Budget
Yummy Noodles
Specializes in casseroles, including things like pig heart casserole.
East Corner Wonton
Very inexpensive Cantonese food: Items "on rice," noodle soups, lo mein, etc. Authentic and an excellent value. Note that East Corner is primarily a breakfast and brunch establishment. It closes early 9:30 PM and may be out of barbecued items if you go later in the day.
Great NY Noodletown
This restaurant, which is open late, has the feel of a Chinese diner. It can be very crowded at peak hours. Try the noodle soups and congees around $5/person, the Ginger-Scallion Lo Mein ditto, the barbecued items, and the salt baked dishes, but don't neglect the less inexpensive specials, like the dishes with chives or pea shoots around $13/person, with different charges depending on choice of beef, chicken, shrimp, scallops, etc.. It should be mentioned, for the squeamish, that their bathrooms tend to be pretty filthy, but there's never been any indication that standards of poor hygiene are practiced with regard to food preparation.
Chinatown Ice Cream Factory
Enjoy the "regular" flavors like taro, green tea, lychee, black sesame, mango, and coconut or the "exotic" flavors like strawberry, vanilla..., and don't neglect the sorbets. Even though there is a Haagen Daaz down the street from this ice cream store, Chinatown Ice Cream Factory is the go-to place for ice cream when you visit Chinatown. On a nice, sunny day, you'll most likely find a long line of customers outside the store waiting to purchase their ice cream. That is how popular this store is. The owner experiments and creates his own flavor. A must-visit if you're in Chinatown! If you really like the ice cream, you may purchase one of their 'Chinatown Ice Cream Factory' t-shirt and support them!
M Star Cafe
Small restaurant decorated with caricatures of Hong Kong celebrities on the walls. If you hit the morning stream of customers, you'll definitely have to wait for a seat since their breakfast is... to die for! Extremely cheap! This restaurant is, by far, the best restaurant to eat at if you're looking for something similar to the diners in Hong Kong. A mix of Chinese and American tastes. Definitely try their french toast, pan fried rice noodle, and iced milk tea!
Banh Mi Saigon Bakery
This is in back of a jewelry and gem shop; no kidding! Both the Banh Mi Saigon pork and Banh Mi Ga chicken sandwiches are fantastic. Get them to go and eat them in a nearby park such as the one on the corner of Spring and Mulberry, a few blocks north and one block west. Note: Do not confuse this place with Saigon Banh Mi So at 369 Broome St., which serves sandwiches that are fine but nowhere near as good.
Skyway
Not much English spoken by the staff, but the food is authentic. Get the roti telur, satay, and main dishes such as those featuring seafood. You can easily have a full meal of noodle soup here for around $5, or you can choose to have a bigger dinner, in which case you might possibly break $20/person.
Fay Da Bakery
Tai Pan Bakery
This bakery store offers numerous Chinese breads, delicacies, and both hot and cold beverages/snacks. It shares its name with a popular bakery store chain in Hong Kong.
Coluck Restaurant
Located across Elizabeth Center. Very inexpensive food. Quick service. I must recommend the 'kimchi spam fried rice with pineapple'. It is delicious. Also the 'Chinese sweet pancake'. A fusion of Chinese and American tastes.
Joe's Shanghai
This is the most famous of the Shanghainese restaurants in Chinatown, but not the best. Like most every other Shanghainese restaurant, it serves the popular "soup dumplings" xiaolong bao in Chinese which contain either crab or/and pork meat with soup all within a dumpling. However, due to its popularity, here are some tips: Don't wait on line, go only at odd hours and order adventurously get things like eel.
Top end
Ajisen Noodle Restaurant
If you're looking for Japanese food in Chinatown, this is the place to go. Quaint, peaceful restaurant. Definitely splurge on the spider roll sushi with soft-shelled crabs and the fried ice cream!
Nyonya
This restaurant is part of a small chain with other Nyonya and Penang restaurants and is popular and crowded on weekends. Their roti canai is good. One word of warning, though: If you are looking for food like you had on your visit to Kuala Lumpur, for the most part, you won't get it here. Instead, you are likely to get very watered-down, Americanized versions of most of their Malaysian dishes. Expect to spend around $25/person for dinner.
Oriental Garden
Somewhat upscale, white tablecloths. Excellent seafood dishes, in particular, and a good place for a banquet.
If you want to have a really cheap meal, or it's really nice weather, consider buying something on the street the fried chicken cart that you may find on Canal or Walker St. right near the triangle between Canal, Walker, and Baxter St. serves really tasty legs and wings, for example or a cheap prepared thing such as is sold at the Bangkok Center Grocery on Mosco St. between Mott and Mulberry, and eat it in Columbus Park or another park as a kind of impromptu picnic.
If you'd rather have a sit-down meal, Chinatown probably has the largest number of inexpensive restaurants in Manhattan. They range from the "rice, soup, and four side dishes" steam table places to the "4 dumplings for $5" establishments to full-service restaurants like Great NY Noodletown and East Corner Wonton, which abound in dishes "on rice," noodle soups, and congees for around $5 or less, and on up to a seafood specialist like Oriental Garden, where specially requested, highly-prized varieties of live fish and seafood can run up the bill somewhat. But what Chinatown lacks is anything truly high-end. For the most part with the exception of Oriental Garden, $25 is about the most you are likely to pay, even if you pig out.
Hop Kee Restaurant
A decades-old Cantonese restaurant with classic dishes Roast Pork Lo Mein, etc. Open late on weekends until 4AM, but Cash only.