Sichuan

A hip, two-story restaurant in the heart of Gulou, serving up affordable Sichuan food and their own custom drinks, plus Great Leap beer.

Snacks and soups from Sichuan featuring tiny panda head bao and real duck heads.

Located on the second floor of Topwin Center, Mr. Meng Chongqing Gourmet is opened by Meng Fei, who’s a celebrity TV host, Meng Fei brings his hometown flavor to Beijing. As you know, that Sichuan doesn’t only have dandan mian, but also other noodles, there are nine spicy noodles (RMB 28-40) served in chili oil, and five noodle soups in clear broth, as well as chaoshou (Sichuan-style meat-filled dumplings, RMB 30).

Dengji Laomian consists of a small venue on the third floor of Sanlitun Soho's Building 3 that serves authentic Chengdu-style noodles, dumplings, sausages, and small cold dishes.

What Tibet's Provincial Government Restaurant lacks in atmosphere it more than makes up for with friendly staff and an adept range of Tibetan staples (we recommend the sponge gourd tips with marinated walnut, stewed lamb with potato, and steamed yak meat dumplings).

Hope Tree is a café-style malatang restaurant in the basement of China Central Place that allows diners to choose from a range of ingredients such as lotus root, potato, sweet potato, seaweed, tofu, mushroom, duck blood, a dozen kinds of leafy greens, assorted meatballs, spam, and sausages. Once you've made your picks, choose to have them cooked up in a spicy, tomato, or peppercorn broth.

Located at Xiang’er Hutong near Gulou, Fat Girl Noodles is a solid Chongqing place for spicy food-lovers, with the popular spicy noodles (wanza mian), spicy braised brain, hongtang ciba (rice cake with brown sugar), spicy intestine, and homemade pickles.

Located in the basement of Sanlitun Soho, this Sichuan eatery offers maocai (think malatang without the sticks), and spicy brain (RMB 16).

On the fourth floor of Tongli Studio, Nemo is primarily a lunchtime malatang restaurant that prides themselves on using quality ingredients without any additives. However, so as not to pigeonhole themselves, Nemo also transforms into a dessert bar in the afternoon and finally a full-out bar at night.

This 300sqm Sichuan chuanchuanxiang venue is well decorated and comes with a touch of both the old and new – hand-drawn paintings of Chengdu's old streets on the walls, traditional rattan chairs and large and heavy tables, and paper lanterns. The real draw, however, are the more than 100 varieties of chuan'r humbly priced at only RMB 0.9 a stick.