Most affordable vibrant/walkable area with great Asian food (2014, buy)

[edwardsyzzurphands]

Some areas in Boston somewhat fit the mold. Affordable by Boston standards you could look into Fields Corner in Dorchester (Viet Town), Allston/Brighton which is host to the Super 88 food court, Korea Town and other great authentic Asian restaurants.

Malden Center and Quincy are now called Chinatown North and South respectively and more affordable than living in the core but are directly on public transit.

Another sleeper may be Lowell. Up and coming city that is home to the second largest Cambodian population in the country. Also host to other great Southeast Asian foods and markets. Most affordable of the group but also the one that still is a bit more rough around the edges.

[patryuji]

For Asian Food:
Most places do a decent job with Vietnamese and Thai (or perhaps I just don't know since I've never had the authentic stuff).

Japanese?
DC - terrible
Phoenix/Flagstaff - terrible
Denver/Boulder - terrible
LA - Excellent
Seattle - Excellent
Las Vegas - terrible
Dallas - a few "okay" places
Tampa Bay - found a couple of "okay" places

Chinese - don't really eat it very often / I'm fine with P.F. Chang so I don't know for this category

[OyCrumbler]

Sacramento has good Asian cuisine selections and some parts of town in and around downtown. It's not a dirt cheap city, but it's not ridiculously expensive either.

Much smaller are Ann Arbor and Madison in their city cores.

[ckhthankgod]

Originally Posted by ckhthankgod

Not sure about Champaign-Urbana, but Ithaca has restaurants in its Downtown and its Collegetown district near Cornell University.

I know in Syracuse, the Crouse/Marshall Street and Westcott Street business districts near Syracuse University has multiple Asian restaurants. Panda West, a Cantonese restaurant is one on Marshall Street that is pretty good.

Then, on the Northside, you have multiple Vietnamese restaurants(New Century appears to be a pretty good one), along with Asian markets as well.

Around the University it is largely students/staff affiliated with the colleges or hospitals nearby(mainly East and South Asian). On the Northside, it is primarily a Refugee/Immigrant based community(mainly SE Asian and some Bhutanese).

Downtown has some Asian restaurants as well.


East Lansing MI, which is about 11-12% Asian has some restaurants on Grand River Avenue.

For the areas of Syracuse mentioned: https://westcottsyr.com/business/

Restaurants » Crouse-Marshall

Food And Drink - Northside UP
New Century Vietnamese Restaurant

https://www.downtownsyracuse.com/lifestyle/dining/

For East Lansing: https://www.cityofeastlansing.com/721/Downtown
For nearby Downtown Lansing: Restaurants | Lansing Downtown

Sit Down restaurants in Downtown Ithaca: Ithaca Restaurants - Downtown Ithaca Alliance

[projectmaximus]

Originally Posted by edwardsyzzurphands

Some areas in Boston somewhat fit the mold. Affordable by Boston standards you could look into Fields Corner in Dorchester (Viet Town), Allston/Brighton which is host to the Super 88 food court, Korea Town and other great authentic Asian restaurants.

Malden Center and Quincy are now called Chinatown North and South respectively and more affordable than living in the core but are directly on public transit.

Another sleeper may be Lowell. Up and coming city that is home to the second largest Cambodian population in the country. Also host to other great Southeast Asian foods and markets. Most affordable of the group but also the one that still is a bit more rough around the edges.

Thanks for the overview. My white buddy recently had a kid so they moved out to Quincy to save money and get a bigger space. What of the first things he told me was how many Chinese restaurants there are.

Originally Posted by patryuji

Japanese?
DC - terrible'
Phoenix/Flagstaff - terrible
Denver/Boulder - terrible
LA - Excellent
Seattle - Excellent
Las Vegas - terrible
Dallas - a few "okay" places
Tampa Bay - found a couple of "okay" places

Thanks for the perspective on Japanese food. I agree it's easily best out west Seattle/LA and also SF and Honolulu too. I will say I've had some great Ramen in DC and some of the best sushi ever although technically at a Korean restaurant.

Originally Posted by OyCrumbler

Sacramento has good Asian cuisine selections and some parts of town in and around downtown. It's not a dirt cheap city, but it's not ridiculously expensive either.

Yeah we ate at a more than adequate Cantonese restaurant in Old Sac but that area was a bit gimmicky. All the other great Asian places we ate at were far from downtown.

Originally Posted by ckhthankgod

For the areas of Syracuse mentioned: https://westcottsyr.com/business/

Thank you as always for your wealth of info on upstate NY.

[Connie 2010]

Richardson TX
The D-FW China Town is located in Richardson, in part because of the large Asian population.[43]

Esther Wu, a former editor of the Dallas Morning News, stated that Chinese immigration began in Richardson in 1975. Since then the Chinese community has expanded to the north.[44] In the mid-1980s the majority of ethnic Chinese K-12 students in the DFW area resided in Richardson.[45]

As of 2012 North Texas has over 60 Chinese cultural organizations and most of them are headquartered in Richardson and Plano.[45] The Dallas Chinese Community Center (DCCC; Chinese: 达拉斯华人活动中心; pinyin: Dálāsī Huárén Huódòngzhōngxīn) is in the D-FW Chinatown. It includes English as a second language (ESL) classes and 20,000 books written in Traditional Chinese; the center imported some books from Taiwan.[43] As of 2011 the Chinese restaurants catering to ethnic Chinese in DFW are mainly in Richardson and Plano.[44] The University of Texas at Dallas in Richardson, as of 2012, has almost 1,000 Chinese students. The university has a program to recruit students of Chinese origin

[OyCrumbler]

I don't know what to say, Sacramento has good but not great, in its walkable parts. The smaller college cities have some highlights but run thin after a while. It's basically Chicago or Philadelphia. It's almost always Chicago or Philadelphia.

[projectmaximus]

Originally Posted by Connie 2010

Richardson TX
The D-FW China Town is located in Richardson, in part because of the large Asian population.[43]

Looks like Richardson is adjacent to Plano. So that entire northern suburb area could be good. But would it be walkable and vibrant??

Originally Posted by OyCrumbler

It's basically Chicago or Philadelphia. It's almost always Chicago or Philadelphia.

Lol yeah. Or Seattle/Portland imo but it seems those have probably surpassed Chicago and Philly in terms of cost now. I guess it just depends on the neighborhood and lifestyle...hard to make the blanket statement that Seattle is more expensive than Chicago.

[gladhands]

Originally Posted by projectmaximus

Looks like Richardson is adjacent to Plano. So that entire northern suburb area could be good. But would it be walkable and vibrant??



Lol yeah. Or Seattle/Portland imo but it seems those have probably surpassed Chicago and Philly in terms of cost now. I guess it just depends on the neighborhood and lifestyle...hard to make the blanket statement that Seattle is more expensive than Chicago.

Seattle is SIGNIFICANTLY more expensive than Chicago, almost across the board.

[ckhthankgod]

Originally Posted by OyCrumbler

I don't know what to say, Sacramento has good but not great, in its walkable parts. The smaller college cities have some highlights but run thin after a while. It's basically Chicago or Philadelphia. It's almost always Chicago or Philadelphia.

Another option may be cities with a college town area, but that may also have other areas that could work as well.