The Chinese Restaurant

"The Chinese Restaurant" is the 11th episode of the sitcom Seinfeld's second season on NBC, and is the show's 16th episode overall. The episode revolves around protagonist Jerry (Jerry Seinfeld) and his friends Elaine Benes (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) and George Costanza (Jason Alexander) waiting for a table at a Chinese restaurant, on their way to see Plan 9 from Outer Space. Unable to get a table, they decide to wait and talk amongst each other, while George tries to use the phone that is constantly occupied and Jerry recognizes a woman, but he is unsure where he has seen her before.

Co-written by the series' creators Seinfeld and head writer Larry David, the episode is set in real time, without any scene-breaks. It was the first episode in which Jerry's neighbor Kramer (Michael Richards) did not appear, much to Richards' disappointment, as it turned out to become a highlight among the show's episodes. Considered a "bottle episode", NBC executives objected to its production and broadcast due to its lack of an involved storyline, thinking that audiences would be uninterested. It was not until David threatened to quit if the network forced any major changes upon the script that NBC allowed the episode to be produced, though the network postponed broadcast to the near end of season two.

First broadcast in the United States on May 23, 1991, the episode gained a Nielsen rating of 11.7/21. Television critics reacted positively to "The Chinese Restaurant", which is widely considered as one of the show's "classic episodes". In 1998, a South Florida Sun-Sentinel critic wrote that the episode, along with season four's "The Contest", "broke new sitcom ground".