How Many Chinese Restaurants Are There in the US?
Over 36,000 Chinese restaurants exist in the United States according to Restaurantji. More than a third of restaurants (37,3%) are located in just four states – California (13,8%), New York (10,7%), Texas (6,8%), and Florida (6%). The states with the least amount of Chinese restaurants are South Dakota, Wyoming, and North Dakota – they only have 150 restaurants combined.
A vast majority of Chinese restaurants in the US are reasonably priced - over 34,000 of them (95,3%) are in the $ to $$ price range. The largest Chinese food chain in the US is Panda Express, with over 2300 locations across the county. This is nearly 6% of all Chinese restaurants and 75% of all Chinese restaurant chains. P.F. Chang's, Pei Wei, and Hibachi Grill are among other known Chinese restaurant chains.
How Chinese Food Became Popular in the US?
It all started in 1849 in San Francisco, California, where the first known US Chinese restaurant - Canton Restaurant - opened. Chinese food places across California were called "chow chow houses" and became popular because of their taste and low prices. During the 1920s, chop suey restaurants were seen as a cool way for Californians to spend an evening out — despite the fact chop suey wasn't real Chinese food. It was invented in America by Chinese immigrants, and means, funny enough, something like "leftovers."
A survey by the National Restaurant Association showed that in 1989, Chinese food was eaten more often than 19 other types of food, according to Yong Chen’s essay "The Rise of Chinese Food in the United States".
Why Do Americans Love Chinese Food?
Chinese food is very popular in the US for many reasons. One of them is the different cooking methods like stir-frying, deep-frying, steaming, boiling, roasting, and braising. Another is seasonings and spices that make Chinese food full of its unique taste. Popular ingredients include soy sauce, oyster sauce, black bean sauce, star anise, five-spice powder, and Sichuan peppercorns. The various cooking styles and lots of spices are why people love Chinese cuisine so much. One of the most well-liked dishes is Kung Pao Chicken - over 90% of all Chinese restaurants in the US have it on their menus.
8 Culinary Traditions Of Chinese Cuisines
Cantonese (Guangdong) - With access to the coast, this cuisine makes great use of imported foods and fresh seafood along with almost all edible meats except lamb and goat. It's known for dim sum, barbecued meats like char siu pork, and clear broths. Wok cooking techniques are prominent.
Fujian - Influenced by its coastal, mountainous terrain, this cuisine frequently uses seafood, mushrooms, bamboo shoots and other woodland ingredients. It emphasizes umami flavors in light yet flavorful dishes like the lavish Buddha Jumps Over the Wall soup made with many expensive delicacies.
Jiangsu - With several distinct styles like Huaiyang and Yangzhou, this cuisine is prized for exquisite cooking techniques that keep meats tender yet firm. It's also celebrated for artistic plate presentations of dishes like sweet and sour squirrel-shaped fish.
Anhui - Though similar to Jiangsu cuisine, Anhui style puts less emphasis on seafood and more on locally grown herbs, vegetables, and distinct dishes like stinky tofu (fermented and deep-fried tofu) and smelly mandarin fish cooked in a spicy bean sauce.
Shandong - An influential northern cuisine with two main styles - the light seafood-based Jiaodong style and the soup-based Jinan style that gives broths a central role. Classic Shandong dishes include braised chicken, sea cucumber and the original moo shu pork.
Sichuan - Renowned for its bold, uncompromising flavors and use of Sichuan peppercorns that create a unique mouth-numbing sensation. This fiery cuisine also makes liberal use of preserved ingredients like pickles and salted items in popular spicy classics like mapo tofu and kung pao chicken.
Hunan - Like Sichuan food, Hunan cuisine is famous for being intensely hot and spicy, generously using chili peppers, garlic and shallots. However, the heat is purely spicy rather than mouth-numbing. With many agricultural specialties, it creates distinctly fragrant, fiery yet humble home-style dishes.
Zhejiang - Generally lighter and fresher, this coastal cuisine features four main styles utilizing abundant seafood and ingredients like bamboo shoots and Jinhua ham. It's known for steamed, braised and drunken seafood dishes, beggar's chicken and soupy xiao long bao dumplings.
Most Popular Chinese Dishes in The US
Restaurantji analyzed hundreds of thousands of user reviews from Chinese restaurant pages to find out which American-Chinese dishes people talk about most positively. And here are the results we came up with:
Orange Chicken - no wonder this particular dish was among the leaders in mentions in positive reviews. Orange chicken originated as a simple stir-fry with a citrus-flavored sauce made from orange peels in Guangdong, China. When Chinese immigrants opened restaurants in America, the dish evolved to cater to American tastes. Chefs started deep frying the chicken and creating sweeter, thicker sauces. This led to the development of the crispy, sweet orange chicken dish that became immensely popular in Chinese-American restaurants.
Panda Express reported selling over 65 million pounds of its iconic orange chicken dish in 2013 alone, showing how popular this dish became with Americans.
Here are some of the best spots across the country to try it yourself:
P.F. Chang's in Gainesville, FL
Egg Drop Soup - Egg drop soup has been around for a very long time, but its origins are quite sophisticated. In imperial Cantonese courts, it was a way for chefs to showcase their skills by swirling eggs into a clear broth made with rooster and Jinhua ham to create a flower-like gelatin texture.
The name "egg drop soup" comes from the way it's made - dropping beaten eggs into hot broth or stock. In Chinese, it's called "egg flower soup" because the swirling egg creates flowery patterns. It is made from eggs, chicken broth or stock, rooster meat, Jinhua ham, and seasonings like salt, white pepper and sesame oil.
Some of the best places to try:
Great China in Albuquerque, NM
Wonton Soup - Wontons have been around since the Qing Dynasty in China. Originally a dish for rich families, wonton soup became more common after World War II. It is now a very popular Chinese dish eaten all over the states, with many different versions.
Wonton soup is served by first placing a spoon in the bowl, then wontons, garnishes like green onions, and noodles stacked on top. Hot broth is then poured over everything. Some restaurants serve the wontons and noodles separately from the broth so you can eat them individually if you prefer.
Restaurantji suggests these restaurants to try Wonton Soup:
Wu's Wonton King in New York, NY
Chicken Fried Rice - Fried rice has been around since the Sui dynasty in China from 589-618 AD. It was created as a practical way to use up leftover cooked rice. People would stir-fry the leftover rice with whatever other ingredients they had on hand, like vegetables, meat, and soy sauce. The version called golden fried rice gets its yellow color from mixing the rice with egg yolks before stir-frying it. Fried rice was originally made to prevent wasting food by using up leftovers.
Visit these places to try the good old Chicken Fried Rice yourself:
General Tso's Chicken – General Tso’s Chicken is a tasty mix of sweet, savory, spicy and tangy flavors with crispy fried chicken pieces. It's a super popular Chinese takeout dish that hits all the right spots!
The name comes from the Hunan province of China and a respected military leader called General Tso. But some people say it may have actually been brought to the US by Taiwanese chefs.
Either way, we know it became one of the most beloved Chinese foods in America, because of crispy chicken coated in a sticky, spicy, savory sauce
Based on the analysis of the reviews, Restaurantji recommends these restaurants:
Emerald Garden in Shrewsbury, PA
Fortune Cookies Come from Japanese Immigrants
Fortune cookies are associated with Chinese-American restaurants, but their roots trace back to Japanese immigrants. At the rise of chop suey restaurants popularity in the 1920s-1930s, many Japanese immigrants also owned the restaurants. In 1914 in California, a Japanese-American owned tea garden started to hand out cookies with “thank you” notes tucked inside.
Most "Chinese" or "Asian" Salads Were Invented in America.
Jennifer 8. Lee, the writer and producer of the documentary "The Search for General Tso", says that Chinese chicken salad and other so called "Asian" salads were born in the US, not in Asian cuisines. Chinese people usually cook their greens rather than eat them raw in salads. The word "Chinese" is often used in the US for dishes that don’t have Chinese origins. Chinese people refer to their cuisine as just "food" with no need to specify it as “Chinese”.
Take-Out Containers Are Also an American Invention.
American-Chinese take-out food is often associated with the red-and-white paper cartons with a picture of a pagoda on them. Well, these containers are about as American as it gets. Originally called "paper pails", they were invented by Frederick Weeks Wilcox in 1894 in Chicago. In the 1970s, a designer from Fold-Pak, a company that made these paper pails, added iconic red pagoda artwork and "thank you" lettering that is now strongly associated with these containers.
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“Delicious and authentic! Must try the Chili Garlic Naan!!! We had Panang Curry and Tikka Masala…both expertly balanced and spiced.”