The best Chinese restaurants in Liverpool

Just a chopstick’s throw from Liverpool’s Chinese Arch, the original Chamber 36 serves specialities from across East Asia including a strong selection of traditional Chinese dim sum.

Chung Ku is very different from Liverpool’s other Chinese restaurants. It’s a modernist icon on the waterfront just south of Brunswick that looks like a marooned sampan or a strange fish with architectural fins. Its floor-to-ceiling windows flood the place with light and the views across the water to the Wirral are stunning.

Its website proclaims ‘authentic Chinese food’, but the menu at Maggie Fu’s stretches way beyond the borders of the People’s Republic, and the bustling open kitchen serves up plenty more than just its classic stir fries with rice, dim sum dumplings and steamed bao buns.

Man Tsuen Ho’s may be a relative newcomer to Liverpool’s Chinatown but you wouldn’t know. Everything about it looks like it has been on the spot since 1988 and not changed a jot.

Sometimes you don’t want glamour and modern fusion though. You want exactly what made you fall in love with Chinese food all those years ago. It’s prawn cracker as a madeleine moment.

North Garden is a part of Liverpool’s culinary history. This family-run restaurant has been serving seriously addictive Cantonese dishes for well over 30 years.

Sans Cafe is a low-key Liverpool cult favourite with celebrity cachet: it has appeared on The Hairy Bikers, Ricky Tomlinson is a fan and Liverpool FC even used it as a backdrop to promote their new kit. There have been some wobbles with food health and hygiene standards in the past but now Sans Cafe has a clean bill of health and is as popular as ever. Where else can you buy a full English alongside beef chow mein and handmade dumplings?

Wang’s Dumplings is a tiny place with a big reputation on TikTok and a reputation for some of the best dumplings and wontons in the city. It’s also an absolute bargain.

Ying Wah has been serving up Chinese food to loyal Woolton regulars for over 50 years. Restaurants come and go in the blink of an eye these days and it’s the high standards that set Ying Wah apart. You don’t get longevity like this without doing something right.

‘Dim sum, roast meats and big plates’ promises both Yum Cha’s website and the restaurant awning but there are small plates too, perfect for group sharing, and loads to tempt the veggies and vegans of the party: this menu is sizeable without being scary.