27 Best Restaurants in Beijing to Shanghai, China

Lined with street-food-style stalls, this wildly popular, well-established dining hall—the original and best of five locations around town—dishes up Yangtze wetlands specialities, including appetizers and soups that emphasize local vegetables rather than the usual starchy offerings; Nanjing's famous salted duck, served sliced on the bone; and steamers full of duck dumplings. Order from the picture menu (with tiny English translations) or get up and browse, pointing to what you want and giving your table number to a costumed attendant.

Shelled river shrimp (wumen xiaren) are a light and delicate signature dish at this lovely restaurant, accessed via a narrow alley north of Lion's Grove Garden. The busy kitchen also pulls off a crisp rendition of the region's famous songshu guiyu (squirrel fish), scored and fried so that the white meat fans outward in chopstick-friendly mouthfuls; sweet-and-sour sauce completes the experience.

Locals squeeze around tables at this simple eatery, a quick hop from the Master of the Nets Garden, to lunch on mouthwateringly zingy wonton soup and xiaolongbao (freshly steamed, soup-filled pork dumplings). There is no menu—order at the entrance, take a number, and find a seat.

The crisp Neapolitan-style pizzas at this contemporary Italian eatery come recommended, but don't overlook the seafood specialities and wide range of pasta dishes. Ingredients and cooking techniques are authentic, and regular half-price deals (particularly on Tuesday) attract a local expat and student crowd.

The best restaurant on the summit, Celebrity's Banquet inside the Xihai Hotel celebrates local culture with a range of traditional Hui dishes. Soups of dried vegetables, jellied tofu, braised pork, and a delicately flavored pumpkin soup shouldn't be missed.

A market-fresh spread of seafood, meats, and vegetables greets you at the entrance of this excellent eatery, a hit with well-heeled locals. Browse the live seafood (a small lobster, freshly steamed, will set you back about Y240), point at the dishes you want to try, and take your seat.

Directly opposite the south entrance to the Mountain Resort, this cheerful place is easily spotted by its rustic wooden exterior. Although it's a good place to try a variety of local dishes, it specializes in dumplings filled with pheasant and mushrooms, and it has a branch beside the train station—perfect for grabbing a quick bite before returning to Beijing.

Inside the posh Marina City Mall beside the Olympic Sailing Center, Din Tai Fung serves up its brand of precisely pleated dumplings to CBD execs and tourists staying at the InterCon nearby. The xiaolongbao dumplings from this renowned Taiwanese brand contain delicate fillings and scalding soup—the perfectly steamed crab dumplings pair well with the ocean view.

You order by pointing to plated dishes at this lively restaurant in a traditional house, where local specialties include tender bamboo shoots, four-mushroom soup, braised tofu, and a must-try mushroom-wrapped meatball.

Dongpo serves hearty Sichuan fare at this convenient branch and two others around town. There's no English menu, but classics like gongbao jiding (chicken with peanuts) and niurou chao tudou (beef and potatoes) are available.

This comfy vegetarian restaurant specializes in dishes that look and taste remarkably like meat or fish. If sea cucumbers made from textured soy protein sounds like a gastronomic step too far, fear not: the delicious vegetable dumplings, braised mushrooms, and hearty tofu dishes are sure to satisfy.

Busiest at breakfast, this venerable institution steams all sorts of delicious buns and dumplings that are hungrily wolfed down by both locals and tourists who also sip cups of the light, fragrant, green, kui dragon (aka Monkey King) tea. Be sure to try the xièfĕn tāngbāo (oversized crabmeat dumplings filled with rich soup that you slurp out through a straw) as well as the dish that Yangzhou gave to the world: fried rice.

Beloved by locals, Nanjing's very own fast-food chain is a great place to try two regional specialties: xiaolongbao (soup-filled pork dumplings) and maoxue fensi tang (rice noodle soup with duck blood cubes). Branches are everywhere (the original is on Hunan Lu), but the nicest location is on the causeway crossing Xuanwu Lake, where you'll find tables at the water's edge.

Inside the Jiming Temple, this establishment makes a good lunch stop. The chefs use wheat gluten and other ingredients to create mock pork, fish, chicken, and goose dishes; the tofu threads and the Sichuan-style "fish" are recommended.

This long-standing eatery is a well-liked spot to sample Jinan lu cai, a variation of one of the eight famous cuisines of China. The signature dish is jiu zhuan da chang (literally "nine turns intestine"), chewy braised spirals of pork chitterlings, but if that sounds extreme, try the sweet-and-sour fried carp, or their decent local take on roast duck with pancakes.

The wall of deer heads at the entrance to this popular restaurant is an indicator that it's a good place to sample the game dishes beloved by the Manchu people. You can try venison, wild boar, braised camel hump, deep-fried sparrow, or deer-blood curd (developed to prevent wasting the blood of the kill after a hunt and surprisingly tasty) as well as less exotic meat or vegetable dishes.

On the grounds of the Kiessling Beidaihe Hotel, this popular restaurant, originally opened by Austrians, mixes a few Western dishes in with the menu's predominately Chinese fare. Its European-style café-bakery, on the main street, does a brisk business in freshly baked walnut cakes.

Near the Shanzi Road Market, this bustling restaurant is a popular purveyor of Huaiyang cuisine, one of the "four great traditions" of Chinese cooking. Try the signature "lion's head" meatballs (shizitou), large and succulent orbs of pork stewed with vegetables in a clear soup; the oversize potstickers (guotie); or, if you're feeling brave, the stinky tofu, malodorous but surprisingly tasty.

Popular with overseas students studying at Nanjing University, Skyways offers the perfect antidote to oily Chinese food. This clean, user-friendly deli offers a list of sandwiches and salads that lets you choose, check, and chow in a matter of minutes.

Ever since Emperor Qianlong, the Qing Dynasty's most famous tourist, declared the fish here a triumph, Songhelou has ridden on his yellow coattails. The town's most famous eatery, "Pine and Crane," as its name translates to in English, is pricey and overhyped—yet tourists still pack in to chow on braised tofu with crabmeat, pork belly with cherry sauce, and other local specialties.

This hotel is nothing to write home about, but the Hui cuisine here is especially good, attracting locals from around the area. Specialties include cured mandarin fish, home-cured pork with bamboo, and stewed dishes served in clay pots.

One of the town's most upmarket options, Wang Yang Lou serves tasty local seafood and an array of family-style Chinese dishes in a large though somewhat characterless dining room. There's no menu—order at the open kitchen to the left of the entrance by pointing at things swimming in the tanks, or at the displayed photos of dishes themselves.

At this quintessential seafood place, one of many on or around Minjiang Lu, rows of tanks swarm with live sea creatures, with prices marked per jin (about 500 grams, enough for two to share). Order the Qingdao signature: clams fried with chilis and garlic (gala in the local dialect), which pairs perfectly with Tsingtao beer, or try the scallops served suanrong fensi (steamed with garlic and vermicelli noodles).