Chinatown/LES

By day, it’s hard to weave your way past tourists gawking at blackmarket Louis Vuitton and Prada knockoffs on Canal Street and shoppers stocking up on dried fish and strange roots at Mott Street’s market stalls. By night, the place is less frenetic, but there’s still a lot going on in Chinatown’s backstreets. East of the Bowery, former immigrant slum the Lower East Side is now a hipster magnet and after-dark playground.

Eat

Many downtown revelers and showgoers head to Chinatown to cap off their night. Open until 3am (4am Friday and Saturday), New York Noodle Town (28 Bowery at Bayard St, 212-349-0923) is self-explanatory: Come here for the starchy stuff, either lightly panfried, or floating in flavorful chicken broth with roasted pork, duck, chicken or ribs. Savvy downtown restaurant staff come to Fuleen Seafood (11 Division St between Confucius Pl and East Broadway, 212-941-6888) after their shifts to sup on specials such as a meltingly tender whole fish with ginger and scallions, or a chili-flecked Dungeness crab; it’s open till 2:30am. Some Mott Street teahouses stay open late—Green Tea Café (No. 45 between Bayard and Pell Sts, 212-693-2888) serves frothy tapioca, green and black teas, milk shakes and snacks until 1:30am on Friday and Saturday; nearby Teariffic, at No. 51 (212-393-9009), has similar fare and hours. Craving something more kosher? Lower East Side institution Katz’s Delicatessen (205 E Houston St at Ludlow St, 212 254-2246) is the place to go for overstuffed pastrami sandwiches till 2:45am on Friday and Saturday.

See

A former Yiddish vaudeville theater turned plush art house, the Lower East Side’s Landmark Sunshine Cinema (141-143 E Houston St between First and Second Aves, 212-330-8182) boasts one of the city’s best midnight series. If you’d rather rock until the early hours, Bowery Ballroom (6 Delancey St between Bowery and Chrystie St, 212-533-2111, boweryballroom.com) and Cake Shop (152 Ludlow St between Rivington and Stanton Sts, 212-253-0036, cake-shop.com) are good bets. The latter has a vegan café dispensing sweet treats until 2am.

Do

At Chinatown Fair Arcade (8 Mott St between Mosco and Worth Sts, 212-964-1542), a noisy old-school game hall, joystick lovers huddle around everything from Ms. Pac-Man to hi-def games like The King of Fighters XII till 2:30am on Fridays and Saturdays. Most games are a buck a turn; some are as low as 25¢. Once you’ve had enough of grooving to Dance Dance Revolution, soothe your aching feet at one of the nabe’s many back- and foot-rub centers, scattered on Mott, Bayard and Pell Streets. Foot Heaven (16 Pell St between Bowery and Mott St, 212-962-6588) will oblige until 1am if you call before 11pm. If it’s retail therapy you’re after, LES boutique-cum–watering hole The Dressing Room (75A Orchard St between Broome and Grand Sts, 212-966-7330) displays the wares of rotating indie designers until 2am Thursday through Saturday ( and till midnight Tuesday, Wednesday and Sunday). Downstairs is a stash of vintage finds.