Chinatown
Happy Hour

The most complete happy hour in Chinatown, and the friendliest room to drink it in. Weekdays 3–7pm, straight off their own menu: $8 well drinks and wine, $5 Miller High Life, a $10 shot-and-a-beer, $20 Miller Lite pitchers, and $12 wings, $10 nachos or $7 tots to keep it civil. The house drink is the pickleback – $10, regular or spicy – and on Sundays and Mondays Skrewball shots drop to $6 with $2 off Jameson. The local move: the $18 cheeseburger-and-a-beer runs weekdays noon to 3pm, a long lunch that rolls straight into the window. The honest caveat: big-game nights fill the room, and they book tables by email through their site. They also sell a baby onesie that reads ‘Thanks for coming to Chinatown.’ Noted.

No window to race, because this happy hour never ends. La Diáspora heads its drinks list ‘all day happy hour’ and means it: $4 Tecate, $6 shots of vodka, tequila, whiskey or bourbon, $9 for a Tecate and a shot, $8 mixed wells, $10 New York State wines, and $10 frozen margaritas in hibiscus or passionfruit, made with 100% agave tequila and real juice. Old fashioneds, Manhattans and daiquiris are $12, and the kitchen does heirloom-corn tacos and tortas. The local move: the $14 sugarcane mojito uses juice from Sugarcane Daddy a few doors down at 87 Baxter – not a deal, just a good drink. The honest caveat: ‘all day’ means these are simply the prices, so there is no deeper cut worth waiting for.

Two-dollar oysters and a karaoke room – the most Chinatown happy hour on this page. Asia Roma cooks Italian-Asian at the Chinatown end of Mulberry Street, and its happy hour is mostly about the food: $1.50 a piece for pork-and-shrimp dumplings, spring rolls and satay, $2 for Blue Point oysters, raw clams, wings and grilled shrimp, plus $9 classic cocktails (normally $12), $5 Bud or Coors and $6 Brooklyn Lager or Dogfish Head. The honest caveat: the menu says ‘everyday 3–7pm’, but the restaurant is closed Sundays and opens at 4pm on Saturdays, and that page was last updated in February 2025 – confirm prices when you sit down. The local move: book a karaoke room for a birthday and eat the happy hour first.

The best-value two hours anywhere near Chinatown: dollar oysters and twenty-dollar carafes. Cellar 36 is a natural wine bar with small plates on Market Street, down by the Manhattan Bridge, and its own site says it in one line – happy hour 5–7, dollar oysters, $20 carafes. It opens at 5pm every day and runs to midnight, 2am on Friday and Saturday, and it threw itself a third-anniversary party this August. A dozen oysters and a carafe for two comes to $32 before tip. The honest caveat: it is a small room, six or fewer walk in, and bigger groups have to email ahead. Why it’s an edge: Market Street is Two Bridges on the map, but nearly every step of the walk there from Mott Street is Chinatown.

Five hours of happy hour every day, in the oldest bar on this page. 169 has been pouring on East Broadway since 1916 – it went by the Bloody Bucket once – and its own site posts happy hour from open to 7pm every day, which with 2pm doors is five hours, weekends included. A New Orleans transplant bought it in 2006 and it shows: leopard-print pool table, DJ Chucky Love playing soul, funk, jazz and disco on weekends, and a claim to the original pickle martini. The honest caveat: the site posts the window, not the prices, so we don’t print any. Why it’s an edge: this is East Broadway out past the Manhattan Bridge – Two Bridges on most maps, a good ten minutes east of Mott Street.

The prettiest happy hour on the Chinatown line, and it is underground. Bacaro is a Venetian-style wine bar at 136 Division St with a candlelit brick basement, and its happy-hour menu runs 5 to 6:30pm: $12 spritzes, Bellinis, martinis and negronis, $10 glasses of prosecco, gavi, rosato and bardolino, and $5 Forst lager. The food is the sleeper – six crostini, a tramezzino or a plate of spaghetti pomodoro, $10 each. The honest caveat: the menu doesn’t say which days, the room is closed Mondays, and that page was last updated in October 2025 – ask before the second round. Why it’s an edge: this end of Division Street is the seam that gets called Dimes Square, Chinatown or the Lower East Side, depending on who is talking.

The rooftop pick, and we will own the stretch. The Highlight Room sits 16 floors above Broome and the Bowery on top of the Moxy Lower East Side – three blocks north of Canal Street, so the LES on any map – but it is the nearest a Chinatown night gets to a skyline. Golden Hour runs Monday to Thursday, 5–7pm: $10 house wine, $9 mini martinis, $8 beer. The room is glass on every side, with a tree spreading across it and out onto the terrace. The honest caveat: Golden Hour is Monday to Thursday only, so a Friday drink up here is a full-price drink. The local move: go straight from work and claim the terrace by 5:15.

An herbal-shop front, a $12 lychee martini and dim sum from $3. Jade & Clover is a cocktail lounge hidden behind a traditional apothecary storefront on Chrystie Street, opened by a crew with Chinatown roots, and its happy hour runs from opening until 8pm: the clarified lychee martini and ube daiquiri are $12 (the cocktail list is $19–$21 later), beer is $8, wine $10, and the dim sum runs from a $3 pork bun to $7 for three soup dumplings. The local move: come at 6 on a weeknight, order the lychee martini with the soup dumplings, and settle the bill before the back room fills. The honest caveat: it calls its own block the Lower East Side, the window is two hours a night, and parties of four or more get a 20% gratuity added.

No happy hour, and asking for one here would be like haggling with your pharmacist. Apotheke is Chinatown’s default serious cocktail bar, an apothecary-styled room on Doyers Street where the menu is sorted like a medicine cabinet – Health & Beauty, Aphrodisiacs, Pain Killers, Stimulants, Euphorics, Stress Relievers – with ingredients made in-house daily. The current list is dated summer 2026. The local move: it opens at 6:30pm seven nights a week, first come, first served, so arrive at 6:30, not 10. The honest caveat: their own site says sophisticated attire is encouraged and entry is at the host’s discretion, and parties of six or more get an automatic 20% gratuity. Go here instead if price is the point: Whiskey Tavern is a five-minute walk.

The newest serious room in Chinatown, and the free snacks are the only discount. Opera House opened in fall 2025 beneath Chinese Tuxedo, at the address where New York’s first Chinese theatre ran from 1893 to 1911. All twelve signature cocktails are named for Chinese operas and all cost $24 – Flower Drum with baijiu, yuzu and black bean, Tale of the Moon with salted egg and chestnut – and the mala-spiced chickpeas and lotus root chips come free. The honest caveat: no happy hour, a limit of four credit cards per party, and 20% added for groups of six or more. The local move: it opens at 5pm every day, ninety minutes before Apotheke a few doors up – one drink here, then the short walk.

Soup dumplings and your own six-pack: the classic Chinatown pregame. Deluxe Green Bo has been making Shanghainese soup dumplings on Bayard Street since 1982, and it is BYOB: carry in a six-pack and the staff will open it and hand you cups. Order the crab-and-pork xiao long bao, the fried pork buns, the scallion pancake and the hot-and-spicy wontons in peanut sauce and chili oil. The round tables in the back seat about six. The honest caveat: it doesn’t take credit cards, so bring cash. The local move: on a weekday, eat at 5:30 and you are a three-minute walk from Whiskey Tavern’s last hour of happy hour on Baxter.

The single best dish to eat before a night out in Chinatown, and you can bring the beer. Spicy Village’s big tray chicken – bone-in chicken and potatoes stewed with Sichuan peppercorn and star anise – easily feeds two, and you should always add the hand-pulled noodles. It is BYOB, so the drinks budget is whatever you carried in. Round out the table with soup dumplings, the pork pancake and the scallion dumplings. The honest caveat: the room is tiny and it can’t take parties bigger than six. The local move: go as four, order one big tray with noodles plus two sides, and carry in one six-pack between you. Then walk ten minutes west to Whiskey Tavern if it is a weekday before 7.

The most New York dinner on this page. Wo Hop has served what it calls ‘old-fashioned chop suey style food’ from the basement at 17 Mott St since 1938, now in its third generation of ownership and a James Beard America’s Classics winner in 2022. Get the crispy fried dumplings, beef and broccoli and a plate of fried rice, and cover the table in beer bottles like everyone else. The walls are papered in signed dollar bills – bring one, and a Sharpie. The honest caveat: it is cash only, and the 2am Wo Hop runs are history – the hours were cut in 2020 and the basement now closes in the evening. The local move: expect a twenty-minute line, eat fast, and be at the bar by eight.

The pre-drinks dinner with the best room, on the same short street as the two best cocktail bars in Chinatown. Nom Wah opened at 13–15 Doyers in 1920 as a bakery and tea parlor, has held 11–13 Doyers since 1968, and serves dim sum every day from 11am to 9pm, holidays included. It is a diner-style room – red booths, chrome stools, no carts – and it takes reservations for parties of three to five, Monday to Thursday. The honest caveat: it is the most touristed room on the street, and the line proves it. The local move: book a weeknight table for 7pm; Apotheke at No. 9 and Opera House at No. 5 are a few steps away when you are done.

The best group dinner in Chinatown that comes with a free drinks budget. Peking Duck House carves whole ducks at the table on Mott Street, and the drinks section of its Chinatown menu is soda, Perrier and water – that’s it – because it is BYOB. Bring the wine, order the duck with its pancakes, and let a two-floor room built for big round tables do the rest. It runs until 10:30pm Sunday to Thursday and 11pm on Friday and Saturday. The honest caveat: beyond the duck the long menu is fine rather than thrilling, and the set duck dinner needs at least four people. The local move: call ahead to book a big table, and ask about corkage while you are on the phone.

The vegetarian answer, and the only kosher kitchen on this page. Buddha Bodai has cooked meat-free Chinese food at the foot of Mott Street since 2004 – dumplings, vegetarian dim sum, mock duck and taro ‘ribs’ – and it is BYOB, so the bottle comes from you. Nobody in a mixed group has to negotiate the menu. The honest caveat: the kitchen closes at 9pm, so treat it as a 6:30 dinner rather than a late one. The local move: eat early, then walk up to Baxter Street, where La Diáspora’s happy-hour prices have no cutoff.