Eat China properly: Michelin tables, Black Pearl kitchens and street classics

The White Swan’s storied dining room and a fixture at the top of Guangzhou’s two diamond-level Black Pearl lists — the…

Two stars for Chef Fei’s modern reading of Cantonese classics — steamed fish, roasted pigeon, and a signature "chicken…

The Singapore group’s two-starred Guangzhou flagship for Teochew cooking: cold crab, superior broths and pong tau…

Stefan Stiller’s southern sibling of the Shanghai flagship holds two stars for rotating seasonal menus of French-lean…

The Ritz-Carlton’s star-holding Cantonese room, long a Black Pearl one-diamond regular, where dim sum at lunch…

The zhe (claypot) specialist made famous across China for sizzling-rice-edge claypot rice, plus pickled cucumber and…

A two-diamond Black Pearl from the homegrown Bingsheng group, known for cold chicken with jellyfish, roasted goose and…

A two-diamond tasting-menu room that rebuilds Guangzhou’s pantry into ten-plate journeys — aged fish, lychee-wood smoke…

Serving dim sum since 1880: the heritage name on Guangzhou’s old Westin Gate food street, where weekend yum cha queues…

The Hong Kong group’s Guangzhou star, a Black Pearl one-diamond regular for double-boiled soups, roast meats and the…

Shenzhen’s headline fine-dining address, a Black Pearl regular led from the Eleven Madison Park alumni network, cooking…

The chain that took Chaoshan hand-butchered beef hotpot national: cleaver-cut by parts (from lean to tendon), blanched…

The cheese-foam tea chain that started the national new-tea movement and began in Shenzhen — the clean…

The world’s first Chinese restaurant to hold three Michelin stars, with a decade-plus of holding them: Cantonese…

Umberto Bombana’s "king of truffles" dining room, a three-star fixture and Asia’s benchmark Italian, with a tartufo…

A family offshoot of the famous Yung Kee dynasty, starred almost from opening day for goose with lacquered skin and…

The dim-sum shop that became world-famous as "the cheapest Michelin-starred meal" — barbecue pork buns with a crème…

A shoebox roast-goose shop in Central with a Michelin-listed pedigree — crisp-skinned goose over rice, eaten standing…

The cha chaan teng science experiment: scrambled-egg sandwiches with texture critics compare to silk, macaroni soup…

Stefan Stiller’s three-starred counter restaurant changes its menu every six to eight weeks. Twelve seats around an…

The city’s most radical dinner: ten guests, one room, projections, scent and sound staged course by course around Paul…

China’s most celebrated vegetarian restaurant, promoted to two stars for set menus that coax mountains, forests and…

Proof that two stars do not require two-hundred-dollar menus: a genial Cantonese room famous for barbecued pork and…

A two-starred private-kitchen take on Cantonese essentials — roast goose, double-boiled soups and steamed fish…

One star for old Shanghai cooking served in a 1930s consulate villa with one of the city’s great garden terraces…

The first dim-sum specialist in Shanghai to earn a star: crab xiaolongbao in a dozen permutations, each with its own…

A century-plus benbang institution with a star for the definitive red-oil pork, eight-treasure duck and river-fish…

A one-star restaurant that exists for one season: autumn, when hairy crab arrives. Whole steamed females with roe…

The Mandarin Oriental’s star-holding Jiangnan dining room, where delicate Huaiyang knife work and sweet Shanghai notes…

The Su-bang banquet house immortalised in the 1963 film "Satisfaction or Your Money Back": squirrel-shaped mandarin…

Two centuries of Su-style cooking in one address: start with the eel-paste noodles, finish with squirrel mandarin fish…

Hangzhou’s first two-star restaurant: chef Fu Yueliang’s seventy-odd revisions of Longjing shrimp and West Lake vinegar…

The Four Seasons’ long-starred Hangzhou dining room — West Lake fish in vinegar, Dongpo pork and tea-scented courses…

A one-star farmhouse in the Longjing tea hills where nearly everything on the plate is grown, raised or foraged on the…

Starred dining inside an osmanthus-forested hillside house: tea-smoked courses, osmanthus desserts and Hangzhou river…

Hangzhou’s first Green Star: a plant-based kitchen built on local sourcing, zero-waste practice and the "heaven and…

"Know taste, then know view" — serving xiaolongbao, cat-ear noodles and West Lake treats since 1913, still the most…

The flagship of China’s most decorated regional fine-dining group, holding three Michelin stars for its coastal Taizhou…

Three-starred Chaozhou cooking in the heart of the Beijing CBD — cold crab, superior shark-fin-free broths and claypot…

Two-starred revival of imperial-era Beijing cooking inside the Ritz-Carlton. Red-clay stews, roast lamb ribs and lost…

A two-starred vegetarian temple in a restored hutong courtyard beside the Lama Temple. Seasonal tasting menus built…

DaDong’s star-holding flagship reimagines Peking duck as lean, crackling-skinned art, plated with an artist’s eye and…

The wine-lover’s duck house: one star for crackling duck carved tableside and a cellar of Burgundy that puts most hotel…

The Hong Kong institution’s Beijing outpost, starred for dependable Cantonese: double-boiled soups, crispy roast pork…

Chef Duan Yuexin’s one-starred homage to new-Beijing cooking — smoked fish with osmanthus, lamb with sesame paste…

Roasting duck since 1416 — the oldest continuously operating duck house in Beijing and the standard-bearer of the…

The PuXing’s star-holding Cantonese dining room on Wangfujing, where slow-cooked soups and dim sum carts serve as a…

Two stars for chef Lan Guijun’s gongbi-style Sichuan banquets: gentle, layered and spice-precise cooking that rewires…

Two stars for classic banquet Sichuan in a garden villa: mutton with chili oil, guaiwei (strange-flavour) preparations…

A one-star and Green Star restaurant inside the heritage courtyard of a former Buddhist abbess’s home at Taikoo Li…

One star for a modern dining room built around wild fungi, Huajiao pepper taxonomy and tasting-format Sichuan. The…

Italian chef Leonardo Zambrino’s one-star dining room set in a restored Qing-era guild hall, folding Sichuan pepper and…

The star-holding branch of the Chai Men group, turning Sichuan classics into elegant courtyard dining where…

A Bib Gourmand family shop run by a Chongqing-born clan for two decades: fish "crossed through water", pork ribs…

The shop where mapo tofu was invented in 1862, still frying the dish in its original wok school: silken tofu, minced…

The old-town counter for Minnan street food since the 1940s: sha cha noodle soup, oyster-pan and glutinous rice…

The Chongqing hotpot name that launched a thousand queues: beef tallow broth, tripe, duck intestine and the two-oil…

The benchmark bowl of Chongqing xiao mian: pea-and-mince topping (wanza) over alkaline noodles, chili oil and preserved…

Three-starred Cantonese dining inside the Grand Lisboa, where dim sum becomes haute sculpture — the gold-leaf "eight"…

A long-standing three-star at City of Dreams: wok-fried lobster with noodles in supreme broth, double-boiled soups and…

Joël Robuchon’s three-star perch on the 43rd floor of Grand Lisboa: the classic caviar-lobster and pommes purée…

The egg tart that made Coloane famous: Andrew Stow’s buttery, blotting-paper pastry and custard, best eaten warm at the…

The century-old standard-bearer for yangrou paomo — lamb soup with hand-torn flatbread — seated facing the Bell Tower…

Since 1936, the house of the Xi’an dumpling banquet: dozens of dumplings in shapes of pheasant, goldfish and moon, from…

The old counter in the Muslim Quarter most locals point to for the city’s definitive roujiamo: slow-braised pork…

The other great paomo house (since 1898), with a brothier take on lamb soup and a broader halal menu for travelers…