Freshly steamed rice noodle rolls, or cheung fun (Cantonese pronunciation), or chang fen (Mandarin pronunciation) are becoming more abundant in Manhattan’s Chinatown and I am… There. For. It.

What Is Cheung Fun?

Cheung fun are thin, pillowy, tender sheets of rice noodles enveloping your choice of topping (for the OG experience, go for the dried shrimp). They are generally drizzled with sweet soy-based sauce, peanut-based sauce, chili sauce, or any combination of the above. Liquid rice noodle batter is made usually from a combination of rice flour, wheat starch, and water. This milky liquid goodness is then poured into square tins, various toppings are sprinkled on top, and then the whole thing is steamed to order. Once cooked thoroughly (but never too much lest those noodles get mushy) the tray is removed from the steamer and the noodle sheet is rolled up to create those wonderful rice noodle swirls of happiness.

How To Get Cheung Fun In Manhattan Chinatown

There are cheung fun restaurants popping up like daisies in Chinatown. You also don’t have to go to a cheung fun-specific spot; the rice noodle roll is a dim sum staple! Yes, it is yet another Chinese breakfast item to add to your bucket list.

Wherever you go, make sure the restaurant is making the cheung fun to order. Usually the smaller grab-and-go places or bakeries selling cheung fun have their steamer oven right behind the front counter and you can watch your beloved noodles getting ladled out into the tray, tucked in for a quick 3-minute steam bath, and finally rolled up before being deposited into your awaiting arms (and belly). Once you have it in your paws, eat it immediately. The texture of the rice noodle is at its absolute best when fresh and can get a bit gummy or gelatinous when cooled and reheated.

The Best Cheung Fun Spots In Chinatown

Here we go! Join me on a virtual food crawl to taste the best cheung fun Manhattan Chinatown has to offer. This list will be updated as I eat my way through more of the city.

Yi Ji Shi Mo Noodle Corp

88 Elizabeth St, New York, NY 10013

646-233-6311

This place is a Chinatown gem. As indicated in the (English translation) of the name, the rice flour used in the batter is freshly stone ground on the daily. This is the kind of place some might be a little intimidated to go to because none of the customers or employees are speaking a lick of English. But don’t let that deter you! The menu has English right underneath the Chinese, you can do the point and smile technique, and let’s face it— it’s a pretty simple menu. You choose the topping that gets rolled up in your rice noodle roll and that’s basically it, easy peasy. Anything you choose will be tasty beyond belief at this place, but the original is the Dried Shrimp Rice Roll. At $2.50 for a small and $3.50 for a large size, most would feel free to try multiple variations and that’s my recommendation as well!

Pros: What sets Yi Ji Shi Mo Noodle Corp apart the rest is the texture of the actual rice noodle part of their cheung fun. It’s not at all gummy or mushy. The rice noodle is definitely soft but maintains a bite that unfortunately gets lost in the cheung fun served by the vast majority of other restaurants.

Cons: Yi Ji Shi Mo Noodle Corp is more conservative with their toppings. This lets the wonderful texture of that rice noodle shine, but the overall flavor will be a little too subtle for some palates. Also, the wait time is usually undesirable — if you just walk in and order, expect to wait about 30min. To get around this, you can call ahead with your order.

Yin Ji Chang Fen Rice Roll

91 Bayard St, New York, NY 10013

212-227-4888

Yin Ji Chang Fen is more of a Chinese breakfast restaurant rather than a hole-in-the-wall rice noodle joint. The rice noodle rolls here are dim sum style, not street food style. This does not make them inferior by any means (quite the contrary, in fact) but makes these cheung fun fundamentally different from and unfair to compare to the street food style cheung fun at other places. The rice noodle rolls at Yin Ji Chang Fen are larger in portion size (and price) and have significantly more filling. We chose the roll with fresh shrimp and Chinese chive flowers and it did not disappoint! The noodles were satisfyingly thin, fresh shrimp was bouncy, and the chives and lettuce lent little nuanced tastes that differed from bite to bite. The soy sauce Yin Ji uses is also top notch— most cheung fun places have a proprietary house blend of soy sauce and Yin Ji has a really wonderful one.

Pros: Yin Ji Chang Fen also offers an assortment of other Chinese breakfast foods like congee, Hong Kong style curry fish ball, and condensed milk toast. We couldn’t resist trying Yin Ji’s Hong Kong style milk tea and were surprised at the silky mouthfeel! Probably the smoothest HK-style milk tea we’ve tried so far. It’s served just a tad on the sweeter side for my taste, but I’d still recommend trying the original formula before asking for less sugar. Yin Ji’s milk tea is a contender among other milk tea greats like S Wan and M Star. Put it on your list of Chinese breakfast cafes to sample the best traditional milk teas in Chinatown. I’m definitely returning to Yin Ji to try more brekkie dishes!

Cons: Rice noodle rolls here are more expensive ($7 – $8) but the portions are bigger and ingredients fancier, so you get what you pay for. There is also usually a line here so consider calling ahead.

Go Believe Bakery

239 Grand St, New York, NY 10002

212-775-0102

For a dried shrimp rice noodle roll, the most expensive ingredient BY FAR is the dried shrimp. Accordingly, most places will serve up a rice noodle roll with about 1-2 蝦米 (xia mi, small dried shrimp) per bite and call it a day. Enter…Go Believe Bakery. I was astonished by the amount of dried shrimp these guys put in their cheung fun. They either made a (very expensive) mistake while making my food or they are simply very generous. There was almost too much shrimp flavor in my dried shrimp rice noodle roll (there’s an opinion I never thought I’d have).

You can watch your rice noodle roll being made to order here. It’s a fun experience watching the steamer trays get systematically filled with rice noodle batter, toppings added, and scraper used to roll the noodles up.

Pros: Freshly made to order (you get a meal and a show as the steamer is in plain sight right behind the counter), very very generous with dried shrimp topping.

Cons: This is a bakery and not to be considered a restaurant to sit down in and eat your cheung fun. It’s more of a grab-and-go place.

S Wan

85 Eldridge St E, New York, NY 10002

212-966-8269

S Wan is one of our most frequented Hong Kong style cafes. It is on the grungier side but oh-so-yummy (do you detect a trend?). What sets S Wan apart from the others in this battle of the Chinatown Cheung Funs is the pan-fried cheung fun. They take individual little rice noodle rolls and pan fry them to develop a delicate crispy golden brown outer shell, all while maintaining the more familiar soft cheung fun texture inside. It’s magical.

Pros: S Wan is the only place in Manhattan Chinatown (to my knowledge, so far) that offers pan-fried cheung fun. It’s also only $3.

Cons: Ambience is lacking here (I personally don’t consider this a con as long as the food is good, but I’m just saying this is not the place to take a date or look for Instagrammable fare). This is a smaller café frequented by locals who don’t speak English. The lady taking your order will stop to answer the phone twice, turn around to shout orders to the cooks in the kitchen, pause to hand over another customer’s take-out order, and then come back to finish taking your order without skipping a beat. It’s a different experience and a little awesome how good these people are at multitasking. But be bold and go here anyway, don’t be scared! The owner speaks some English and will not be mean to you. The food will reward you.

Tonii’s Fresh Rice Noodles

83 Bayard St, New York, NY 10013

646-250-0696

Tonii’s Fresh Rice Noodles is a relatively newer kid on the block, opened in late 2019. Their cheung fun were tasty, but the texture was somewhere between average and good. Tonii’s shares restaurant space with Kam Hing Coffee Shop, known for their sponge cake. Overall, Tonii’s Fresh Rice Noodles is a better-than-average but not outstanding option.

Pros: Larger than average portion size, very reasonable prices (around $3). You can consider Tonii’s an alternative option if Yin Ji Chang Fen down the street has too long a line.

Cons: Tonii’s rice noodle sheets are thicker than optimal. They lack the layered feel of more refined rice noodle rolls.

Cheong Fun Cart

159 Hester St, New York, NY 10013

(No phone number)

There are a couple rice noodle roll carts sprinkled around Chinatown, where a little (usually older) Chinese lady will serve up cheung fun from a little trailer parked on the sidewalk. It is literal street food fare and generally goes for cheaper than larger restaurants, as expected. We’re talking $1.50 for an order of dried shrimp rice noodle rolls. This cart in particular is located at the intersection of Elizabeth St. and Hester St., right outside Hong Kong Supermarket. It doesn’t have it’s own website but you can check out more reviews and photos on their Yelp listing. Depending on who you ask, either this Hester St. “Cheong Fun Cart” or a different “Rice Noodle Cart” on Centre St. and Canal St. is the cart to go with. A third rice noodle cart is the “Grand Street Rice Noodle Cart” at the intersection of Grand St. and Bowery.

I actually think the “Cheong Fun Cart” on Hester St. would be my third choice, after the other two carts, but I frequent Hong Kong Supermarket for groceries and pass by this cart a lot more often. I’ve also had poor luck trying to find the Rice Noodle Cart lady on Centre St— her availability is a lot less reliable.

Pros: At least once, it’s fun to order food from a silver box parked on the sidewalk. And you cannot beat the price.

Cons: Kind of by definition, you shouldn’t be looking for fine, well-thought-out food from a cart. The noodles served here are significantly thicker, thus requiring longer cook time which leads to a gummier texture. It’s not the fine delicate texture you look for especially in the dim sum style rice noodle rolls. This is an extreme comparison, but it’s like comparing a flaky croissant to a denser scone. However— try to have realistic expectations if you’re coming here to get your cheung fun fix from a cart. Two people are working in about 30 square feet of “restaurant” space and that by itself is a feat.

Sun Hing Lung

58 Henry St New York, NY 10002

I am very very sad to say that Sun Hing Lung can only be an honorable mention for now. It is currently closed— initially was “temporarily closed for renovation,” then COVID hit, and they remain closed even now. Sun Hing Lung was a small literal hole-in-the-wall. You stood in line on the sidewalk, ordered through a window, and never stepped foot indoors. The cheung fun here were so good and so cheap ($2), and I’m sad to see them gone for now. I hope they return!

Cheung fun are quintessential to Chinese Breakfast, dim sum, tea time, and snackage in general. Deceptively simple, it’s difficult to make well and the old school style is a bit of a dying breed. When you find a skillful cheung fun spot, hold it dear to your heart and give it your support!