VISITXIAN
Muslim Quarter food street busy with diners at night
Eat & Drink

China's street-food capital.

Xi'an runs on wheat, lamb, chili and aged vinegar — proudly local, but this Silk Road capital has fed every kind of traveler for 1,300 years. 21 dishes with the Chinese names to point at, 5 eating guides, and honest notes on halal and vegetarian picks.

See the dishesWhere locals eat
Photo by marroyo12, via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 2.0
01

Signature dishes

The split-flap board rolls through the plates the city runs on — click any tile for the full guide.

Roujiamo: chopped spiced pork in a crisp baked bunRoujiamoBiangbiang noodles: wide hand-pulled belt noodles with cilantroBiangbiang NoodlesYangrou paomo: lamb broth with hand-torn bread and chili pasteYangrou PaomoFresh ribbon noodles for liangpi, Shaanxi's cold-skin classicLiangpi (Cold-Skin Noodles)Soup-filled buns steaming in a bamboo basketGuantang Baozi (Soup-Filled Buns)Fried persimmon cakes, a Muslim Quarter autumn snackShizi Bing (Fried Persimmon Cakes)A rich bowl of hulutou, Xi'an's pork-intestine paomoHulutouSteam rising off zenggao, sticky-rice jujube cakeZenggao
02

Every dish

All 21, with the Chinese names to point at, spice levels and where to try each one.

03

Eat like a local

Where the city actually eats — by neighborhood, by diet, and by time of day.

Food guide

Where to Eat in the Muslim Quarter: A Street-by-Street Guide

The Muslim Quarter (回民街, Huímín Jiē) is Xi'an's loudest, smokiest, most delicious neighborhood — and its most touristed. The open secret is that almost nobody eating on the main strip is a local: the best food is one or two turns off it, at two-thirds of the price. Here's how the quarter is laid out, what to eat where, and how to dodge the traps.

Food guide

Eating where locals eat: Yongxingfang, Sajinqiao & beyond

Every visitor finds the Muslim Quarter's main strip; almost none find where Xi'an actually eats. The local circuit splits in two directions: Yongxingfang (永兴坊), a curated one-stop sampler of food from across Shaanxi province by the East Gate, and Sajinqiao (洒金桥), an uncurated working Hui street where breakfast queues form before 8:00. Add the Dongxin Street night market and a couple of side lanes, and you can eat like a local for your entire trip.

Food guide

Vegetarian & dietary needs in Xi'an

The honest version first: Xi'an's signature dishes are built on meat broth, and no menu in town marks vegetarian options. But the city also has a centuries-old Buddhist vegetarian tradition, a whole halal district where pork and lard can't follow you, and a street-food canon in which several of the best things contain no meat at all. Vegetarians who learn a dozen dishes and three phrases eat well here; strict celiacs should treat Xi'an as hard mode.

Food guide

Halal eating in Xi'an

In most Chinese cities, halal travelers hunt restaurant by restaurant. In Xi'an you pick a neighborhood instead: the Hui Muslim community has been cooking here since the Tang dynasty, an entire district behind the Drum Tower sells no pork at all, and several of the city's signature dishes are halal by birth. Here's how to read the signs, what to eat, and what to watch for outside the quarter.

Early-morning market crowds shopping along the foot of Xi'an's city wall
Food guide

Breakfast in Xi'an: the city's most local meal, mapped

Where it all happens

Half of this starts in the Muslim Quarter

The Hui quarter has fed travelers since the Silk Road. Walk it once and most of these dishes stop being abstract.

Tour the Muslim Quarter