A Chinese restaurant is an establishment that serves a
Chinese cuisine
Chinese cuisine encompasses the numerous cuisines originating from China, as well as overseas cuisines created by the Chinese diaspora. Because of the Chinese diaspora and historical power of the country, Chinese cuisine has influenced many o ...
. Most of them are in the
Cantonese
Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding a ...
style, due to the history of the
Chinese diaspora
Overseas Chinese () refers to people of Chinese birth or ethnicity who reside outside Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan. As of 2011, there were over 40.3 million overseas Chinese.
Terminology
() or ''Hoan-kheh'' () in Hokkien, ...
and adapted to local taste preferences, as in the
American Chinese cuisine
American Chinese cuisine is a cuisine derived from Chinese cuisine that was developed by Chinese Americans. The dishes served in many North American Chinese restaurants are adapted to American tastes and often differ significantly from tho ...
and
Canadian Chinese cuisine
Canadian Chinese cuisine (french: Cuisine chinoise canadienne) is a popular style of Canadian cooking original to take-out and dine-in eateries found across Canada. It was the first form of commercially available Chinese food in Canada. This c ...
. The Chinese restaurants in the Netherlands usually
combine Cantonese and
Indonesian meals on their menu.
''Chinese takeouts'' (
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
and
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...
) or ''Chinese takeaways'' (
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...
and
Commonwealth
A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. Historically, it has been synonymous with "republic". The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the ...
) are terms to describe the act of ordering the meal(s) with the intent to eat the food at another location, such as at work or home. It can be found either as a service option of eat-in establishments or as separate establishments.
History
United States
Chinese restaurants in the United States began during the
California gold rush
The California Gold Rush (1848–1855) was a gold rush that began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California f ...
, which brought twenty to thirty thousand immigrants across from the
Canton
Canton may refer to:
Administrative division terminology
* Canton (administrative division), territorial/administrative division in some countries, notably Switzerland
* Township (Canada), known as ''canton'' in Canadian French
Arts and ente ...
(Kwangtung or Guangdong) region of China. The first documented Chinese restaurant opened in 1849 as th
Canton Restaurant By 1850, there were five restaurants in
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...
. Soon after, significant amounts of food were being imported from China to America's west coast. The trend spread eastward with the growth of the American railways, particularly to
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
.
At the ratification of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 there were only 14 restaurants in San Francisco.
However, the
Chinese Exclusion Act
The Chinese Exclusion Act was a United States federal law signed by President Chester A. Arthur on May 6, 1882, prohibiting all immigration of Chinese laborers for 10 years. The law excluded merchants, teachers, students, travelers, and diplo ...
allowed merchants to enter the country, and in 1915 restaurant owners became eligible for merchant visas. This fueled the opening of Chinese restaurants as an immigration vehicle. The Chinese Exclusion Act forced Chinese immigrants to move away from wage work to self employment through laundries and restaurants. , the U.S. had 46,700 Chinese restaurants.
There has been a consequential component of
Chinese emigration
Waves of Chinese emigration have happened throughout history. They include the emigration to Southeast Asia beginning from the 10th century during the Tang Dynasty, to the Americas during the 19th century, particularly during the California go ...
of illegal origin, most notably
Fuzhou people
Fuzhou people (; Foochow Romanized: ''Hók-ciŭ-nè̤ng''), also known as, Foochowese, Hokchew, Hokchia, Hokchiu, Fuzhou Shiyi people (), Eastern Min or Mindong refer to Chinese who originate from the Fuzhou and Mindong regions and the Gutian a ...
from
Fujian Province
Fujian (; alternately romanized as Fukien or Hokkien) is a province on the southeastern coast of China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its ...
and
Wenzhounese
Wenzhounese (), also known as Oujiang (), Tong Au () or Au Nyü (), is the language spoken in Wenzhou, the southern prefecture of Zhejiang, China. Nicknamed the "Devil's Language" () for its complexity and difficulty, it is the most divergent div ...
from
Zhejiang Province
Zhejiang ( or , ; , also romanized as Chekiang) is an eastern, coastal province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable cities include Ningbo and Wenzhou. Zhejiang is bordered by Jiang ...
in
Mainland China
"Mainland China" is a geopolitical term defined as the territory governed by the China, People's Republic of China (including islands like Hainan or Chongming Island, Chongming), excluding dependent territories of the PRC, and other territorie ...
, specifically destined to work in Chinese restaurants in New York City, beginning in the 1980s. Adapting Chinese cooking techniques to local produce and tastes has led to the development of American Chinese cuisine. Many of the Chinese restaurant
menu
In a restaurant, the menu is a list of food and beverages offered to customers and the prices. A menu may be à la carte – which presents a list of options from which customers choose – or table d'hôte, in which case a pre-established seque ...
s in the U.S. are printed in
Chinatown, Manhattan
Manhattan's Chinatown () is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York City, bordering the Lower East Side to its east, Little Italy to its north, Civic Center to its south, and Tribeca to its west. With an estimated population of 90,000 to 1 ...
.
United Kingdom
In the early 1880s, Chinese food items and eating houses appeared in
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
and
Liverpool
Liverpool is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the List of English districts by population, 10th largest English district by population and its E ...
, mainly visited by Chinese seamen and students.
In 1884, Chinese food was made available as part of an exhibition featuring a 'restaurant' in the International Health Exhibition in
South Kensington
South Kensington, nicknamed Little Paris, is a district just west of Central London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Historically it settled on part of the scattered Middlesex village of Brompton. Its name was supplanted with ...
, London.
In 1907 or 1908,
the first recorded Chinese restaurant was opened in
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
. The rise in the number of Chinese restaurants in the UK only began after the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
, and has been attributed to returning
service personnel from
Hong Kong
Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a List of cities in China, city and Special administrative regions of China, special ...
.
The restaurants were operated by Hong Kongers who moved to the UK. One restaurant that stands out in the history of Chinese restaurants in the UK is the
Kuo Yuan
The Kuo Yuan was a Chinese restaurant on Willesden High Road, Willesden, London, England, which played an important part in the history of Chinese cuisine in the UK. In particular, it was the first restaurant in the UK to serve Pekinese dishes ...
which in 1963 was the first restaurant to serve Peking duck.
In 2003, the first British Chinese restaurant achieved a
Michelin star
The Michelin Guides ( ) are a series of guide books that have been published by the French tyre company Michelin since 1900. The Guide awards up to three Michelin stars for excellence to a select few establishments. The acquisition or loss of a ...
. In the United Kingdom, the business employed a large percentage of Chinese immigrants in the 1980s (90% in 1985). Opening a restaurant or takeaway gave a relatively low capital cost entry for Chinese families into self-employment.
Many takeaways served a pseudo-Chinese cuisine based around western tastes, and the limited cooking skills and experience of the shop owners.
In 2011, the
Ming-Ai (London) Institute launched the British Chinese Food Culture project with a grant from the
Heritage Lottery Fund
The National Lottery Heritage Fund, formerly the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), distributes a share of National Lottery funding, supporting a wide range of heritage projects across the United Kingdom.
History
The fund's predecessor bodies were ...
, aimed at exploring and tracking the changes in Chinese food throughout its history in the United Kingdom.
The 2020
coronavirus pandemic has negatively impacted many Chinese restaurants in the UK, with a number of restaurants in London's
Chinatown
A Chinatown () is an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside Greater China, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as "Chinatown" exist throughout the world, including Europe, North America, South America, Asia, Africa and Aust ...
in particular facing financial difficulty,
due to lockdown restrictions and
social distancing
In public health, social distancing, also called physical distancing, (NB. Regula Venske is president of the PEN Centre Germany.) is a set of non-pharmaceutical interventions or measures intended to prevent the spread of a contagious dis ...
as well as prejudice against Chinese takeaways which the
BBC describe as "unfounded".
Australia
At the beginning of the 21st century, Chinese restaurants had been present in a significant majority of Australian cities and towns for over fifty years, and in many places for over one hundred and fifty years.
They emerged as commercial enterprises on the
Victorian gold fields.
The significant majority of original Chinese migration came from
Kwangtung Province
Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...
in southern China, heavily influencing the style of food, consisting of fresh vegetables and fruit, with fish, poultry, and pork, with rice, herbs and spices.
One third of all cooks in Australia were Chinese by 1890.
Netherlands
There are many Chinese restaurants in the
Netherlands
)
, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
,
although the number has fallen in the decade preceding 2019.
The first Chinese restaurant opened in the 1920s. Chinese food in the Netherlands is often inspired by
Indonesian cuisine
Indonesian cuisine is a collection of various regional culinary traditions that formed the archipelagic nation of Indonesia. There are a wide variety of recipes and cuisines in part because Indonesia is composed of approximately 6,000 popula ...
owing to the Netherlands' colonisation of Indonesia.
In 2019, it was reported that the previous decade had seen a 22% decline in the number of Chinese-Indonesian restaurants in the Netherlands, whereas the number of other restaurants increased by 15%.
Researchers attributed this to Chinese restaurants not meeting "modern" desires of consumers, including outdated décor and fatty food considered unappealing to an increasingly health-conscious population.
In 2020, a number of Chinese restaurants began trialling the use of
service robots, including in
Renesse and
Maastricht
Maastricht ( , , ; li, Mestreech ; french: Maestricht ; es, Mastrique ) is a city and a municipality in the southeastern Netherlands. It is the capital and largest city of the province of Limburg. Maastricht is located on both sides of the ...
.
A study published in 2019 raised concerns regarding
labour trafficking in Chinese restaurants in the country, due to the migrants' "vulnerability to exploitation" and urged protection for migrants against "extreme forms of labour exploitation" seen across Europe.
Germany
In 1928, one of
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...
's first Chinese restaurants opened in the
Kantstraße region of Berlin, known for its large Chinese community.
By 1966, there were 100 Chinese restaurants across Germany; in 1992 this had increased to over 3,000.
Today, Chinese restaurants can be found throughout Germany to the extent that, in 2016, almost every German city with a population of over 15,000 has at least a single Chinese restaurant.
The largest concentration is found in
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...
where restaurants have been known to pair traditional Szechuan- and Shanghai-inspired dishes with German wines. Many students from China and Hong Kong studying in Germany open Chinese restaurants.
Egypt
The majority of
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning the North Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via a land bridg ...
's Chinese restaurants are found in
Cairo
Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metr ...
, described by ''
Slate
Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...
'' in 2015 as "Shanghai on the Nile" due to its burgeoning Chinese food scene.
In 2000, periodical ''
Flavor and Fortune'' recorded between 7 and 8 restaurants in Cairo and around "a dozen" in the country, although the number was increasing.
In 2020,
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning the North Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via a land bridg ...
's Health Ministry launched a campaign aimed at inspecting Chinese restaurants over food safety concerns in light of the COVID-19 epidemic,
however Egypt denied reports that premises were being raided.
See also
*
American Chinese cuisine
American Chinese cuisine is a cuisine derived from Chinese cuisine that was developed by Chinese Americans. The dishes served in many North American Chinese restaurants are adapted to American tastes and often differ significantly from tho ...
*
British Chinese cuisine
*
Chinatown, Manhattan
Manhattan's Chinatown () is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York City, bordering the Lower East Side to its east, Little Italy to its north, Civic Center to its south, and Tribeca to its west. With an estimated population of 90,000 to 1 ...
*
Chinese in New York City
The New York metropolitan area is home to the largest and most prominent ethnic Chinese population outside of Asia, hosting Chinese populations representing all 34 provincial-level administrative units of China. The Chinese American population ...
*
Chinatown in Boston
*
Chinatown in Chicago
*
Chinese takeout container
*
List of Chinese restaurants
This is a list of notable Chinese restaurants. A Chinese restaurant is an establishment that serves Chinese cuisine outside China. Some have distinctive styles, as with American Chinese cuisine and Canadian Chinese cuisine. Most of them are in th ...
*
List of restaurants in China
This is a list of notable restaurants in China.
Restaurants
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Coffee and tea houses
*
*
*
*
Fast food chains
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
See also
* Chinese cuisine
* Chinese restaurant
* Chinese restaura ...
References
{{Authority control
*
American Chinese cuisine
Canadian Chinese cuisine
Chinese cuisine