Eat like a local: Beijing

All-in-one destination for capital classics

Mention Beijing food to a gourmet, and many different things come to mind: traditional lamb hot pot, noodles with fried soybean sauce, and Beijing-style dim sum. If you want to try all of these, and more, visit Wanfeng Snack City, an all-in-one destination for a range of Chinese finger foods.

Some typical Beijing traditional snacks are wandouhuang (mashed pea cakes), ludagun'er (glutinous rice-cake rolls) and aiwowo (round pastry) made from steamed glutinous rice with sweet filling(pictured).

The first floor of the center is like a big restaurant, while the second is decorated in the style of an old Beijing food street. There are both public dining areas and private rooms for groups. The first floor’s center stage hosts traditional performances in the evening including acrobatics, xiangsheng (comic cross-talk) and folk music.

Some stands are famous Beijing brands with long histories. Yue Sheng Zhai offers brown-braised beef and lamb. Nian Gao Yang makes glutinous rice cakes and fruit jelly. Some other popular choices are smelly bean curd, yogurt and donkey meat wrapped in crispy flour cake.

The third floor is home to two restaurants. Zhengyangmen Restaurant offers traditional Shandong cuisine, such as roast duck and dry-braised fish. The Nine Gates Hotpot Restaurant has beef and lamb rolls in traditional Beijing copper pots heated by charcoal.

A meal at the snack city costs 30-100 yuan ($4.70-15.80) per person. The average bill at third-floor restaurants is about 100 yuan per person.

If you go

Wanfeng Snack City

Daily 10 am-9 pm, 306 Wanfeng Lu, Fengtai district, Beijing. 100 meters north of Wanfeng Bridge, to the west of Lize Bridge on West Third Ring Road.

Tel: 010-6488-6868