Qingdao Restaurants and Dining

(Qingdao, Shandong, China)

Qingdao restaurants have become known for their hot and spicy dishes, with many of the city's best dining venues choosing to specialise in traditional Sichuan cuisine. However, due to a coastal setting next to the Yellow Sea, freshly caught seafood is extremely popular in Qingdao and is featured in many of the menus within Qingdao's numerous restaurants and eateries.

Whilst chopsticks play an important part at the Chinese restaurants in Qingdao, tourists visiting the city and looking for more western-style dishes will find plenty to choose from, with Italian restaurants and some familiar fast-food chains being particularly popular.

When to Eat / Opening Hours

When you are eating out in Qingdao, you will immediately notice that the majority of dining venues favour early opening and closing. Breakfast starts as soon as 06:00 and whilst many tourists choose to eat this at their hotels, a number of good options can be found outside of their doors.

• Breakfast in Qingdao: between 06:00 and 09:00
• Lunch in Qingdao: between 11:00 and 14:00
• Dinner in Qingdao: between 17:00 and 21:00 / 22:00

What to Eat

Somewhat surprisingly, many of the locals in Qingdao enjoy eating kebabs and the city's appealing food stalls often serve a rather fine selection of lamb kebabs (yángròuchuàn) and also pork kebabs (zhuròuchuàn), both of which are extremely tasty and rather inexpensive, being the perfect way to fill up. Of course, at all of Qingdao's many Chinese restaurants you can expect Cantonese cuisine of the highest standard, with noodles, rice, spicy soups, dumplings, wontons, meat and vegetable dishes, crab, shrimps, tofu and so much more besides.

Where to Eat

The city's trendy waterfront area contains some of the city's best places to eat out, with many superb restaurants lining the Bathing Beach stretches and offers great views while you dine. For more upmarket dining venues, the commercial district is a great place to head and lies on the eastern side of the city, with many lively restaurants and bars scattered around both Minjiang Lu and also Yunxiao Lu.

Amongst the best restaurants in Qingdao, Murano's is hard to beat and stands within the Crowne Plaza Hotel on Xianggang Zhonglu, which boasts an extensive menu of seafood, antipasti, steaks, pizzas and a rather impressive wine list. Hotels are a good bet when looking for a reliable dining venue, with other noteworthy restaurants located at the Dongfang Hotel on Daxue Road, where the Yuexi Dining Hall offers many traditional dishes, served in grand surroundings.