100 Chinese Restaurant Name Ideas, From Sichuan Kitchens to Dim Sum and Hot Pot

Short answer: A good Chinese restaurant name tells guests which kitchen they're walking into (Sichuan, Cantonese, dim sum, noodles or hot pot) and is easy to say for everyone who will look for it. A Chinese restaurant name can also draw on older customs: a place name for the cuisine, the owner's name with a suffix such as Kee (記), or a lucky character such as 福 (good fortune). Below are 100 ideas in 10 styles, including playful names built on food and cooking, what those naming customs mean, and the checks to run before you order the sign. Any of these names may already be in use, so search trademarks, business registers, domains, handles and Google Maps before you choose one.

Key takeaways

• Name the region or the dish. "Chinese food" covers many cuisines, and Sichuan's numbing málà, Cantonese roast meats, dim sum, hand-pulled noodles and hot pot each give you different words.
• If you add Chinese characters, choose simplified (the standard in mainland China, Malaysia and Singapore) or traditional (official in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan) to suit your cooking and your guests, and have a fluent reader check them.
• Old customs carry meaning. 記 after a name (Kee in Cantonese, jì in Mandarin) marks a local shop or restaurant, 8 sounds like 發 "to prosper", and 4 sounds close to "death" in Cantonese, so keep it out of the name.
• Funny names should joke about food, cookware or places. Leave out anything that plays on accents, mock-Chinese spelling or stereotypes about Chinese people.
• These names are starting points. Any of them may already be trading near you, so check before you commit. In the US, a trademark application with Chinese characters must include a transliteration and the English meaning, if there is one.

In this guide

• How to name a Chinese restaurant in 8 steps
• 100 Chinese restaurant name ideas
• Sichuan restaurant names
• Cantonese and roast-meat names
• Dim sum and teahouse names
• Noodle bar names
• Hot pot names
• Family-name and Kee names
• Auspicious-word names
• Dumpling and street-food names
• Modern and minimal names
• Playful and pun names
• Chinese naming conventions, explained
• Chinese restaurant name formulas
• Checks before you commit
• How Menumigo fits
• FAQ

How to name a Chinese restaurant in 8 steps

The method is the one in our café names guide, adjusted for a Chinese kitchen.

1. Write the concept in one line. "A Sichuan room with hot pot at weekends", "a Cantonese roast-meat counter", "a dim sum teahouse" and "a hand-pulled noodle bar" lead to different names.
2. Decide on the languages. English only, a romanized Chinese word, Chinese characters, or a mix. A restaurant can have an English name and a separate Chinese name; they don't have to be translations of each other.
3. List 20 to 30 words. Take them from your dishes, cooking methods (wok, steam, braise, simmer), the region or city your recipes come from, a family name, a lucky word and your street.
4. Combine them with the formulas below until you have 30 to 40 candidates.
5. Cut the hard ones. Drop anything over three words, anything a caller would have to spell out, and anything that sounds like a chain you already know.
6. Ask a fluent speaker to read the shortlist, in Mandarin or Cantonese as fits your kitchen. They will catch unlucky sounds, odd meanings and characters that look wrong.
7. Run the availability checks on your shortlist: trademarks, business register, domain, handles and Google Maps.
8. Mock up the last three on the sign, a takeaway box, a 100-pixel profile picture and the top of the menu. Keep the one that still reads when it's small.

100 Chinese restaurant name ideas

Every name below is an idea to check, not a name that is free to use. Some will already belong to a restaurant somewhere, and some may be registered trademarks. Mandarin words are given in simplified characters with pinyin, and Cantonese words in traditional characters with a Cantonese spelling. Use whichever script suits your guests.

Sichuan restaurant names

Sichuan or Szechuan? Sichuan is the pinyin spelling. Szechwan and Szechuan are older romanizations of the same name. Either is understood, so pick one and use it on the sign, the menu and the web address.

Cantonese and roast-meat names

Dim sum and teahouse names

The dim sum words below are Cantonese, so their Cantonese spellings suit these names better than pinyin.

Noodle bar names

1. Lamian Lane (拉面 lāmiàn: hand-pulled noodles)
2. Knife-Cut Noodle Bar (刀削面 dāoxiāomiàn: noodles shaved from a block of dough with a knife)
3. Longevity Noodle House (长寿面 chángshòu miàn: long noodles eaten on birthdays)
4. Zhajiang Counter (炸酱面 zhájiàngmiàn: Beijing noodles with fried bean sauce)
5. Hot Dry Noodle Co. (热干面 règānmiàn: Wuhan's hot dry noodles)
6. Wonton & Broth
7. One Long Noodle
8. Pull & Slurp
9. Noodle Thread
10. The Slurp Counter

Hot pot names

1. Two Broths (鸳鸯锅 yuānyāng guō: the divided pot with a spicy broth on one side and a mild one on the other, named after mandarin ducks)
2. Yuanyang Table
3. Shuan Room (涮 shuàn: to dip thin slices of meat in boiling broth and lift them out at once)
4. Huoguo Hall (火锅 huǒguō: hot pot, literally "fire pot")
5. Simmer Table
6. Copper & Coal
7. Dip & Swish
8. Red Broth White Broth
9. The Ladle Room
10. Bubbling Pot

Family-name and Kee names

These names use the customs explained further down: 記 Kee after a name, 阿 Ah before a given name, and 老 Lao before a surname.

1. Lam Kee Kitchen
2. Fung Kee Roast House
3. Tse Kee Congee
4. Ah Ying's Dumplings
5. Lao Zhou's Noodles
6. Auntie Mei's Kitchen
7. Grandma Lin's Dumplings
8. The Chen Family Table
9. Li Brothers Noodle Bar
10. Sister Hu's Hot Pot

Use the name of someone in your own family, not a common surname picked for the sound. Before you put a relative's name on the sign, agree in writing who owns the name if the business is ever sold or the family splits.

Auspicious-word names

Double happiness is a wedding symbol. It suits a restaurant that hosts banquets, and may read as a wedding venue elsewhere.

Dumpling and street-food names

1. Potsticker Lane (锅贴 guōtiē: pan-fried dumplings, literally "pot-stick")
2. Jianbing Morning (煎饼 jiānbing: a thin crêpe folded around egg and crisp fillings, eaten for breakfast)
3. Shengjian Corner (生煎包 shēngjiānbāo: Shanghai's pan-fried pork buns)
4. Jiaozi House (饺子 jiǎozi: boiled or steamed dumplings)
5. Scallion Pancake Co.
6. Bao & Broth
7. Night Market Kitchen
8. Folded by Hand
9. Pleat & Steam
10. Wonton Window

Modern and minimal names

1. Ember Wok
2. Steam
3. Rice & Ladle
4. Star Anise
5. Ginger & Scallion
6. Clay & Wok
7. Cleaver
8. Porcelain Spoon

One-word names need help elsewhere. "Steam" on its own could be a sauna, so put "dumplings" or "kitchen" on the awning, the profile and the box.

Playful and pun names

Online lists of "funny" or "weird" Chinese restaurant names mix two things: puns that owners chose on purpose, and signs that went wrong in translation. Only the first kind is worth borrowing. Good wordplay comes from dishes, cookware, cooking methods and places. Leave out jokes about accents, spellings that imitate how someone speaks, mock-Chinese lettering and stereotypes about Chinese people, along with dated words like "Oriental". They describe a caricature, not your food.

1. Wok the Line
2. Bao Wow
3. Dumpling Theory
4. Hot Pot Luck
5. Simmer Down
6. Use Your Noodle
7. Wonton Desire
8. Dim Sum and Then Some
9. Pleat Street
10. The Big Dipper

About pun names: wok and dumpling puns are easy to think of, so expect some of these to be trading already, which makes them harder to register and easier to confuse. They also don't translate. A guest who reads Chinese but not much English won't hear Johnny Cash in "Wok the Line", so if many of your guests are Chinese speakers, give the restaurant a Chinese name as well.

Chinese naming conventions, explained

A Chinese name is read by Chinese speakers too: guests, staff and suppliers. These are customs you will see in restaurant names. If you use them, use them correctly.

Place names for the cuisine

Chinese cuisines are named after their provinces, often by a one-character short name. A 1980 grouping of the Eight Cuisines of China lists Anhui (徽菜 huīcài), Guangdong (粵菜 yuècài), Fujian (閩菜 mǐncài), Hunan (湘菜 xiāngcài), Jiangsu (蘇菜 sūcài), Shandong (魯菜 lǔcài), Sichuan (川菜 chuāncài) and Zhejiang (浙菜 zhècài). A province or city in the name (Chengdu, Hunan, Shanghai) tells guests what to expect, so make sure the cooking matches.

Family names

• 記 Kee. Used after a person's name as a suffix for local restaurants and shops in Guangdong, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore. It is read gei in Cantonese and spelled Kee in Hong Kong, Kei in Macau and Jì in Mandarin. "Lam Kee" reads roughly as "Lam's".
• 阿 Ah. A prefix before kinship terms, surnames or given names that shows familiarity or friendliness, as in "Ah Ying".
• 老 Lao. Before a surname, an affectionate and respectful way to refer to an older member of a family, as in 老张 "Old Zhang".

Words for the type of place

Lucky characters and numbers

• 福 fú is good fortune, 兴旺 xīngwàng is thriving, often said of a business, and 如意 rúyì is "as you wish".
• 囍 shuāngxǐ, double happiness, is a symbol of marriage.
• 8 sounds like 發 (fā in Mandarin, faat in Cantonese), "to prosper", which makes it a lucky number for a business name.
• 4 is sometimes treated as unlucky, particularly in Cantonese, where it sounds nearly the same as the word for "death". Keep it out of the name.

Characters and romanization

• Simplified or traditional. Simplified characters are the standard in mainland China, Malaysia and Singapore; traditional characters are official in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. A Cantonese roast-meat shop and a Sichuan noodle bar may reasonably choose different scripts.
• One spelling system per name. Pinyin is the system for Mandarin. Cantonese has its own spellings, such as Kee for 記. Mixing the two in one name looks like a mistake.
• Have it read. Ask a fluent reader to check the characters, the meaning and the sound, including how it sounds in Cantonese if your name is in Mandarin, or the other way round. A name that a translation tool produced needs this check most.

Chinese restaurant name formulas

Serving from a van or a stall? The food truck names guide covers names that have to read on the side of a vehicle. Opening a bubble tea or coffee counter? See café names. We also have lists of Mexican restaurant names and Italian restaurant names.

Checks before you commit

Run every check on your final three names, in English and in Chinese if you use both.

1. Trademarks

Search for identical and similar names. Trademark offices use the Nice classification: class 43 covers restaurant services, and class 30 covers goods such as sauces, which matters if you ever sell your chilli oil in jars.

Characters and translations in a US application. US trademark rules require an English translation of non-English wording, and a transliteration of non-Latin characters with either their English meaning or a statement that they have none. USPTO examiners may also translate foreign words into English when they compare marks, under the doctrine of foreign equivalents. So search the English meaning of your Chinese name as well.

The generic part doesn't count. The USPTO explains that generic terms, the everyday names for what you sell, can't be registered. "Noodle bar" or "dim sum" won't set you apart; the rest of the name has to do that.

A trademark lawyer can tell you how close is too close before you spend money on signage.

2. Business register

In the US, search your state's business entity records and check whether you need a DBA ("doing business as") filing. The SBA notes that registering a DBA doesn't give legal protection by itself. Elsewhere, check the national company register.

3. Domain

People type web addresses without tone marks, so "Xīng Wàng" becomes xingwang. Check that the result still reads well and doesn't spell something you didn't intend in English.

4. Social handles

Search Instagram, TikTok and Facebook for the handle. If the exact name is taken, adding your city or "dumplings" is fine, as long as the handle stays easy to type.

5. Google Maps and delivery apps

Search the name in your city and the next towns over. Google's Business Profile guidelines say the name on your listing must match your real-world name as used on your storefront, without extra keywords. If you want "Dim Sum" in the listing, it has to be part of the name on the sign.

6. Pronunciation

Ask people who don't speak Chinese to read the romanized name out loud. Some spellings, such as xing, zh or q, don't sound the way English readers expect. Then ask a fluent speaker whether the name sounds natural.

7. The sign test

Look at the name from across the street, on a takeaway box and as a 100-pixel avatar. If the sign has characters too, check that they're legible at that size.

How Menumigo fits

Once the name is chosen, the menu is where guests read it next.

• Menumigo is a free digital menu with a QR code. Guests scan it at the table or the counter and read the menu on their phone.
• The free plan covers 1 venue, unlimited dishes, one menu QR code, 2 menu languages, 5 AI menu imports and 10 AI translations a month, and all 14 EU allergen tags. It needs no card.
• Menus can be translated by AI into 21 languages, including Chinese, so a dim sum room can publish its menu in English and Chinese on the free plan. Our menu translation guide covers which dish names to keep and how to check a translation.
• Soybeans, sesame, peanuts, crustaceans and molluscs are all among the 14 allergens you can tag on each dish.
• Pro costs €19 a month or €180 a year. See pricing.
• Menumigo is browse-only. It takes no orders or payments, so guests still order from your staff or at the counter.

See how it works for a Chinese restaurant, or create your menu free.

FAQ

What is a good name for a Chinese restaurant?

A good Chinese restaurant name is one to three words, easy to say and spell, and tells guests which cuisine to expect. It should also be free as a trademark, business name, domain and social handle where you trade. Examples from this list: Mala Lane for a Sichuan kitchen, Siu Mei Hall for Cantonese roast meats and One Bowl Two Pieces for a dim sum room.

What are some funny Chinese restaurant names?

The funny names that work are puns on food and cookware, such as Wok the Line, Dumpling Theory, Hot Pot Luck and Dim Sum and Then Some. Leave out jokes about accents or stereotypes. Puns are often reused, so check that nobody near you already trades under the one you like.

Why do some Chinese restaurant names sound odd in English?

Often the Chinese name was translated word by word. A Chinese name can pack meaning, sound and good-luck associations into two or three characters, and a literal translation keeps only part of that. Ask someone fluent in both languages to check the English version, or give the restaurant a separate English name.

What does Kee mean in a Chinese restaurant name?

Kee is the Hong Kong spelling of 記, a suffix used after a person's name for local restaurants and shops in Guangdong, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore. A name like Lam Kee reads roughly as Lam's. In Mandarin pinyin the same character is written jì.

Why do Chinese restaurants use the number 8?

The number 8 sounds like the character 發, which means to prosper, in both Mandarin and Cantonese. The number 4 is the opposite case, since in Cantonese it sounds nearly the same as the word for death. So 8 is a lucky choice for a name, and 4 is best left out.

Should a Chinese restaurant name be in English or Chinese?

It can be either, or both. An English name helps guests who don't read Chinese, while a Chinese name speaks to Chinese-speaking guests and can carry meanings that don't translate. The two names don't have to be translations of each other, but have a fluent speaker check both.

Is it Sichuan or Szechuan?

Sichuan is the pinyin spelling of the province's name. Szechwan and Szechuan are older romanizations of the same name. Either is understood, so choose one and use it consistently on the sign, the menu and online.

How do I check if a Chinese restaurant name is already taken?

Search the USPTO in the US, EUIPO and TMview in the EU, and your national trademark office for similar names in class 43, restaurant services, including the English meaning of any Chinese words. Then check your state or national business register, domain availability, Instagram and TikTok handles, and Google Maps in your area.

Sources

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