Suzhou food and restaurants, what and where to eat

Grace Wang
967 Words/4 Minutes, By Grace Wang, Updated February 06, 2023

Generally, there are four types of cuisine in China, that include, Jiangsu, Shandong, Guangdong and Sichuan cuisine that taste different to one another. There is an old saying that, "sour in the east, hot in the west, sweet in the south and salty in the north," and thus Jiangsu cuisine is proclaimed as the the "sweet in the south".

Jiangsu cuisine has great variety. After thousands of years of development, Suzhou foods can be divided into twelve categories, i.e. Jiangsu style dishes, Jiangsu style braised food, Jiangsu style pastry, Jiangsu style cakes, Jiangsu style candy, Jiangsu style confiture, Suzhou snacks and Suzhou rice-cake, among others.

Famous Suzhou dishes include, shrimp in Biluochun Tea sauce and Salted Bamboo Shoot in spring, Chicken in Watermelon and Plain Fried Shrimps in summer, Barb Liver Soup and Hairy Crab in autumn, Stewed Chicken in Marmite and Herring Tail in winter, etc.

Suzhou snacks are famous worldwide. For instance, Sweet Dried Bean Curd, Pine-nut Candy, Rose Melon Seeds, Shrimp-roe Soy Sauce, Sesame Seed Cake with Jujube Paste and Lard New Year cake have all received international praise and are worth tasting.

Gourmet Food Recommendation of Suzhou Ancient Zone

The food in the streets of Suzhou are mainly distributed along the Guanqian Street district and Panmen district for the former are also located the famous TaiJian and Bifengfang lane, while the Shiquan and Fenghuang Street for the latter. In addition, there are many famous food streets between the two districts such as Xueshi Street, Ganjiang Road and Shilujinmenshangshi Food Street.

Many traditional snack shops and century-old shops gather at traditional food streets. You can bump into many famous stores like Lu Changxing Noodle Shop, Huang Tianyuan Rice-cake House, Cai Yaozhai, Luyang Wonton, Songhelou Restaurant and Zhu Hongxing, to enjoy a gourmet feast.

Additionally, there are also many western-style foods and other foods worldwide. The business street in the new area is a Japanese cuisine street, while Xindu Square in Industrial park has a European and American Style food there. These diverse foods are springing up downtown outside the ancient zone, together with Jiangsu style to spoil you with delicacies.

Gourmet Food Recommendation of Wuzhong District

1. Mutton in the Town of Books in Suzhou Wuzhong District

The mutton in the Town of Books in the Suzhou Wuzhong district well known all over the country. Mutton is a hybrid variety of East Caucasian Tur and mutton sheep imported form Australia, tasting fresh.

The institutions in the town assesses the Star rating of mutton restaurants with Bronze medal embedded in front of the door. The highest level of 3-star occupies seven to eight restaurants, with the prices almost the same but slight higher than non 3-star. It is said that seven people with RMB 200 Yuan can have a nice dinner.

Recommended Restaurants: The Old Qingtai Mutton Restaurant is located in the busy area of the Town of Books, the first one under the big sign hung on the Mutton Food City gate of Town of Books. It is said that the Old Qingtai has a history of more than 100 years, whose owner is fifth generation. Consumption in Old Qingtai is according to the table, from RMB 148, 188 up to 588.

Transit Routes: To achieve the restaurant, you can take the midibus from the bus station of Wuzhong District to Guangfu town, or take coach of Guangfuchuan Food Street or Zhenhu Town at Suzhou south bus station. In fact, the buses you can take are frequent and every ten minutes or less, which pass through the Town of Book, with a traveling time of 20 minutes and a fare of 3 RMB.

Eat Crabs in Suzhou

It is become increasingly popular to eat crab in Suzhou in the season when crabs are in the market. Various species of crabs can be selected including, the Yangcheng Lake hairy crabs that are also cheap and good Taihu Lake crabs.

The main locations to eat crab in Weiting Town in Suzhou Industrial Park, Street of Taihu Lake Dinning Ship in Ancient Town of Guangfu, or East Mountain and West Mountain.

1. Weiting Town: Being the lake side town with the largest water area, it is a major production area of authentic Yangcheng Lake hairy crabs. A new catering street was completed there recently, with hotels and restaurants that have different levels.

The Weiting crabs appear on the market from September to December every year, weighing 500 grams for three crabs while 250 grams for the bigger one and 500 grams for the largest .

Transit routes: You can drive along the Shanghai-Nanjing Expressway for 65 kilometers to the Suzhou industrial park, going from the exit for 2 kilometers  to get the Weiting Town, within an hour drive from Shanghai.

2. The street of Taihu Lake Dining Ship. It is the place for happy farmhouse, existing almost 15 dining ships with basic food of Taihu Lake crabs. As for the weight of crabs, it is not suggested to order the big crab with a weight of 3-4 tales rather than 4-5 tales due to the bigger one growing rapidly and leading to its meat relatively soft. Generally, approximately 3 tales for a female crab and 3.5 tales for male one is available, pricing it at 25 RMB which is reasonable.

Grace Wang

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