Ranking
Where the food is the reason to go
This is about meals a visitor can actually get: a noodle shop, a morning tea hall, a hotpot table. It is not an award list.
- 1
Chengdu
The easiest famous food city. You can eat extremely well by pointing, and you should expect chili and peppercorn.
- 2
Guangzhou
Morning tea and Cantonese kitchens. The right list if you want range and less heat than Sichuan.
- 3
Chongqing
Hotpot is the civic sport. Come hungry, and do not treat it as a milder Chengdu.
- 4
Xi'an
Noodles, breads, and the Muslim quarter. Strong food in a city you may already be visiting for history.
- 5
Beijing
Peking duck is real and so is a lot of food from everywhere else in the country. The city is not only a roast-duck cartoon.
- 6
Shanghai
Jiangnan cooking, plus every other region's restaurant because the city is huge. You eat well; you did not come only to eat.