One Of America's Tastiest Asiatowns Is A Texas Gem Combining Diverse Influences For An Unforgettable Food Crawl

It may not be America's oldest Chinatown like the one in San Francisco nor is it intimate and walkable like the one in Boston. But Houston's Chinatown, commonly known by locals as Asiatown, has much to attract lovers of diverse cultures. Built on a stretch of Bellaire Boulevard in the southwestern part of Houston, sandwiched by Fondren Road and Texas 6, you'll need a car to explore the vast expanse where the Chinese and Vietnamese majorities meet with people whose families came from Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan, the Philippines, Korea, and Thailand.

The Chinese population of Houston didn't start out so far from downtown. In fact, the original Chinatown was in the neighborhood known as EaDo — East Downtown. The westward expansion didn't begin in earnest until the 1980s. Some trace its roots to the 1983 debut of Diho Market, the first Asian supermarket on Bellaire, quickly followed by several more, including Hong Kong Food Market, which now stands in the Hong Kong City Mall, a centerpiece of the neighborhood that binds the Alief neighborhood, often known as Little Saigon or Viet-Town with more easterly, more heavily Chinese Sharpstown.

But dry facts do nothing to whet your appetite and that's precisely what a discussion of Houston Asiatown should do. That's because the seemingly infinite dining options sprawl on for more than six square miles. Even in a city of more than 13,000 restaurants, Asiatown is unusually packed to the gills with stellar places to eat. This article is an introduction to some of the best places to do it.

The two best ways to get to Asiatown from outside Texas both involve flying. Small William P. Hobby Airport is between 30 and 40 minutes away by car, while heading over from George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) will take an average of 10 to 20 minutes longer.

Either way, it will be beneficial to get a toll tag for your vehicle. There are several inexpensive but less-than-luxurious hotels bordering Asiatown, including Sonesta's ACP Hotel Houston Westchase and Grand Villa Inn & Suites Chinatown/Westchase. Instead, we recommend staying in the Galleria area, which is about a 15-minute drive on I-69 from Dun Huang Plaza, the largest and busiest outdoor mall in Asiatown. There are lots of high-end chain hotels there, but there's nothing quite like The Post Oak, which is so luxe, it has its own Bugatti dealership. If you can afford upwards of $500 per night, go for it!

Once you have a car and a place to stay, venture into Asiatown! You'll most likely be entering it from the east side of Bellaire Boulevard, so start your food crawl at Northern Pasta, where you won't have to spend much for big flavor. A Chinese hamburger, or rou jia mo, is $5.50, while liang pi, delicate cold noodles in a chile-vinegar sauce, are $9.99. From there, you can walk to One Dragon Restaurant. It's been famous for its Shanghainese fare for more than a decade, so stop in for both thin-skinned soup dumplings and pork bao — fluffy orbs with crispy blistered bottoms.

In Houston's Asiatown, there are many dishes you'll struggle to find elsewhere in the country. One of the best examples is Vietnamese bo 7 mon, a seven-course spectacle of beef that you'll find at both Jasmine Asian Cuisine and nearby Saigon Pagolac. Save room for the alphabet soup that ends the meal. 

You can spend a full day just at Dun Huang Plaza, where you'll buy trinkets and Korean face masks between bites. But there are more food businesses than anything else. While Sichuan food is having a moment in the West, Hunan food is just as complexly spicy. Your tastebuds will sizzle when you try a colorful dry pot at Hunan Bistro. There are four locations of Six Ping Bakery on Bellaire Boulevard alone, but the best is steps away from Hunan Bistro. Don't miss the bear-shaped chocolate mousse tarts.

Further west in the Vietnamese corridor, San San Tofu is the best place for vegetarians to eat in Asiatown. What it lacks in the charm of nearby Huong Sen, it makes up for with its remarkably flavorful (and inexpensive) cafeteria-style eats. Pro tip: Portions are larger if you order takeout. Prefer something meaty? Cash-only Thien Thanh specializes in banh cuon, slippery rice rolls filled with proteins. The best of these is grilled pork, which is topped with pork roll. There are countless reasons that Houston's Asiatown is known as one of the best Chinatowns across America, but diversity is one of them. And part of the fun is exploring the strip centers for the next exciting discovery.