry mix.
Although Sichuan pork is underated, most people would like to be served the Sichuan twice cooked pork meat or follow the twice cooked pork recipe restaurant style in preparing dear own dish.
Sichuan pork been one of the most popular Chinese dishes, is known for it’s major appearance during Chinese birthday parties.
3. Dim Sum | 點心;
This is a typical traditional Chinese cuisine made with small bite sized portions of food and serves in a small steamer basket or ceramic plate.
There are several Variaties of Dim Sum dishes but it is generally of Cantonese origin, they’re usually served with a full tea brunch.
Dim Sum is an amazing lunch date food that’s tasty, fun and you don’t have to wait for a long time to have yours from the Dim Sum menu.
I like it the most when it has enough beef balls, roast pork buns and the rice noodles rolls. I love a Dim Sum lunch but I don’t overindulge in it because it is fattening.
4. Hot and Sour Soup | 酸辣湯
You can have your easy hot ans sour soup recipe done faster when it is been prepared by an expert although it takes approximately 1hr to get done.
When you want to get a good combination of what’s spicy and has ingredients that makes it taste sour at the same time, then you probably would have to go for the traditional hot and sour soup.
Chinese hot ans sour soup forms part of the variety of several Asian culinary traditional dishes.
Usually, Calories in hot and sour soup bow is low and high in Sodium and fairly rich in protein from pork and tofu.
5. Shrimp and Bean Sprouts | 蝦豆芽雞蛋
You might have heard people talk about the sauteed bean sprout, bean sprout salad and a lot of other bean sprouts recipes such as the Chinese Shrimps and bean sprout fry, low carb, with rice and so on.
Ever wondered what they’re and how they taste?
Beans sprout and shrimps are of the easy to make Cantonese dishes, it is tasty with sweet potato noodles and deliciously served with steamed rice.
Beans sprout is very inexpensive, they’re packed with plant protein, contain no fat and are very low in calories.
The health benefits of eating beans sprout are numerous, Beans sprouts are known for their amazing contributions in weight loss, boosting bone, heart and liver health, it improves metabolism and balances cholesterol level.
6. Chinese Hotpot recipe | 火锅;
Maybe you needed something different on your Chinese diet and no longer the usual chow mein, and the dim sum you’re already getting familiar with. The Hotpot is a good Chinese dish to try out today.
Hotpot taste lies on how the broth is made in most cases having slices of meat, cooked vegetable and you equally have the flexibility of choosing your own broth flavour such as; tomato, mushroom or spicy.
There’re over hundreds of sauce you can choose from.
7. Chinese Wonton soup| 馄饨
Wonton soup is one of the best Chinese dishes I take in place or egg drop soup.
When you get to a Chinese restaurant and they don’t have egg drop soup to offer, you can check their Chinese food menu and take the Wonton soup.
8. Honey Sesame Chicken recipe | 蜂蜜芝麻鸡
Chinese Sesame Chicken is usually crispy delicious Chinese food covered in sticky sweet and savoury honey sauce with sesame before it is tossed on a bowl of steamed rice.
Baked honey sesame chicken recipe, is my most favourite of all sesame chicken sauce.
9. Chinese eggplant with minced pork recipe | 鱼香茄子
Chinese eggplants with minced pork and spicy garlic sauce is a known dish in Chinese kitchen. Even a little amount of minced pork can greatly improve the delicious nature of eggplants, it can be rich in eggplant stir-fly.
Alternatively you can go for the Chinese eggplants with spicy garlic Sauce which are more thinner than western eggplants and can be prepared with chillies and garlic.
10. Shanghai Dumpling | 小笼包
Shanghai Dumpling alternatively called Xiaolong bao or soup dumplings are leavened or unleavened dough minced pork aspic.
I was able to learn how to fold soup dumplings when I frequent a Chinese soup dumplings near me and finally made friends with a few of the staff at the mini Chinese kitchen.
Soup dumplings recipe is tasty, they also exist in variety and the Shanghai dumpling wrappers make it look very attractive.
11. Kung Pao Chicken | 宫保鸡丁
The list of best Chinese dishes as seen on this post would not be complete without mentioning the Kung Pao Chicken.
Kung Pao Chicken is a popular in China it is a stir-fried and prepared with Chicken, peppers, peanuts and vegetables.
This Chinese meal originated from the Sichuan Province of Western China and includes Sichuan peppercorns.
Most big Chinese restaurants prepare authentic Kung pao chicken recipe for their customers who want something crispy for lunch.
Stop asking “what does Kung pao chicken taste like?”, and head to a Chinese restaurant near you, check the menu and get it placed on your table the sweet and sour flavour and starchy texture are common to restaurants in the West.
One of the interesting facts about kung pao chicken is that it was named after Ding Baozhen a Qing dynasty who was the head of Shandong province and later became the Sichuan Governor.
12. Spicy Tofu | 麻婆豆腐
The spicy or mapo tofu is among the best Chinese dishes that are made with minced meat, usually beef or pork minced meal often prepared with beans and spicy sauce.
13. Peking Roasted Duck | 北京烤鸭
Being a food with Beijing origin, Peking Roasted Duck is popularly known by the thin, crisp skin and little sliced meat on it these are the ingredents that is so special about Peking duck.
Peking Roasted Duck can be served with sugar and garlic sauce as dip.
Although it takes more time to get done in most cases it takes up to 3:30hrs to prepare Peking Roasted Duck, it is best served when warm as it can easily cool down fast.
14. Spring rolls | 春卷 chūn juǎn
Spring rolls are a variaty of filled, rolled appetizers or dim sum found in East Asian, South Asian, and in the Southeasterern Asian cruisine.
Every smart cook can learn how to make spring roll without delay and present easy spring roll recip on the dinning table the next day.
Spring roll popularly considered as appetizers appear in different sizes, they’re crispy and very delicious.
15. Fried Shrimp and Cashew | 腰果雞丁
Fried Shrimp with Cashew nuts is a Chinese light meal that is easy to make and tastes great.
If you’re always going for the Cashew Chicken but you needed something quicker this time around, simply go for the shrimp type.
16. Chicken and Broccoli
If you want a Chinese food ready in 12 minutes, then you would probably have to go for the easy chicken and broccoli recipe coated in a savoury sauce.
My Favourite is always honey chicken and broccoli shrimps.
17. Mongolian Meatball Ramen
This is one of the best Chinese food to checkout, it is popular for the presence of ground beef, panko, green onions, egg, garlic and vegetable oil which both makes it have an amazing taste.
18. Szechuan Beef | 水煮牛肉
Szechuan Beef is among the list of best Chinese dishes every Chinese food lover should taste. It has a sweet and spicy flavour due to the presence of chilli peppers, garlic, and Szechuan peppercorn. To most people, the taste is complicated, but it is however sweet.
19. Pork and Shrimp Shumai | 鲜虾猪肉烧卖
One of my favourite dim sum meal is the Pork and Shrimp Shumai. Although a lot of people who ask is Shumai Japanese or Chinese are people who can’t tell the difference between the gyoza dumplings (Japanese) and the Shumai or Siu Mai (Chinese).
Shumai is a quality Chinese dish with amazing pork and prawn filling that gives it a delicious taste.
20. Chinese honey garlic chicken
Making sticky and easy honey garlic chicken takes less time than you can imagine. It is prepared with at least 5 ingredients including the; soy sauce, honey, vinegar and garlic. It is a Chinese dish perfect for an easy weeknight dinner recipe.
If you have not taken honey garlic chicken recipe before, look for a Chinese restaurant near you and check if it is in their Chinese food list.
21. Broccoli With Oyster Sauce
Aside from being on the list of best Chinese dishes, Chinese Broccoli With Oyster Sauce is a healthy and delicious vegetable dish. I have had this dish severally in a Cantonese hotel.
Bonus: Want something more? See this Chinese food Youtube video by The Food Ranger
Summary
At this point, I’m well convinced that you have seen at least a great number of the best Chinese dishes to order in any Chinese restaurant.
Aside from knowing the best traditional Chinese food, you have also seen a lot of them that are not time wasters often referred to as “easy Chinese food recipes” probably because they’re delicious and easy to prepare in a few minutes.
No matter how long it could take to prepare a type of Chinese food, trust me the delicious taste when done is worth the time. For example, the Peking Roasted Duck despite being known as one among the most popular food in China takes approximately 3:30 hours to get done but lovers of roasted duck worry less about the time it takes to roast the duck and other processings involved.
However, if you’ve been wondering what meat do Chinese restaurants use? You can tell from this list of best Chinese foods that Chinese people eat more of; beef, lamb, pork and chicken or fish. Chinese people generally like eating pork meat, not just them, I love pork too.
What’s it you have ordered in a Chinese restaurant before? Share with us other Chinese foods which you think deserve at least 4.5-star rating or which you consider no one should ever order in a Chinese restaurant.
Share your opinions with us using the comment box below and remember to share this wonderful post with anyone who would want to know what a Chinese food taste like for the first time or with someone who wants to go for the best food always.
