Around seven-in-ten of all Asian restaurants in the United States serve Chinese, Japanese and Thai foods. However,
restaurants serving other types of Asian food are less widely distributed.
Chinese establishments are by far the most common type of Asian restaurant in the US, according to a latest report from the Pew Research Centre. It said that four-in-ten Asian restaurants (39%) serve Chinese food.
JAPAN/ THAI FOODS
Though Japanese and Thai population form only a relative share of the US population, their food has spread widely, the report said. Restaurants that serve Japanese food account for 28% of Asian restaurants in the US, making it the second-most common Asian cuisine. Japanese Americans, by comparison, are the sixth-largest Asian origin group in the country, comprising 7% of the U.S. Asian population.
Thai establishments make up 11% of all Asian food courts– the third-most common cuisine. While just 2% of Asian Americans are Thai.
INDIA/VIETNAMESE
Around one-in-five U.S. counties have Vietnamese and Indian food courts. Fewer than 10% of counties have Filipino, Pakistani, Mongolian or Burmese.
Indian and Filipino restaurants account for seven per cent and one per cent of all Asian restaurants in the U.S., respectively – even though Indian and Filipino Americans account for nearly 40% of Asians in the U.S. combined.
Like the Asian American population, Asian ones in the US are heavily concentrated in a few states. More than 15% of all restaurants in Hawaii, California, Washington, Nevada and New York serve Asian food, and each state has a significant Asian American population. Meanwhile, Asian ones account for 6% of all restaurants in Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and West Virginia.
Around three-quarters of all counties in the U.S. (73%) have at least one Asian restaurant of any kind. And in eight counties with at least 15 restaurants of any type, Asian ones make up at least a quarter of all food establishments. Half of those counties are in California.
MULITPLE CUISINE
The report said that about nine per cent of Asian food courts in the US offer cuisines from multiple Asian origin groups. Nearly seven in every ten of these establishments are combinations of Chinese or Japanese food, either with each other (36%) or with some other cuisine. It said that 18 percent serve Chinese and Thai food, 15% serve Japanese and Thai food and 10% serve Japanese and Korean food.
However, these relationships are not always symmetrical. For instance, 78% of Pakistani restaurants in the U.S. also serve Indian food, but just 10% of Indian restaurants serve Pakistani food.
