The travel blogger who has eaten all over Yangzhou brings you to the ten best restaurants in Yangzhou, with an average price of 200 yuan per person.

Author: Southern Cross Yaya

I came to Yangzhou twice on New Year’s Day this year to take pictures of snow scenes, and in March to take pictures of cherry blossoms, and stayed for nearly a week each time. I ate at almost all the famous restaurants in Yangzhou, and I ate four times a day.

Now let me explain to you the questions that everyone is most concerned about: where to eat, how to eat and how to wait in line. You must know that Huaiyang cuisine is much more delicious than just Yangzhou fried rice and morning tea.

The restaurants introduced below can be said to represent the most famous, highest quality, and most upscale restaurants in Yangzhou’s local Huaiyang cuisine, but the per capita price only ranges from 100 to 300 yuan. Isn’t it exciting?

The first thing I want to introduce to you are several restaurants under the famous "Yangcheng Yiyi". When you come to Yangzhou to eat, almost all of the restaurants with the most popular names and queues belong to Yangcheng.

Yangcheng Yiyi owns *** four brands of restaurants, all of which are delicious, and none of them are unsatisfactory. But some of them have long waiting times, so you must be mentally prepared. So how to eat delicious food while minimizing queues is definitely a science.

Features of each store

Online booking and queuing

If you want to be seated as soon as possible, you have to queue on site and arrive half to an hour earlier than the meal starts .

If you don’t want to wait too long on site, Quyuan, Yangzhou Banquet and 7 Eat 8 Bar all strongly recommend to get the number on the "Yangzhou Yiyi" official account first, but even if you get the number, you will still be stuck. It's a good time to use your mobile phone to compare your hand speed, and then wait until the time is almost up to your number before going there. For example, in Quyuan, I started swiping at 6 a.m. and got the number at 7:02. When I tried swiping again at 7:05, it showed that the number had been released, and there were 49 people waiting in front of me. It was not until 9:30. It's our turn to take a seat.

Introduction to each store

1. Quyuan Slender West Lake Store: This store is the most famous because it appeared in "Flavour World 2". It is famous far and wide and is the hardest to queue up. Just next to Building 8 of the Guest House. Basically, reservations begin at around 7 a.m., but many diners actually go there as early as 5 or 6 a.m. to wait for a table. At 9 o'clock we had to wait for lunch. This company first allocates numbers to people who queue up at the venue, and then starts allocating numbers online after everyone is seated at the venue.

Last time I came to eat at this restaurant, I stayed in Building 8 of the Guest House next door. After getting my reservation online at 7 a.m., I could still get some sleep. I was almost there by 9 a.m. I'll take a leisurely stroll over when I get my number. And the most considerate thing about this restaurant is that if you pass the number, you can still go in and eat at three tables according to the number you had when you arrived.

Recommended dishes:

The dishes here can almost be ordered with eyes closed, and there are no surprises. "Crab Roe Soup Buns", "Thousand Layer Oil Cake", "Shrimp Roe Yangchun Noodles", "Five Ding Bao", "Shrimp Roe Wontons" and "Soup Steamed Dumplings" are some of my favorites. Especially crab roe soup dumplings and soup-filled steamed dumplings, you must be careful when eating them, there is really a lot of juice inside.

2 Quyuan Songcheng Store: If you don’t want to wait in a long line, you can try this one, which is on the first floor of the Songcheng Resort Hotel. Most of them are set meals, and the variety is not as rich as the Slender West Lake store. So when I came to Yangzhou this time, I chose to stay at the Songcheng Resort Hotel. The hotel's breakfast is in Quyuan. When I go downstairs for breakfast at eight o'clock, I don't have to wait in the long queue like the Slender West Lake store.

3 7 Eat 8 Bar: A restaurant that I like very much. Especially after eating too much Huaiyang cuisine, you can order some different dishes here, and because there are mostly innovative dishes. So although it is still Huaiyang cuisine, the cooking method is slightly different from other restaurants.

Recommended dishes:

This is the best Yangzhou fried rice I have ever eaten in Yangzhou, bar none. The opium fish is also a must-order for every table.

4 Yangzhou Banquet Slender West Lake Store: Located at the east gate of Slender West Lake, it is the most popular restaurant among all Yangzhou Banquet Restaurants. "Twelve Flavors" was filmed here. The queue starts at almost 2 hours, private rooms start at 200 per person, and there is no minimum consumption in the lobby. Therefore, if the queue at this restaurant is very long, you can go to other Yangzhou Banquet restaurants.

Recommended dishes:

Stinky tofu, lion head, salted old goose, shortbread

5 Yangzhou Banquet Songcheng Villa Store: This treasure restaurant has opened For more than two years, it has been hidden deep in Songjia City Park, so the environment is very good, and the walk along the way feels like an outing in the park. This hotel is not far from Slender West Lake, but there are fewer tourists. When the Slender West Lake store is crowded, come here quickly. The two stores are actually not far apart. Private rooms start at 300 per person, and there is no minimum consumption in the lobby. And the waiters here are all Koreans and can speak a little Mandarin.

Recommended dishes:

Salted goose head is a specialty of this restaurant, and it also uses many seasonal ingredients, such as spring bamboo shoots, malan head, cress, lentils, etc.

6 Yangzhou Yanyueyue Store: Close to Dongguan Street.

Most of the private rooms face the ancient canal. The dishes and presentation of this restaurant are also the most traditional and exquisite, and the queue will not be as long as the Slender West Lake restaurant. In fact, if you want to eat Yangzhou Banquet, you don’t have to wait in line at the Slender West Lake store, just come here.

Recommended dishes:

Shrimp jelly, braised abalone and egg fried rice are some of my favorite dishes in this restaurant.

7 Yangzhou Yan Sanwan Store: Close to Sanwan Scenic Area, some distance from Slender West Lake and the city. If you come to Sanwan Scenic Area, you can come to this store because there are fewer people.

8 Suhui: It is located in the Hongqiaofang business district. It is convenient to travel around and has many entertainment facilities. Every dish here is as exquisite as a work of art. It doesn’t feel like you are eating vegetarian food at all. It is full of color, flavor and taste. Private rooms are also 300 yuan per person.

Yangzhou morning tea has the saying of three springs and three gardens, three springs (***hechun, Yechun and Fuchun). In addition to Quyuan, the must-visit places for morning tea are the three springs. Among them, Yechun is the best, with its canals, waterside pavilions and theater stages.

1 Yechun: You must come to Yechun Teahouse, which is the main store. It is next to the imperial wharf where Qianlong went to Jiangnan. The scenery and environment are excellent. The place for morning tea is by the canal. Many details and sophistication are not inferior to Quyuan. There are spontaneous performances by local theater fans on the stage in the square, and many local handicrafts are also sold. It is really full of life.

2 Pi Bao Shui: There are several Pi Bao Shui restaurants on Dongguan Street, but you must go to this one where you can have morning tea and listen to Yang opera while having morning tea. The price of this restaurant is much more affordable than the ones introduced above, and it is also a place preferred by locals.

Southern Cross Yaya, overseas MBA, global travel writer - author of "Travel Guide to Australia + Practical Spoken Language" and one of the top 10 overseas travel bloggers on Weibo. In the past ten years, I have traveled in depth to more than 500 cities in 5 continents and 4 seas, more than 40 countries, and my footprints have spread to all 34 provinces, municipalities and administrative regions in China. Still walking on the road, I want to see the most beautiful scenery in the world.