Lo Mein vs Chow Mein: The Real Difference (Noodles, Sauce and Cooking)

Most people assume lo mein and chow mein use different noodles. Mostly they don’t. Both are usually made with Chinese wheat noodles that contain egg, and on a lot of takeout menus the ingredient list for the two dishes is almost identical.

The real difference in lo mein vs chow mein is what happens to the noodles after they’re boiled. Lo mein noodles are tossed with sauce and stay soft. Chow mein noodles are fried in oil, so some or all of them turn crisp. The names say exactly that. Everything else, from how thick the noodles are to how much sauce ends up on the plate, follows from that one choice.

Lo Mein vs Chow Mein at a Glance

	Lo mein	Chow mein
Name means	”Tossed” or “stirred” noodles	”Stir-fried” noodles
Typical noodle	Thicker wheat and egg noodles	Thinner wheat and egg noodles
How the noodles are cooked	Boiled until tender, then tossed in sauce	Boiled or steamed briefly, then fried
Texture	Soft, slippery, chewy	Soft with crisp edges, or fully crunchy
Sauce	More of it, coating every strand	Less, mostly absorbed while frying
Best if you like	Saucy, slurpable noodles	Toasty, browned noodles with contrast

What the Names Actually Mean

Both names come from Cantonese, the language of Guangdong province in southern China and of most early Chinese immigrants to North America.

• Lo mein (撈麵) combines lo, which in everyday Cantonese means to stir or toss, with mein, noodles. Chef and author CiCi Li translates it simply as “tossed noodles.”
• Chow mein (炒麵) combines chow, to stir-fry, with the same mein. It means “stir-fried noodles,” and the same word shows up in fried rice (chow fan).

The English spellings have a history of their own. Many of the first Chinese immigrants to the United States came from Taishan, a county in Guangdong, and their pronunciation shaped the spelling Americans adopted. The phrase first appeared in American English as “chow mien” in 1890 and settled into “chow mein” by around 1903.

The Noodles: Same Family, Different Jobs

If you walk into an Asian grocery store and look in the refrigerated case, you’ll find packages labeled “lo mein,” “Hong Kong style pan-fried noodles,” “chow mein” and “wonton noodles.” They’re all cousins: wheat flour, often egg, sometimes an alkaline salt for spring and a yellow color.

What changes is thickness and moisture.

• Lo mein noodles are thicker and softer. The Woks of Life describes them as “much thicker” than chow mein noodles. They need to hold up to being tossed in sauce without falling apart, and their chew is the point.
• Chow mein noodles are thin. Hong Kong style pan-fried noodles are the classic choice. Thin noodles dry out fast and fry quickly, which is how you get those golden, crackly edges.

Made With Lau, a family recipe site run by a retired Cantonese restaurant chef and his son, notes that the pan-fried noodles are thinner than lo mein and contain less egg than wonton noodles. They’re sold fresh and unsteamed, fresh and steamed, or dried.

Noodle options if you can’t find the “right” one

Noodle	Works for	How to use it
Fresh lo mein noodles	Lo mein	Boil until just tender, rinse, drain well
Fresh Hong Kong style pan-fried noodles	Chow mein	Steam or blanch briefly, dry, then pan-fry
Dried thin egg noodles	Chow mein	Cook a minute less than the package says, then fry
Dried spaghetti or linguine	Lo mein	Use about half the weight of fresh noodles, cook al dente
Thin instant ramen (no seasoning packet)	Chow mein	Made With Lau lists it as a stand-in for fresh noodles
Udon or thick wheat noodles	A lo mein-style toss	Softer and heavier, but tasty with a saucy stir-fry

The spaghetti swap comes from The Woks of Life, who suggest using half the weight because dried pasta absorbs so much water as it cooks. It won’t have the springy bite of an egg noodle, but it tosses and holds sauce well.

How Lo Mein Is Made

There are really two versions of lo mein, and which one you’ve eaten depends on where you ate it.

The Cantonese original

In Hong Kong and Guangzhou, lo mein is not stir-fried at all. The noodles are boiled, drained and then tossed in a sauce such as oyster sauce, or served with the sauce on the side for you to mix yourself. Toppings sit on top: wontons, slices of char siu (barbecued pork) or braised beef brisket. CiCi Li points out that Hong Kong style lo mein often comes with a small bowl of light soup on the side, so you can sip broth between bites of the saucy noodles.

This version is simple, fast, and all about the texture of good noodles.

The American takeout version

North American lo mein moved closer to a stir-fry. The noodles are boiled until tender, then go into a hot wok with vegetables and meat and a generous, glossy sauce. Food Network’s explanation sums it up: cook the noodles first, add the sauce, then add the toppings. The wok work is gentle; the goal is to coat the noodles, not to brown them.

Typical takeout lo mein includes cabbage, carrots, bean sprouts, scallions, and your choice of chicken, beef, pork or shrimp. The sauce usually leans on oyster sauce, soy sauce and sesame oil. The Woks of Life’s version also adds dark soy sauce for color and white pepper for warmth, all mixed with hot stock before cooking starts.

That extra liquid matters. According to The Woks of Life, dry lo mein is one of the most common home-cooking complaints, and the fix is a splash of hot water or stock plus moisture-rich vegetables like cabbage and bean sprouts.

How Chow Mein Is Made: Crispy, Soft, or Somewhere Between

Chow mein covers a wider range of textures, which is the main source of confusion when people order it in different places.

Hong Kong style pan-fried noodles (the crispy cake)

This is the dramatic version. Thin fresh noodles are steamed or blanched, loosened, cooled so they dry a little, then spread in an oiled pan and left alone to fry into a flat, golden cake. The cake is flipped, crisped on the other side, and then topped with a stir-fry in a thickened sauce.

Made With Lau’s lower-oil home version fries each side for 7 to 10 minutes, turning the cake now and then so it browns evenly on a home stove. As the sauce soaks in, the noodles closest to it soften while the rest stay crunchy. It’s best eaten right away, because the gravy makes the noodles soggy the longer it sits.

Soft Cantonese chow mein

The everyday version, often called soy sauce chow mein, is softer. The noodles are blanched or steamed, then stir-fried with bean sprouts, onion and scallions in a mix of light and dark soy sauce. The Woks of Life’s chicken chow mein boils the noodles for just 1 minute, then pan-fries them for “an even, light crispiness” before adding everything else. The result is a tangle of tender and slightly crisp strands.

Made With Lau’s tip for this style: let the bottom get “nice and crispy for about 3 minutes” before you start moving the noodles, and don’t stir them constantly.

American chow mein

Here’s where the name drifts. In the United States, chow mein developed two separate identities: a crispy version with fried noodles under a thick brown sauce, and a soft, steamed-noodle version tossed with soy sauce. Some regions went further. In Chicago, chop suey is served over crunchy noodles, and one American variation, the chow mein sandwich, puts crispy noodles and gravy in a hamburger-style bun.

The canned chow mein of the mid-20th century came from Chun King, founded by Jeno Paulucci in 1946. It swapped pricey water chestnuts for cheaper celery, which is why so many older American recipes are heavy on celery.

Sauce: Where They Split Again

Because lo mein noodles aren’t browned, the sauce does most of the flavor work. It tends to be thicker, sweeter and more plentiful, and it coats each strand.

Chow mein relies more on the toasty flavor from frying. Its sauce is usually lighter and thinner, and much of it cooks off or soaks into the noodles in the pan. Made With Lau lets the sauce evaporate as the noodles cook, then adjusts color with a little more dark soy sauce if needed.

A quick guide to the bottles you’ll see in both recipes:

• Light soy sauce: the main source of salt and savory flavor.
• Dark soy sauce: aged longer, thicker, less salty, mostly there for deep brown color.
• Oyster sauce: sweet, savory and thick; it’s what makes takeout lo mein glossy.
• Sesame oil: added at the end for aroma, not for frying.
• Shaoxing wine: a Chinese cooking wine used in many chow mein recipes.

The crispy-cake style of chow mein also uses a thickened sauce, usually with a cornstarch slurry, so it clings to the noodles. If you’re out of cornstarch, our guide to what to use instead of cornstarch covers potato starch, tapioca and flour swaps with ratios.

Is Lo Mein or Chow Mein Healthier?

There’s no clear winner, and anyone who hands you a single calorie number for “lo mein” is guessing, because restaurants vary so much.

The trade-off looks like this:

• Chow mein is fried, so it takes on more oil. The crispy-cake style takes on the most, since the noodles sit in oil for several minutes per side. Soft chow mein uses less.
• Lo mein skips the frying but usually carries more sauce. Oyster and soy sauce are salty, and many takeout sauces are sweetened, so sodium and sugar climb.

At home, you decide how much of each goes in. Use a nonstick or well-seasoned pan so you need less oil; our roundup of the best nonstick pans has options that handle high heat. Measure your sauces instead of pouring freely, and double the vegetables. Either dish then lands closer to a balanced meal than its takeout twin.

Reading a Takeout Menu

Menus don’t always follow the rules above, so here’s how to guess what you’ll get.

If the menu says	You’ll most likely get
Lo mein	Soft, saucy noodles stir-fried with vegetables and meat
Chow mein (American takeout)	Soft stir-fried noodles, or crunchy fried noodle bits with a saucy topping, depending on the region
Hong Kong style pan-fried noodles	A crispy noodle cake with a saucy stir-fry on top
Cantonese chow mein or soy sauce chow mein	Thin noodles stir-fried with bean sprouts and scallions, lightly crisp
Wonton lo mein	Tossed noodles topped with wontons, often with broth on the side
Chow fun	Wide rice noodles, stir-fried; a different noodle altogether

When in doubt, ask whether the chow mein is soft or crispy. Most restaurants know exactly which style they make.

Where Chop Suey Fits

Chop suey sometimes gets lumped in with these two, but it isn’t a noodle dish. It’s a stir-fry of meat and vegetables, often with bean sprouts and celery, bound in a thickened sauce and typically served with rice. On some American menus, Chicago’s among them, the same stir-fry is spooned over fried noodles and called chow mein, which explains a lot of the confusion.

If it comes on rice, it’s chop suey. If the noodles are the base, it’s chow mein or lo mein.

Making Either One at Home Without a Restaurant Wok

Restaurant woks run on burners far hotter than anything in a home kitchen. You won’t match that, but you can get close with good habits.

Pick the right pan

A carbon steel wok is the classic choice, and on a gas stove it’s hard to beat. On a flat electric or glass cooktop, a flat-bottomed wok works better than a round one; our guide to the best wok for an electric stove compares the options. If you’d rather not buy another pan, a wide 12-inch skillet or a deep sauté pan does the job. There’s a useful breakdown of the difference between a skillet and a frying pan if you’re not sure which you own.

Induction cooks do well here too, since induction heats fast and recovers quickly after food goes in. Just make sure your pan is compatible; see our list of the best cookware for induction cooktops.

Prep everything before the heat goes on

Stir-frying moves fast. Slice the vegetables, mix the sauce, and cook the noodles before you turn on the burner. A sharp chef’s knife makes thin, even slices easy (our pick of the best knife sets under $100 is a good place to start, and a knife sharpener keeps it that way), and a vegetable chopper speeds up onions and carrots if you’re cooking in bulk. For matchstick carrots and cabbage ribbons, using a mandoline is faster than a knife. Lining up all those bowls takes room, so these countertop organization ideas for a small kitchen help if your prep space is tight.

For lo mein

1. Boil the noodles until just tender, then drain and rinse them so they don’t stick together.
2. Stir-fry your protein in a little oil until cooked, then set it aside.
3. Stir-fry the harder vegetables (carrots, cabbage) first and the soft ones (bean sprouts, scallions) last.
4. Add the noodles, pour in the premixed sauce with a little hot stock, and toss with tongs or a wide metal spatula in a scooping motion until every strand is coated.
5. Return the protein, finish with sesame oil, and taste for salt.

For soft chow mein

1. Blanch thin egg noodles for about a minute, drain, and spread them out to dry for a few minutes.
2. Heat a good film of oil until it shimmers but doesn’t smoke, using one of the high-heat oils that can take it. Made With Lau aims for a wok surface of about 350 to 400°F.
3. Spread the noodles out and leave them alone for about 3 minutes, until the bottom is golden.
4. Flip in sections, add onion, bean sprouts and scallions, then pour the soy sauce mix around the edges and toss.

Stainless steel pans work for stir-frying if they’re properly preheated, though noodles can stick. A light layer of seasoning helps; see how to season stainless steel pans. If you end up with a stuck-on mess anyway, our guide to cleaning stainless steel pans handles burnt sauce too.

Cooking noodles for one or two

Half a pack of noodles and a handful of vegetables is a quick dinner for one, and you don’t need a big pot to boil them. Our guide to the best cookware sizes for cooking for one explains why a 10-inch skillet and a 2-quart saucepan cover most solo stir-fries. For more quick weeknight ideas, see these easy meal prep ideas for one person in a small kitchen. If you’re setting up a first kitchen, the small kitchen stocking checklist for solo cooking lists the soy sauce, oyster sauce and noodles worth keeping on hand.

Leftovers and Reheating

Lo mein reheats better than chow mein. Its soft noodles pick up a splash of water in a hot pan and come right back. Crispy chow mein loses its crunch once the sauce soaks in, so reheat it in a hot skillet without a lid to dry it out a little, rather than in the microwave. The same dry-heat trick is what makes reheated chicken wings crisp again.

Get leftovers into the fridge within 2 hours of cooking and eat them within 3 to 4 days, the same window the USDA gives for most cooked leftovers. If your noodles include chicken, our guide to how long chicken lasts in the fridge has the details. Shallow airtight food storage containers cool noodles faster and keep them from drying out. And if you like to cook a double batch and freeze portions, vacuum sealing keeps sauced noodles from getting freezer burn.

Want rice on the side instead of more noodles? Here’s how to cook rice in a rice cooker without watching the pot. You can also steam dumplings alongside in a bamboo steamer, or in a steamer basket for an Instant Pot, for a full takeout-style spread.

The One-Line Rule

Order lo mein when you want soft noodles that carry a lot of sauce. Order chow mein when you want the toasty, crisp edges that only frying gives you, and ask whether it’s soft or crispy style so you get the one you’re picturing.

Related Guides

• Best Wok for Electric Stove
• What to Use Instead of Cornstarch
• Difference Between a Skillet and a Frying Pan
• How to Cook Rice in a Rice Cooker
• How to Use a Bamboo Steamer
• Best Cookware Sizes for Cooking for One
• How to Stock a Small Kitchen for Solo Cooking
• Small Kitchen Gadgets Worth Buying When You Cook for One
• 10 Best Mandoline Slicers

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the main difference between lo mein and chow mein?

The cooking method. Lo mein means tossed or stirred noodles: the noodles are boiled until soft and then mixed with sauce, vegetables and meat. Chow mein means stir-fried noodles: the noodles are boiled briefly and then fried in oil, so some or all of them turn crisp. Both usually start with Chinese wheat and egg noodles, though lo mein noodles tend to be thicker.

Which is healthier, lo mein or chow mein?

Neither is automatically healthier. Chow mein is fried, so it can soak up more oil, especially the crispy noodle cake style. Takeout lo mein is often coated in a sweet, salty sauce, which adds sodium and sugar. At home you control both. Use less oil, a lighter hand with oyster and soy sauce, and plenty of vegetables, and either dish becomes a reasonable weeknight meal.

Can I use spaghetti instead of lo mein noodles?

Yes. The Woks of Life suggests dried spaghetti as a substitute for fresh lo mein noodles, using about half the weight called for in the recipe since dried pasta swells as it cooks. Boil it to al dente, drain it well and toss it in the sauce. It won't have quite the same springy bite as egg noodles, but it's close enough for a weeknight.

Is chow mein supposed to be crispy?

It depends on the style. Hong Kong style pan-fried noodles are fried into a golden, crunchy cake and topped with a saucy stir-fry. Everyday Cantonese chow mein is softer, with a mix of tender and lightly crisp strands. Some American takeout shops sell crunchy fried noodle bits as chow mein, while others serve soft noodles under the same name.

What is the difference between chow mein and chop suey?

Chop suey is a stir-fry of meat and vegetables in a thickened sauce, usually served with rice rather than mixed with noodles. Chow mein is built around the noodles themselves. The two overlap on some American menus: in Chicago, for example, chop suey is spooned over crunchy fried noodles and sold as chow mein.