Highest-rated Chinese restaurants in Santa Cruz
Forget General Tso's and chop suey. Today's Chinese restaurants are skipping the American takes on Chinese food and instead are bringing diners on a culinary journey through the diverse regions of China. Fiery chili-infused Sichuan food, stuffed bao from Beijing, Shanghai-style soup dumplings, Guilin rice noodles, and Cantonese seafood and dim sum are just some of what the country has to offer.
By seeing the world through social media, more consumers have learned that there's more to Chinese food than fried rice, sweet and sour chicken, and egg rolls. Consumers increasingly want to go deep into Asian cuisine and understand the variety of flavor profiles, which in turn is influencing how we eat. Forty-five percent of consumers believe that Asian food and flavors will have a big impact on food trends, second to American cuisine by just 1%, according to the American Culinary Federation's 2025 trends report.
That's evident in the rise of chili crisp as a must-have condiment, which was on menus 77.8% more times between 2023 and 2024, compared to just 10.5% for hot honey, according to Technomic.
Social media and restaurant review sites have made it even easier to hunt out unique and delicious options for Chinese food. Stacker compiled a list of the highest-rated Chinese restaurants in Santa Cruz based on diners' reviews on Yelp as of July 2025. Restaurants with at least 20 reviews tagged as "Chinese" on Yelp and within a 10-kilometer radius of Santa Cruz were included. Some restaurants featured may serve other food items besides breakfast food. Also, in an effort to highlight independent businesses and local chains, national chains with more than 10 locations nationally, based on the Yelp data, were not included.
