Cuisines from many different cultures permeate the Beijing dining scene. With literally thousands of restaurants available, dining choices are practically unlimited. And the best part is that you can splurge at a fancy restaurant or dine supremely well (any much more cheaply) at any of the smaller family-run operations located all over the city.

Beijing Roast Duck

It is said that there are two things that you must do when visiting Beijing: One is to enjoy the roast duck and the other is to take a stroll on the Great Wall. There is simply quite nothing like a perfectly roasted duck with bronzed crispy skin and tender, succulent meat. There are literally dozens of restaurants that serve this famous dish, but perhaps the best known are Quanjude and Bianyifang.

Beijing Imperial Court Food

Imperial Cuisine has evolved over time to be enjoyed by all of the country's people, characterized by complex preparation techniques, the freshest ingredients and elaborate presentation including colorful vegetable carvings. It is the foundation of Beijing cuisine. Probably the finest expression of classic imperial cooking is the Tan Jia cuisine served at the Beijing Hotel.

Beijing Snack

Fancy Beijing snack is a must in tasting the authentic Beijing flavor. These dishes emanate from many different cuisines, but the Chinese Muslim influences the most apparent. There are probably 200 varieties of snacks in Beijing. Most of the snacks can be found throughout the city. Here, let us begin a snack tour to seek most delicious snacks of Beijing.

Chinese Cuisines

Besides of the eight cuisines, most of regions and minorities in China also have their own particular cuisines that supply customers with more choices. For example, the delicate Shanghai, Huaiyang and Chaozhou cuisines, the unconstrained Shaanxi, Shanxi and Dongbei cuisines as well as the exotic Moslem and Uygur cuisines. In Beijing, it is easily to find such a kind of restaurant for dinner.

Western Restaurants

In addition to the thousands of Chinese restaurants, there are also lots of places serving foods from all over the world. You can basically get any type of food you want here, if you know where to find it. American
Brazilian
French
Germen Italian
Russian
Scandinavian
Swiss

Asian Restaurants

Are you still looking for the special food which could suprise you by totally different flavors? Why not try an Asian restaurant in Beijing? Japanese
Korean
Indian Indonesian
Thai
Vietnamese

Cafeterias

Helping oneself in Cafeterias is a popular and free dining style favored by multitudes of people. Many BBQ restaurants and cafes are of this kind. Here are many excellent cafeterias getting well spoken. For specialty cafeterias, Golden Jafuar, Amazon and Max's Cafeteria are all sound ones.

Fastfood

Apart from KFC, McDonald's and other well-known western fastfood shops, there is no lack of Chinese, Japanese and special flavor (such as curry) fastfood restaurants in Beijing, some of which are chain shops.

Vegetarian Restaurants

Like fastfood is for people in a hurry, the increasingly fashionable vegetarian dishes are for vegetarians or persons who love this healthy dining style, but not only for those vegetarians for the religion's sake. Merits and Virtues Vegetarian House is a time honored brand in Beijing that was first founded in Shanghai. Absolutely, there are more vegetarian restaurants listed on page for references.

Buffets

If tired of big dishes all the time, buffets offering desserts, milk tea, ice cream and takeaway coffee are comfortable choice. One can sit and enjoy in the small but delicately decorated shops or buy some drinks and candies by the way while roaming about. If interested in old Beijing culture, tea house is a perfect choice where listening Beijing Opera and other folk art performances is enjoyable as tasting the tea aroma.