Yelp's No. 1 Chinese Restaurant Is A Small Hong-Kong Style Noodle Shop In Queens

Bigger doesn't necessarily mean better, and that certainly proves to be true when it comes to Yelp's No. 1 rated Chinese restaurant. In Yelp's 2024 Top 100 Chinese Restaurant list, the gold medal went to Maxi's Noodle, a small, woman-owned Hong-Kong noodle and wonton shop located in Queens, New York. The shop is run by Hong-Kong born and New-York raised Maxi Lau, who learned the art of making wontons after her mother passed away from the same family friends who taught her how to make them.

After months of learning how to chop scallions and perfectly wrap wontons in only four to five seconds, Lau decided to open a pop-up in her aunt's cafe in Flushing, Queens in honor of her late mother. The pop-up instantly became a neighborhood hit and opened its first storefront in September 2019. Despite facing challenges due to the global pandemic, the shop survived thanks to Lau's grit and the growing customer loyalty and recognition. Maxi's Noodle has since expanded to two locations in Queens and most recently opened a six-month pop-up at Pearl River Food Mart in Manhattan.

It's no surprise that Yelp's No. 1 rated Chinese restaurant is a no-frills, all house-made shop with a menu written in Chinese. Menu items feature plain soup, noodle soup, and lo mein (not to be confused with chow mein), amongst various traditional appetizers and drinks. While the shop might be named Maxi's Noodles, it instead became best known for its wonton "toppings" included with the main courses.

These wontons, however, aren't your classic bite-size wontons that you might find at other Chinese restaurants. Instead, they require a minimum of three to four large bites and, in each one, you get a mixture of juicy shrimp, ground pork, soft wonton wrapper, and rich, home-made broth. If you still aren't full from these jumbo wontons, you can grab a dozen frozen ones to go and make at home for a rainy night in. Besides its large wontons and different types of dumplings, Maxi's also specializes in homemade duck egg noodles served in soup, although you can also choose flat rice noodles, vermicelli, or udon.