Areas to eat
There are a lot of bars and restaurants in Shekou which is the main residential zone for Shenzhen's sizable Western expatriate community. There are plenty of eateries in the Hua Qiang Bei area, for non-China based brands, eg McDonald's, KFC, Pizza Hut, Starbucks, and AijiSen Ramen.
Overseas Chinese Town OCT is famous for its numerous dining options, including some of the best Korean restaurants in Shenzhen. All are within easy walking distance from Hua Qiao Cheng OCT Metro Station, behind the recently opened InterContinental Shenzhen Hotel.
As well as casual restaurants and fine dining, Shenzhen is famous for its "Eat Streets". These are agglomerations of cheap and cheerful restaurants serving food from all over China. They are not elaborate but they are friendly and fun and some of the food is to die for. Different Eat Streets often specialise in food from different parts of China. Some of the best known are set out below.
Xinwen Rd Eat Street
This is where the journalists eat and just being there is fun. Good Heilongjiang, Jiangxi, Northern and Hunan food
Nanyuan Rd Eat Street
Uighur food is very good here. This means lots of lamb and kebabs
Gangxia Village Eat Street
One of the earliest and most diverse Eat Streets. It specialises in "northern" food, Beijing, Shanghai, Yunnan OK we know it's southern but..... and Ningxia/Gansu Moslem food
Shuiwei Village and Huanggang Village Eat Streets
We put them together because it's hard to know where one stops and the other starts. Cantonese is good here
Hubei Village Eat Street
Hong Kong style seafood restaurants are the mainstay of this Eat Street set in the heart of an old Cantonese village in the heart of Luohu. But we also like the north-west China Moslem food of which there is plenty
Dongmen Food Street
Shenzhen's favorite comfort shopping street also has lots of cheap and cheerful food. There's the usual Cantonese, Sichuan and Hunanese but there's also Thai, South=east Asian and even German. All the chains are represented.
Because Shenzhen is a migrant city, all of China's regional cuisines are represented here. Restaurants range from hole-in-the-wall establishments for homesick working class arrivals to opulent food palaces for businessmen and politicians entertaining clients. If you are a foreigner, spending ¥100 on a fantastic meal is no problem though, you can spend ¥35 or less on a fantastic meal in Shenzhen. Treat yourself, and enjoy the wonderful food and variety of Shenzhen! In the early morning, vendors sell egg cheung fun for as little as ¥2.5 per order having 2 vegetable and 2 egg cheung fun noodles - enough to fill you up.