Chengdu

An elegant restaurant specializing in Sichuan cuisine served in refined traditional setting - spicy twice-cooked pork, fish-fragrant eggplant, kung pao chicken, and a full selection of classic Sichuan cold dishes in the most beautifully presented version of each dish. Baguobuyi is the benchmark for upscale traditional Sichuan cooking.

📍20 Renmin South Road, Section 4, Wuhou District, Chengdu, Sichuan 610041, China

The most famous restaurant in Chengdu, a state-owned institution since 1941 serving the definitive version of Sichuan's signature dishes: Long Chaoshou red oil wontons, fuqi feipian cold beef slices, dan dan mian noodles, and mapo tofu. Long Chaoshou is the standard against which all Sichuan food in the world is measured.

📍Chunxi Road, Jinjiang District, Chengdu, Sichuan 610016, China

The main commercial pedestrian street of Chengdu - a 500-meter shopping corridor with flagship international brands, Chinese fashion designers, street food carts, and the original Taikoo Li complex. Chunxi Road is the busiest retail street in western China and a fascinating window into China's consumer culture.

📍Chunxi Road, Jinjiang District, Chengdu, Sichuan 610016, China

The most celebrated Chengdu hot pot institution - a palace-style restaurant with hundreds of tables and the most complex spice-blend broth in the city. The Sichuan mala (numb-spicy) hot pot here with premium ingredients - wagyu beef slices, fresh tofu, lotus root, offal - is the definitive Chengdu hot pot experience.

📍Renmin South Road, Wuhou District, Chengdu, Sichuan 610041, China

A beautifully restored Han Dynasty-style street of souvenir shops, street food stalls, craft stores, and traditional Sichuan snack vendors adjacent to the Wuhou Shrine. The tanghulu sugar-coated fruit skewers, sesame rice balls, and Sichuan peppercorn treats make Jinli the best street food circuit in the city.

📍Jinli, Wuhou District, Chengdu, Sichuan 610042, China

Three carefully restored Qing Dynasty alleyways - Wide Alley, Narrow Alley, and Well Alley - lined with tea houses, restaurants, craft shops, and bars in courtyard buildings dating from the 1700s. The most picturesque heritage district in Chengdu and the best place to eat and drink in a historic setting.

📍Qingyang District, Chengdu, Sichuan 610015, China

A Hunanese restaurant in Chengdu that serves the personal favorite dishes of Chairman Mao Zedong - red-braised pork belly, steamed fish head with chili, and spicy dried tofu - in a restaurant filled with Cultural Revolution memorabilia and posters. The most politically and gastronomically interesting meal in Chengdu.

📍Renmin South Road, Chengdu, Sichuan 610041, China

The restaurant credited with preserving the original 1862 recipe of mapo tofu - silken tofu in a fermented black bean and chili oil sauce with ground pork and Sichuan pepper. Wangpo is in the same neighborhood where Chen Mapo, the dish's inventor, ran her original restaurant on the Qing Dynasty Grand Trunk Road.

📍Wan Fu Bridge Street, Qingyang District, Chengdu, Sichuan 610015, China

The wholesale spice quarter in the Binjiang area where Sichuan's most important culinary ingredients - dried red chilies, Sichuan peppercorns, doubanjiang fermented bean paste, and local mushrooms - are sold at commercial scale to Chengdu's restaurants. An extraordinary sensory immersion in the foundation of the world's spiciest cuisine.

📍Binjiang, Qingyang District, Chengdu, Sichuan 610015, China

The most authentic local evening food street in Chengdu, in the Yulin residential district where the city's real residents (not tourists) eat. Dozens of mom-and-pop stands serving spicy rabbit head, cold sesame noodles, grilled skewers, and hand-pulled noodles from 6pm until midnight - the most honest Chengdu food experience.

📍Yulin South Street, Wuhou District, Chengdu, Sichuan 610041, China

One of the best dim sum and Cantonese restaurants in Chengdu with over 100 varieties of dim sum, char siu bao, har gow, and innovative Sichuan-Cantonese fusion dishes that blend the best of both regional cuisines. The Sunday brunch service with live dim sum cart service is the best Cantonese brunch in western China.

📍Chunxi Road area, Jinjiang District, Chengdu, Sichuan 610016, China