Chinese food: what to order & how to eat it

First: there is no such thing as "Chinese food"

The phrase is as useful as "European food". China is the size of Europe, spans tropical islands to sub-arctic desert, and has at leasteight major regional cuisines that disagree with each other about nearly everything — the grain, the fat, the heat, the sour, the very idea of a proper breakfast.

Learning which region you are in and ordering accordingly is the single biggest upgrade you can make to a trip. A visitor who eats Cantonese food in Guangzhou, Sichuan food in Chengdu and Shaanxi noodles in Xi'an eats better than one who eats "Chinese" anywhere.

The eight cuisines, or the eight you'll actually meet

Beyond the eight:Xinjiang (Uyghur lamb skewers, pilaf, naan, hand-pulled laghman — Central Asian, Muslim, superb),Yunnan (cross-the-bridge noodles, wild mushrooms, rice noodles, Dai and Bai minority food),Northeast (dumplings, pickled cabbage, hearty stews),Tibet (barley tsampa, yak butter tea, momos).

Thirty dishes worth planning a meal around

• Peking duck 北京烤鸭 — crisped skin, pancakes, scallion, sweet bean sauce. Beijing. Order it in a dedicated duck restaurant, not a hotel.
• Xiaolongbao 小笼包 — soup dumplings. Shanghai; bite the side, drink the broth, then eat. Do not spear it.
• Mapo tofu 麻婆豆腐 — the benchmark Sichuan dish; if it isn't numbing, you're in the wrong restaurant.
• Hotpot 火锅 — Sichuan (málà, sesame oil dip) or Beijing (clear broth, sesame paste, lamb). The great social meal.
• Roujiamo 肉夹馍 — cumin lamb in flatbread. Xi'an street food at its best.
• Biangbiang noodles biangbiang面 — wide hand-slapped wheat noodles with chili oil. Xi'an.
• Dim sum 点心 — morning dumpling service with tea. Guangzhou, Hong Kong; order by ticking a paper sheet.
• Char siu 叉烧 — honey-roast pork; Cantonese barbecue staple.
• Dan dan noodles 担担面 — sesame, chili, minced pork, no soup. Chengdu breakfast.
• Cross-the-bridge noodles 过桥米线 — boiling broth plus raw ingredients you cook yourself. Yunnan.
• Lamb skewers 羊肉串 — cumin, chili, charcoal. Xinjiang or any northern night market.
• Dongpo pork 东坡肉 — slow-braised pork belly, glossy and soft. Hangzhou.
• West Lake vinegar fish 西湖醋鱼 — sweet-sour, delicate. Hangzhou.
• Stinky tofu 臭豆腐 — fermented, fried, genuinely pungent. Changsha is the serious version.
• Steamed fish head with chopped chili 剁椒鱼头 — Hunan showstopper.
• Kung pao chicken 宫保鸡丁 — the real version is nothing like the takeaway.
• Twice-cooked pork 回锅肉 — Sichuan, with leeks and fermented bean paste.
• Zhajiangmian 炸酱面 — Beijing noodles with fried bean sauce.
• Jiaozi dumplings 饺子 — northern staple; boiled, steamed or pan-fried; vinegary dip.
• Congee 粥 — rice porridge, the breakfast and the comfort food.
• Youtiao 油条 — fried dough sticks, eaten with soy milk or congee.
• Scallion pancakes 葱油饼 — flaky, savoury, everywhere.
• Red braised pork 红烧肉 — caramelised soy-braised belly; the home-cooking classic.
• Squirrel mandarin fish 松鼠桂鱼 — Suzhou; scored, fried, sweet-sour sauce.
• Beggar's chicken 叫花鸡 — clay-wrapped baked chicken. Jiangnan.
• Lion's head meatballs 狮子头 — enormous soft pork meatballs in broth.
• Ants climbing a tree 蚂蚁上树 — glass noodles with minced pork. The name is the charm.
• Egg fried rice 蛋炒饭 — the test of a good kitchen.
• Guokui 锅盔 — flatbread baked on the wall of a clay oven. Shaanxi, Sichuan.
• Mango sago / tong sui 糖水 — Cantonese dessert soups, sweet and cooling.

How to order: quantity, menus, and getting what you want

1. Order by headcount, not by dish

   A Chinese meal is shared. Rule of thumb: number of dishes = number of people + 1, plus a soup and a staple. Two people → three dishes and rice. Four people → five dishes. Portions are smaller than Western plates.

2. Always add a vegetable and something mild

   Otherwise you get six kinds of meat and no greens. A plate of stir-fried greens fixes almost any table.

3. Staples come last

   Rice, noodles and dumplings are thefan — the filler — and often arrive at the end, or you order them separately. Ordering rice with every dish is not how it works.

4. Menus are visual

   Most restaurants have photos, a wall of dishes, or a QR code menu in WeChat/Alipay. Pointing is completely normal. If there is no English menu, use a translation app's camera mode, or ask for the "recommended" dish (推荐 tuījiàn).

5. Spice is negotiable

   不要辣 (bú yào là) = not spicy. 微辣 (wēi là) = mild. 中辣 (zhōng là) = medium. 变态辣 (biàntài là) = "perverted spicy", genuinely dangerous. Note that in Sichuan and Hunan, "not spicy" means "mildly spicy".

6. Pay at the end, usually by scanning

   Wave to get the bill (买单 mǎidān); in casual places you scan the QR on the table with Alipay or WeChat Pay.

Table manners: the twelve that actually get noticed

• Wait to be seated. At a banquet there is a seating order; the host or the guest of honour faces the door.
• Let the host order if they insist — refusal can read as awkwardness.
• Use the serving chopsticks (公筷) if provided. If not, turn your chopsticks around to serve others.
• Never stick chopsticks upright in rice. It resembles funeral incense. Lay them on the rest or across the bowl.
• Do not tap your bowl with chopsticks — it echoes a beggar.
• Leave a little food. Finishing every grain can imply you weren't fed enough. Conversely, don't waste wildly.
• The host's cup is filled by others, not by themselves. If your neighbour's glass is empty, top it up.
• Tap two fingers on the table when someone pours your tea: a silent thank-you from the Cantonese tradition.
• Toasts: 干杯 gānbēi means bottoms-up for that toast. Refusing alcohol is fine with a smile and one explanation; pouring water or tea instead is normal.
• Slurping noodles is fine. Loudly enjoying food is a compliment, not a fault.
• Fighting for the bill is a ritual. If you're the host, settle it quietly in advance or hand the card over early.
• Fish is served whole and not flipped; you eat the top, then lift the bone.

Street food: how to eat bravely and safely

• Choose by queue. The busiest stall has the highest turnover and the freshest oil. This is the whole method.
• Watch it being cooked. Wok-fried, grilled, steamed, boiled — all fine. Room-temperature food sitting under glass for hours is the risk.
• Go where locals go. Night markets (夜市) and food streets are social spaces, not tourist traps — prices are low and posted.
• Pay attention to raw: raw fish, raw crab and undercooked snails carry real parasite risk. Cooked street food in China is generally safe.
• Do not drink the tap water. Bottled or boiled only. Hotel kettles are the national solution.
• First-timer strategy: try one new thing a day, not six. Your stomach adapts over a week.
• Carry tissues and hand sanitiser — many places have neither.

Tea, alcohol and what people actually drink

Tea 茶 is not a formality, it's the default beverage. Green (Longjing, Biluochun) in the south and east, oolong in Fujian and Guangdong, pu'er (fermented, earthy) in Yunnan, jasmine in the north, and milk tea in Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang and Tibet. In a teahouse you brew at the table in tiny cups and refill endlessly — it is a way to spend an afternoon, particularly in Chengdu, where teahouses function as living rooms.

Baijiu 白酒 is the clear grain spirit, 40–60%, that appears at banquets and business dinners. It is drunk in small glasses during toasts. If someone raises a glass at you, you may decline — but decline once, warmly, and expect to be asked again.

Beer (Snow, Tsingtao, Harbin) is cheap and widely drunk, often with skewers. Yellow wine 黄酒 is a warm, low-alcohol rice wine from Shaoxing.Red wine is popular in cities. Non-drinkers can order tea, juice, or sweet sour plum juice (酸梅汤).

Vegetarian, vegan, halal and allergies

• Vegetarian 素食 is genuinely easy: Buddhist restaurants exist in most cities, tofu and greens are everywhere, and "I don't eat meat" (我不吃肉 wǒ bù chī ròu) usually works. Watch forlard, oyster sauce, chicken powder and meat stock — including in vegetable dishes. Buddhist restaurants (素菜馆) are the reliable answer: fully vegan, cheap, excellent.
• Vegan is harder outside Buddhist restaurants because of eggs and stock. Say 我吃全素 (wǒ chī quán sù) — "I eat fully vegetarian".
• Halal 清真 is well served: look for the green 清真 sign, the Hui and Uyghur communities, and the Muslim quarters in Xi'an, Beijing (Niujie), Lanzhou, Kashgar and Yinchuan. Lanzhou hand-pulled beef noodle shops (兰州拉面) are nationwide and reliably halal.
• Allergies: have your restriction written in Chinese characters on your phone. Peanuts, sesame, shellfish and chili are the common traps, and "no peanuts" is often understood as "fewer peanuts". Carry your own antihistamine and, for severe allergies, an adrenaline auto-injector.
• Gluten is difficult — soy sauce contains wheat, and northern China is wheat-based. Rice, rice noodles, steamed dishes and clear soups are your friends.

Useful food phrases

A phone with a translation app's camera mode solves 90% of menus. Screenshot these twelve phrases before you fly and you will eat very well indeed.