Li’s Knife Cut Noodles presents the newest addition to downtown Berkeley’s vibrant restaurant scene. Opening its doors on Dec. 5, 2025, it serves homemade Chinese cuisine, just a seven minute walk from Berkeley High School. For this family-owned business, Berkeley is their second location, after their first having been established in San Mateo. The Li family are immigrants from Northern China. They’ve lived in the Bay Area for a few years and most of their menu is homecooked Chinese cuisine.
There are lots of Chinese restaurants in Berkeley and around the Bay Area, the owner of the Berkeley location, Jian Li, explained. “But there’s nothing (to) let me feel like back home, still,” Li said. He and his family wanted to do something about it, hence their motivation to start a restaurant business. They seek to cultivate an experience that makes the customer feel like they are in China. Li said that, for the UC Berkeley international students from China, he wants to make them feel at home.
Upon entering the establishment, the comforting scent of hearty noodle broth is striking. Red Chinese lanterns hang above a dining area that seats around three dozen. One aspect of the restaurant that stands out is their open kitchen.
“You can see how we make the food — fresh and clean. Everything is handmade,” Li said. Additionally, aware of the tight budgets students may be on, they offer free refills of their signature knife cut noodles. “We just want to make things easier, more affordable for students,” Li said.
Outside the restaurant was BHS senior Isaac Lacey, who tried Li’s Knife Cut Noodles for the first time with his mother recently. “(The food was) absolutely excellent. We’ve both been talking about (it) legit multiple days later. It’s this small hole-in-the-wall spot, super delicious, and surprisingly affordable for good Chinese food.”
One dish that Lacey tried featured the restaurant's signature knife cut noodles. There are many kinds of Chinese noodles, varying in size, texture, and ingredients. According to Li, this particular style comes from Northern China. The dough cutting technique requires meticulous precision and can take years to master, but it’s what gives the flour-noodle its rich and tender flavor.
Tina Li, a waiter at the restaurant, said she works there because the employees are “very friendly.” She immigrated to the U.S. more than a year ago. “The most frequently ordered dishes are the (stir fried minced pork combo noodles and braised beef noodles, and paper beef noodles).”
She continued, “most of the customers in the store are students, but after the Berkeley University holiday, there are also more non-student customers.” The restaurant’s grand opening had a few challenges, as two weeks later marked the start of winter recess for their main customer base. Many students go home to visit family and the city kind of dies, Li said.
Now that the students are back and the word has gotten out, the spot is very popular. BHS seniors Jaymul Barot and Isla Petty dined at the restaurant for the first time last weekend. Despite the wait to get a table, the food arrived mere minutes after ordering with the QR-code system.
“The food was just so, so good,” Barot said. They had vegetable chow mein. “It was glorious,” Petty added.
“The pièce de résistance was really the vegetarian spring rolls with sweet-and-sour sauce. (It’s up there in the) top three experiences of my life,” Barot said. “I may have epiphanized and my view on life has changed.”
For Li, food means connection, especially during festivals. On these special occasions, his family spends time preparing and eating dumplings together. To share this cuisine and that experience with people means a lot to Li, and that sentiment contributes to the quality of food and service at Li’s Knife Cut Noodles.