Lanzhou Restaurants

The staple food in Lanzhou is often Muslim influenced. The meat dishes are generally mutton and beef, rather than pork and chicken. Muslim restaurants and food stalls are found on nearly every street in Lanzhou.

Beef Noodles
Lanzhou's most popular specialty dish is the small Lanzhou beef noodle (Niurou mian). Every noodle restaurant (Lanzhou lamian guan) that serves traditional Gansu food, and almost all of the stalls that line the streets of the city, will serve this simple and inexpensive dish.

Beef-stuffed Cake
The Beef-Stuffed Cake is a good example of Lanzhou cuisine. Beef is chopped and crushed into a paste, after which salt, bean oil and several condiments are added. The paste is then stuffed into a pre-prepared flour-dough sheet, which is then covered with vegetable oil and baked in an oven for around 15 minutes.

Roast Whole Lamb
For as long as 2500 years, whole roasted lamb has been the most popular dish in Gansu Province. The chef chooses a year-old lamb. The exterior is covered with a special kind of white sauce, and the interior is filled with Chinese prickly ash and peppercorns. The lamb is put into the oven and basted periodically with animal fat. When the carcass is golden brown, it's ready to eat.

Guan Guan Tea
Guan Guan tea is enjoyed by the farmers around Lanzhou. It is made in a small earthenware pot placed on a slow fire of tree root, and steeped for a long time. After being simmered gently in this fashion, the tea is mixed with a little table salt, and walnut kernels and poured into a cup to drink. The quantity is only enough for one or two people to try at a time. It is very strong and bitter, but people are greatly invigorated after drinking such strong tea.

Mutton Soup with Unleavened Biscuits
After being stewed with soy sauce, mutton is pressed tightly and cut into pieces. The pieces are mixed with soup and vermicelli and put on a quick fire to boil. Bits of garlic stem, coriander and other seasoning are added. The large, flat, round unleavened biscuit, typical of the area, is a perfect complement to the mutton soup. Cooked in this way, the soup is clear, fragrant, and rich but not greasy; the meat is fresh, tender and without the strong smell usually associated with mutton. Mutton soup is a good tonic in winter.

Rangpizi (cold starch noodles)
After the starch is washed out of the flour, the substance left over is used to make gluten. In this sticky state, the starch is put into special shallow round steamers, usually made of galvanized iron or aluminum, for cooking. The cooked rangpizi is cut into strips and mixed with several pieces of steamed gluten and boiled green mung bean sprouts and seasoned to taste. Cooked rangpizi is semi-transparent, as smooth as jelly, and as pliable and tough as noodles.

Stir-fried bean jelly (liang fen)
Cold liang fen is sold all over the country, but stir-fried liang fen is one of the specialties of Lanzhou. It is cut into cubes and stir-fried in large frying pans containing a little vegetable oil, until the cubes become golden brown. Pepper oil, mashed garlic, sesame butter, vinegar and other condiments are added.

Deep Fried Cake
Rock sugar, powdered sugar, treated roses, walnuts, sesame seeds and other ingredients provide filling for vegetable oil treated dough which is shaped into small round cakes and fried.

Red Pea Gruel
Peas and dates are simmered on a slow fire until very soft but still retaining their shape. Sugar is added before eating.

Shish Kebab (Roast mutton on skewers--kao yang rou)
Small chunks of sheep meat on skewers are roasted over a charcoal fire and seasoned liberally with ground red pepper, wild pepper (Chinese prickly ash), and salt.

Hot Tongguo Pears
Boiled with rock sugar over a slow fire until very soft, cooked pears are not only delicious and thirst quenching but also have medicinal benefits for lung invigoration, phlegm reduction, and cough suppression.

PRICE GUIDE
$ = inexpensive
$$ = reasonable
$$$ = expensive
$$$$ = very expensive

Some restaurants have English-speaking staff,

Huang Tudi Restaurant
Add: #12 Renmin Rd.
Tel: 3122599
Description: specializes in Lanzhou beef noodles
Type of Cuisine: Local cuisine
Hours: 08:00-20:00
Average Cost: $
Credit Cards: Not Accepted
Menu: Chinese
Language Spoken: Mandarin

Fengshan Restaurant
Add: on Nongmin Xiang behind the Lanzhou Hotel
Tel: 6532108
Description: serves local specialties
Type of Cuisine: Local
Hours: 08:30-20:00
Average Cost: $
Credit Cards: Not Accepted
Menu: Chinese
Language Spoken: Mandarin

Xizhan Restaurant
Add: on Xijin Xilu opposite the Huangjin Shopping Center.
Tel: 5574980
Description: tiny and clean
Type of Cuisine: Local
Hours: 08:30-20:00
Average Cost: $
Credit Cards: Not Accepted
Menu: Chinese
Language Spoken: Mandarin

Lidu Restaurant
Add: on Tianshui lu, opposite the Legend Hotel.
Tel: 5255836
Description: More delicate local dishes
Type of Cuisine: Local
Hours: 08:00-20:00
Average Cost: $$
Credit Cards: Not Accepted
Menu: Chinese
Language Spoken: Mandarin

King of Beef Noodles
Add: on Donggang Xilu, adjacent to the Lanzhou Hotel.
Tel: 3327888
Description: serves Lanzhou beef noodles
Type of Cuisine: Local
Hours: 08:00-19:30
Average Cost: $
Credit Cards: Not Accepted
Menu: Chinese
Language Spoken: Mandarin

Feicui Muslim Restaurant
Add: at 410 Pingliang beilu.
Tel: 6645779
Description: Serves good beef noodles and a variety of other Muslim specialties.
Type of Cuisine: Local
Hours: 08:30-20:00
Average Cost: $$
Credit Cards: Not Accepted
Menu: Chinese
Language Spoken: Mandarin

Night Market
Add: on a lane just east of the Friendship Hotel.
Description: Muslim food including kebabs and beef noodles
Type of Cuisine: Local
Hours: 08:00-20:00
Average Cost: $
Credit Cards: Not Accepted
Menu: Chinese
Language Spoken: Mandarin

Nongmin Xiang
Add: behind the Lanzhou Hotel.
Description:
Type of Cuisine: Local
Hours: 08:30-20:00
Average Cost: $
Credit Cards: Not Accepted
Menu: Chinese
Language Spoken: Mandarin