13 Chinese Dishes That Blew Guy Fieri Away On Diners, Drive-Ins And Dives

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Guy Fieri has earned his place in many Americans' hearts as a comfort celebrity. He's light-hearted and passionate about food, which makes him a joy to watch. Fieri captured lightning in a bottle when he first starred in the hit show "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives" in 2006. Since then, plenty of folks are still eagerly researching the best "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives" restaurants in every state so they, too, can behold the glory of Fieri's favorite dishes. Whenever they travel somewhere new, they're excited to visit even more "Triple-D" joints.

Finding a reliable Chinese restaurant in your area can sometimes be hard. The flavors might be bland, or the oiliness overpowers everything. This is why fans are always delighted to watch Fieri visit Chinese restaurants that know how to balance authentic flavors with American preferences.

So, which Chinese dishes got Guy Fieri the most excited on "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives"? Read on to learn about 13 mouthwatering meals that you should try the next time you order takeout. If you're lucky, you may even be able to visit the same restaurants from the show.

The owner and head chef of Frank's Noodle House in Portland, Oregon, shocked Guy Fieri when he began demonstrating how the hand-pulled noodles are made fresh every day. The first moment of shock came when the chef only added some water to the flour — no eggs, salt, or any other ingredients. Fieri didn't even have time to recover when he learned a few seconds later that the chef kneads the dough by hand for an hour and a half. Fieri asked how this punishment gets doled out, and he couldn't believe that the chef does this task by himself every single day.

The dough gets two 10-minute rests, followed by additional kneading, and then a final hour-long rest to ensure it's as elastic as possible. Afterward, the chef finally cuts the dough into noodles. Fieri is a certified foodie who's learned from countless talented chefs. Still, he looked hilariously hopeless while slinging his noodles and tangling them next to the chef who makes these noodles gracefully by hand every day (although this wasn't one of the cringiest moments on "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives").

The pair tossed their hand-pulled noodles into a boiling pot, then started working on the chicken and fresh veggies that would accompany them. Garlic, cabbage, red and green bell peppers, onion, and scallion come together to bring some crunch to the soft noodles. Fieri needed some time to compose himself after that first bite, then playfully pushed the chef away when he was about to take the plate away from him.

Bao is such a fun food because you never know what surprise is waiting for you within the pillowy exterior. When Guy Fieri visited Boulder, Colorado, he popped into Zoe Ma Ma — a Michelin-Guide recommended establishment — for some homemade bao filled with pork and veggies. The chef is affectionately known as Ma Ma, and her son's desire to open the restaurant caused her to leave retirement behind and share family recipes with the community. A sweet fact that Fieri uncovered is that every dish in the restaurant is prepared on an induction cooktop because the son wants to keep his mother cool while she works in the kitchen.

Ma Ma got Fieri salivating when she whipped up the bao filling. She cooks ground pork with oil, onion, the white part of green onions, cooking wine, salt, sugar, five-spice powder, ginger, sweet bean paste, and celery. Guy had a spoonful of the filling, then warned Ma Ma that she'd better finish preparing the bao before he would eat the rest. Ma Ma expertly stuffs and tucks the dough so the bao is plump and gorgeous. After steaming for 15 minutes, diners have fun dipping their bao into three scrumptious sauces, including crushed chili, ginger-onion, and Sichuan peppercorn.

Open since 1949, Chin's Kitchen is a must-stop Chinese restaurant in Portland, Oregon, that serves food inspired by the flavors of Northeast China. Wendy Li, the owner and chef, uses her mom's recipes. There are plenty of comforting dishes on the menu, but a fan-favorite is the beef noodle soup. Like Frank's Noodle House, Chin's Kitchen also uses house-made noodles. The major difference is that this recipe includes eggs. Fresh noodles can indeed do a lot of heavy lifting, but any soup lover knows that the broth must be the true star of the dish. Li makes her broth with beef shoulder, onion, and ginger, which simmers for two hours.

The spice mix that Li uses to season the braised beef packs a punch. She combines cardamom pods, cinnamon, bay leaves, chilies, Sichuan peppercorns, star anise, ginger, green onions, soy sauce, oyster sauce, sugar, chicken base, and salt. The beef simmers in this mixture for two hours until tender. Li plates the soup with noodles, broth, beef, bok choy, and cilantro. Once Guy Fieri took a bite, he was amazed that Li's spice blend permeated every element of this dish, while the beef was sumptuous.

Down in San Antonio, Texas, foodies can try some of the tastiest pork belly at Sichuan House. A father and daughter decided to run the restaurant together and share the Chinese dishes they made at home.

The daughter starts by simmering a slab of pork belly in a pot of water with ginger, green onions, and cooking wine. It tenderizes there for about 30 minutes. Next, she brushes some aged soy sauce onto the meat. She then tosses the pork belly into the deep fryer for only a few minutes to crisp it up. The real magic comes from the restaurant's Dong Po sauce. Into a pot of water, she tosses yellow cane sugar, garlic, minced ginger, soy sauce, Chinese black vinegar, chicken base, white pepper, and sesame oil. It reduces for 20 minutes. She places the pork belly skin side down, then pours the sauce on top.

The crispy pork belly soaks up that gorgeous sauce for four hours in a steamer. The meat comes out, and that precious juice is saved to pour over top after it's thickened with a cornstarch slurry. This ensures that the meat is bursting with flavor from the inside out. On the side, there's some blanched bok choy. Guy Fieri hilariously did his best to shovel the pork belly into his mouth using chopsticks. "I use the spoon to cut it, that's how tender it was," one diner commented.

Chicken and rice lovers should add Hello Dumpling in Dallas, Texas, to their bucket list. As the name suggests, this restaurant serves all kinds of dumplings. The owner, June Chow, makes them fresh each day. What really stands out is her rice dumplings. She shared that the actual translation is "pearl snowball," and the dish is usually reserved for special occasions.

For the filling, she blends ground chicken, salt, sugar, a scallion and ginger oil, white pepper, jicama, black mushroom, green onion, minced ginger, and sesame oil. Interestingly enough, she uses uncooked rice when assembling the dumplings. She takes round sticky rice that is soaked in water for a bit, adds cornstarch for extra binding power, then carefully rolls a ball of the filling in the rice until it's evenly coated. She pops the dumplings into a steamer for 18 minutes, and then the beautiful, fluffy dumplings are ready.

Chow also makes a dumpling sauce that includes reduced soy paste, garlic, green onion, sesame oil, sugar, and hot water. She serves the dumplings with a refreshing and tangy slaw, which she prepares by folding together shredded cabbage, carrots, onion, salt, sugar, and rice wine vinegar. Guy Fieri popped five dumplings into his mouth quickly and struggled to stop so he could describe the food. He raved about how soft and robust the dumplings are. He even wanted an entire bowl of the slaw.

Kendall, Florida, is home to a unique restaurant called Jamaica Kitchen, which combines Chinese and Jamaican flavors. The co-owner of the restaurant was born in Jamaica, and her grandparents migrated from China, which explains this incredible blend of cuisines. One of the most unique dishes on the menu is pig tail with stewed peas. This is certainly not the Americanized Chinese food that baffles people in China. Pig tail is something that many Chinese folks love to cook. If you've ever tried oxtail, the flavors and textures are comparable. Both cuts are loaded with collagen, and when they're cooked slowly, they release fat that makes the broth divine.

Guy Fieri was hesitant to dive in, but worked through his fear. He noted that the pig tail was strange but very nice. "With stewed peas, if you don't have the pig tail in it, I don't think it's a full dish," the other co-owner noted during the episode. Plus, the peas have a chance to soak up the delicious, fatty broth.

It's not often that average Americans find themselves in Alaska, yet Guy Fieri filmed in North Pole twice for "Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives." Not only did he visit the same city twice, but he also stopped by the same joint: Pagoda Chinese Restaurant. On Fieri's second visit, the owner, Benny Lin, ran out into the parking lot to excitedly usher Fieri inside like an old friend.

To prepare the Cantonese lobster tail, Lin starts by frying lobster pieces in the shell in a wok for a few minutes. He drains the lobster, then adds garlic, black bean sauce, ginger, carrots, green onion, white wine, white pepper, hoisin, and soy sauce to the wok. Once everything comes together, he adds the lobster back in to soak up the juices. Surprisingly, each serving contains three lobster tails. Fieri loved the veggies' freshness and how the sauce enhanced the seafood's natural flavor rather than overpowering it.

If you're ever in the mood for some comforting Chinese food in Memphis, Tennessee, Good Fortune Co. won't let you down. The restaurant serves crawfish dumplings, which are a take on the beloved crab rangoon. To create the filling, the chef mixes whipped cream cheese, fish sauce, lime juice and zest, Thai basil, salt, and crawfish. She stuffs the mixture into their house-made dumpling dough, which is cut fresh each day. The dumplings are folded and fried until they're crunchy on the outside and gooey in the middle.

Once they're hot out of the fryer, the chef tosses the dumplings in a house-made togarashi seasoning, which is made with red Sichuan peppercorns, black and white sesame seeds, mustard seeds, garlic powder, orange peel, ground nori, and gochugaru.

The dumplings are finger-licking good on their own, but the chef also whips up a sweet chili sauce for dunking. The sauce contains water, rice wine vinegar, lime juice, brown and white sugar, Korean chili flakes, salt, soy sauce, sambal, and a cornstarch slurry. Guy Fieri ripped his dumpling open to taste the filling first, and the vibrant citrus delighted him. The fresh crawfish flavor wasn't buried at all, either. The spice blend provides a lovely zip, while the sweet chili sauce cools things down. It's a perfectly balanced dish.

Phoenix, Arizona, is known for having some of the tastiest Mexican and Tex-Mex food since it's so close to the border. One restaurant, Chino Bandido, decided it would be a brilliant idea to combine two beloved cuisines in America: Chinese and Mexican. There's even some Caribbean flair mixed in as well. Diners can build their own bowls by choosing from dozens of menu items, including jerk chicken, refried beans, fried rice, egg foo yung, and quesadillas.

Eve Collins, who co-owns Chino Bandido with her husband, took Guy Fieri into the kitchen to teach him how to make their popular jade red chicken. The sauce includes sesame oil, red chili oil, a secret oil that Fieri couldn't crack, tomato sauce, garlic, powdered sugar, and green onions. "It's like a ketchup hot tub in Flavor Town," Fieri quipped while watching the bubbling sauce. Next, Collins chops some chicken thighs, dredges them in whipped egg whites and spices, then deep-fries them before tossing everything in the red sauce. Fieri burned his mouth gobbling the chicken right out of the wok because he was too excited to try it.

It's safe to say that Americans have fallen in love with Sichuan dishes, from Szechuan chicken to spicy Szechuan green beans. Loaf — a restaurant in Memphis, Tennessee — knows how to capitalize on this obsession. The team created a sandwich that contains fried chicken slathered in a Sichuan pepper and jelly sauce. This would be delicious on its own, but then it's also drizzled with a lush garlic aioli, a house-made chili crisp, and chopped green onions.

The chicken sandwich uses chicken thighs for extra juiciness, and they're brined for 24 hours in salt, pickle juice, shio koji, and buttermilk. They're fried, then they rest in the fridge until cool, then they're flash-fried again for maximum crunchiness. The Sichuan pepper jelly blends dried apricots, canned apricots, sugar, water, coriander, orange, red and green Sichuan peppercorns, salt, aged Kimlan soy sauce, and Zhenjiang vinegar. Needless to say, this sauce is thick, sweet, savory, and spicy in the best ways possible. The house-made chili crisp contains 15 ingredients, so it's incredibly dynamic. Not only are there fried shallots and crispy garlic, but it also includes sunflower seeds for extra crunch.

Guy Fieri opened his mouth as wide as it could go to bite this thick sandwich, and he was instantly blown away. He believed that the chili crisp was top-tier and that the chef's double-frying technique took things to the next level.

When in Burlington, Vermont, "Triple-D" fans should swing by Hong's Chinese Dumplings for a filling meal. What started as a pushcart became iconic enough to open a brick-and-mortar restaurant for the community.

Hong Yu taught Guy Fieri how to make two of the restaurant's most popular dumplings, pork and chicken and cheese. Both the pork and chicken receive a similar treatment of Chinese spices and sauces. What made Fieri scratch his head was adding shredded cheddar cheese into the chicken mixture. This strange but scrumptious combo is a beautiful marriage between traditional Chinese cuisine and Vermont's dairy industry. Yu pushes each dumpling to the limit by stuffing it to the max, then pan-fries and plates them with a sweet-and-sour cranberry sauce. Guy adored both dumplings and the sauce. "I wanna buy it by the gallon," he joked. Luckily enough, Yu gave him a jar, which he comedically shoved in his pocket.

In 2024, Yu announced that she was selling her restaurant. But fear not, because she also explained that she'd pass on her recipes and train the new owner and staff so the Burlington community didn't have to face the heartbreak of losing a staple restaurant.

When Guy Fieri visited Kansas City, Missouri, he stopped by Blue Koi to taste some yummy chicken with a kick. Fans of the show who want to go wherever Fieri recommends should note that the Kansas City location is among many "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives" restaurants that have closed, but Blue Koi still operates in Leawood, Kansas.

The chef walked Fieri through the dish. She starts by massaging sliced chicken breast, then adds cornstarch and a house-made ginger-onion oil. She cooks the chicken and boils some wide noodles at the same time. As the chicken cooks, she adds minced garlic, sugar, rice wine, soy sauce, Chinese barbecue sauce, red pepper, chicken broth, bamboo shoots, and green onions to the pan. Once the noodles are ready, she tosses them in a simple sauce made with the house-made ginger-onion oil and soy sauce until coated.

Finally, she puts the sauced noodles into a bowl and tops them with the chicken and veggies. Fieri appreciated the bite to the full-bodied noodles and their ability to stand up to the spicy chicken. The chicken isn't too spicy, but it's enough heat to excite your taste buds and dive in for more.

Lots of people love bragging about how awesome their family members are in the kitchen, yet not many of us can say that the Imperial Chef to China's last emperor trained our father. At KungFood in Covington, Kentucky, a father-and-son duo serves up mouthwatering Chinese dishes Americans know and love. The best part is that both of these men learned from their elders. This means that diners can pretend that they're royalty, at least for one meal.

Guy Fieri certainly got the royal treatment when the father and son taught him how they make their How Fun noodles, a play on chow fun. Top round goes through a grinder, then baking soda, eggs, soy sauce, sugar, rice wine, cornstarch, oil, and a fabulous array of spices are tossed in to level up the texture and flavor. The mixture marinates for an entire day, so no corners are getting cut.

Once the meat reaches its full potential, they cook it in oil. They slice fresh noodles and fry them in a wok until they're crunchy on the outside but still chewy in the middle. Finally, it's time to mix everything with veggies and a sauce. The sauce is simple with only oyster sauce, soy sauce, white pepper, garlic, ginger, sugar, and sesame oil. Fieri complimented all elements of the dish, saying that the meat is succulent, the sauce hits many incredible notes, and the veggies are tender.