If you're looking for the best restaurants and the best food in Chengdu, China, you've found the right page. After living and eating in Sichuan for 5 years, I've put together this comprehensive Sichuan food guide to Chengdu, allowing you to discover the best street food and the best restaurants in Chengdu. As you explore, you'll find yourself going deeper and deeper into little alleyways and food streets with 100% local style, pure, authentic Sichuan food.
Get ready to go DEEP for the best food in Chengdu!
Note: All of the locations on the map below are much easier to navigate by installing a VPN and using Google Maps to get around. I recommend ExpressVPN (49% off using this link). You can also read about more VPN options in my best VPN for China guide. This is especially true if you're also using my other Chinese food guides, like my Xi'an Food Guide, and my Guangzhou food guide.
This is one of the most potent and delicious bowls of noodles you’ll ever eat. Found at Shangchi Mianguan, one of Chengdu’s most classic noodle joints, you can’t go wrong with a bowl of these. It’s full of twice cooked pork, a classic dish in Sichuan cuisine. The pork is a combination of lean and fatty and is cooked in a Sichuan fermented broadbean paste that is spicy and delicious. The bowl is loaded with a thick and spice packed chili oil that you get to mix through the noodles when they first arrive.
If you’re staying in the south or have tried the other hot pot joints, you can come to jiugongge. This relatively small hot pot joint serves some incredibly delicious hot pot. It’s fun to watch the beef lard slowly melting and the pot becoming redder and redder. I love the nine sections as well, you can separate your meats and vegetables. 
Mingting restaurant is one of Chengdu’s most famous “fly restaurants”. With hundreds of fly restaurants throughout the city, often in houses that are nearly crumbling over, and said to have questionable standards of cleanliness (the busy and famous ones actually aren’t that bad), Mingting is always ranked #1. Just like visiting Chenshi liangfen up in the north of Chengdu, coming to Mingting is a MUST. In my opinion nowadays it can barely be called a fly restaurant. It’s become so famous and has cleaned up so much that it’s more of a “wanghongdian” viral restaurant. But that’s a good thing. The flavour is still the same and you can sample so many different authentic Sichuan foods without fear. If you’re brave, you can order Mingting’s most famous dish, their doufunaohua 豆腐脑花, also known as pig brain and tofu. I was so hesitant at first. Now, after 5 years in Chengdu, I don’t think twice about slurping down a whole pig brain in one go. It’s actually very delicious!
If you’re traveling to Chengdu, make sure to come to Mingting to try out a bunch of these dishes! 
If you want to eat a whole roast Sichuan lamb in Chengdu, you need to come eat at Bashu Yijue Kaoquan Yang. Here, the whole bbq lamb is slathered in the most aromatic Sichuan chili oil from your dreams! It’s best to tell them a day in advance how many people you want to bring. This well let them prepare one for you. Otherwise, you can try your luck and hope they have an extra lamb going. If the language barrier is a problem, you can ask the front desk of your hotel in Chengdu to help you make the call.
This one is super delicious! We found a delicious 4 layer Sichuan meat and seafood tower in Chengdu that’s worth trying! It’s composed of Sichuan frog, chicken, beef, and shrimp and crayfish. All 4 layers are cooked in Sichuan “mala” spicy and numbing style. The flavour is spicy, fragrant, numbing, with a kick of cumin! Super delicious! 
Any Chengdu food guide would be incomplete without featuring feichangfen 肥肠粉. While the name is unsettling for those unused to eating organs, these sweet potato starch noodles with pork intestine are an integral part of food culture in Sichuan. Therefore, if you’re wanting to tick off your list all of the main foods to try in Sichuan, you will have to try feichangfen. Which brings us to the only place you should visit if you want to try them; Ganji feichangfen. This old joint in Chengdu puts out bowl after bowl of spicy goodness. First, the base chili oil and spice mix is prepared and covered in a strong intestine broth. Then, delicious sweet potato starch noodles are boiled and poured over top. And finally, some tied up pork intestines are placed on top. If it’s your first time, get ready for something you’re either going to love or hate! The locals here all love it! It’s worth coming on over to try!
Chengdu isn’t famous for BBQ kebabs, but there are many halal restaurants run by either Hui or Uighur Chinese that have delicious Northwestern Chinese style lamb kebabs. We found a delicious BBQ kebab and flatbread restaurant in Northwest of Chengdu that is worth the ride out. It’s about a 30 minute walk from people’s park or a 15 minute drive. Make sure to order a kaobing 烤饼 flatbread to sop up the meat and juice with. You can place your meat inside the bread and it’s so delicious! The restaurant has regular lamb kebabs (羊肉串 Yangrou chuan), Tripe (大肚 dadu), tendon (羊津 yangjin), and flatbread (烤饼 kaobing). I personally always just order 20 kebabs and 2 flatbread. 
Hey Food Ranger! We’re currently in Sichuan and have been working through your list. You’re not lying about the twice cooked pork noodles. We’re craving a second round today! Thanks for the great advice!
We are going to be in Chengdu on 06/08/20 and I can’t wait to hit some of these places!
My wife was born in Chengdu and it’s been 10 years since we were last there and I still crave the Dan Dan Noodles.
Every restaurant in the USA that claims to have Dan Dan are lying. I’m a noodle addict and nowhere in the world I’ve been can compete with Sichuan
Trevor,
I made it China a few months back and had a blast! Wuhan,and then high speed train to Chengdu. I absolutley loved Chengdu! I followed so many of your food recomendations and everything was so amazing! The work you did to put it all together is so valuable. One of my suprisingly favorite things was the Roast Duck at the Farmers market holy cow, and the Ma La style Rabbit! I cannot wait to go back! I just wanted to say thank you again for all you do!
Hi Trevor,
Thank you so much for this amazing guide to Chengdu. My husband and I will be traveling around China for a month next year and are SO excited to come to the Szechuan capital as we love spicy food! I was curious, do you need to have a large group to do hot pot? We really want to have that experience but it seems like it’s something that you traditionally eat with a large group (or at least more than two people). What do you suggest?
Safe Travels & Happy Eating!
-Aimee Long
Hi Aimee!
I’m so glad you enjoyed the guide! Not at all, hot pot is sometimes best with just 2 people, it’s a lot of fun that way! I hope you have a great time!
Hey Trevor, I’m coming to Chengdu for the next 2 weeks. Of course I will try some of the food stalls you listed! I’m really excited! Is there any chance to meet you as well during that time?
Rigards,
Nic
Awesome!! Unfortunately we won’t be there at the time, I hope you have an awesome time though, and let me know if the guide comes in handy!
Hello, Trevor,
I went to Chengdu for 15 days to see my daughter who is studying at the University.
Before, I watched a lot of your videos, and it really made me want to taste the specialties of the sichuan, I went to the market you talk about in your videos. It was great and authentic.
Thank you very much continue!
Sorry about my English, I’m French.
Here are a few more accounts of our food rangin’ time in Chengdu possessing absolutely no knowledge of the Chinese language 😉
7. XIAOTAN DOUHUA
Here we tried the silken tofu dishes – this taught us to go with Trevor’s recommendations as we ordered a few other things from the picture-point-and-choose menu and some of them were a little weird for our taste! The tofu dish with the crispy noodles on top was really tasty. For anyone else as anxious as we are here is the protocol for this place (similar to a few others) – you choose your order and pay at the little desk upon entry, get a receipt and take it to the food window to get your order.
8. GANJI FEICHANGFEN
At this place we ordered the intestine sweet potato noodles – you pay at a little cashier and then must repeat your order to the chefs. I was unsure how to order the ‘giezi’ – intestine knot – and I wasn’t sure if that replaces the sliced intestines so I missed out! There’s a place outside (or is it the same place? you pay separately) where we bought some of those crispy sichuan deep-fried circular sausage roll pastry things which were yummy.
9. MAOJIAOHUOLA
Amazing! I was concerned this would be a bit too similar to sichuan style hot-pot (which we had twice on the trip so far, go for the river fish and eat the face if you get the opportunity!) but it was so so different. But first steps – with the lineup you will see a ton of people sat outside on tiny plastic chairs. You take a ticket from a machine – it’s all written in Chinese – into which you enter the number of people in your dining party and your phone number. Then sit and wait. We waited for about an hour but it was so worth it! Once we got inside confusion ensued. We were handed a tick list to order and were sat in a corner haphazardly trying to translate the menu using Google Translate camera. We were unsure what we were ordering, although we had identified the ‘drinks’ section we had no idea what the top part of the tick list was all about. Do you write 1? Do you write 10? Do you write 100g? We presumed this was where you order the skewers, so we started just writing ‘1 1 1 1’ in almost every box (the Translate app is useless with one dish being translated as ‘CABINET’ according to Google). After the waitress took our order she then invited me to go choose the skewers from the fridge. At this point I thought this had replaced the paper tick list, but upon arrival back to our seat I realised we had accidentally ordered no less than ELEVEN side dishes. So in summary – if you don’t speak any Chinese – the top part of the menu is side dishes (such as delicious rabbit kidney in spicy peanut dust and chilli oil) NOT THE SKEWERS. Luckily we managed to cancel 3 or 4 of the side dishes before they came out but we still ended up with a ton of food which we spent several hours gorging on. Really tasty!!
Dear Trevor, as I communicated via Instagram earlier this week we have had an absolutely wonderful time following your food map in Chengdu this week. We are so fat. Thanks to you and Ting Ting for all your amazing hard work with the channel and blog!
Big fans
Chris and Josie
x
Thanks so much Chris and Josie!! Your input is so great, and I’m so happy you enjoyed the food on the guide!! Thanks for your awesome feedback and comment!
I’ve been in Chengdu for the last 5 days. Some great recommendations from Trevor. I’ve been hoping to bump into him on the streets or a food stall. Still time with 5 days left here. 🙂
Great city and great food.
Sooo… we have 3 days left in Chengdu and what an amazing time we have had – so full! Just returned from Trevor’s chuanchuanxiang recommendation – which was probably for me the highlight so far – and thought maybe non-Mandarin speakers who are as equally completely un-bilinguistic as myself and my girlfriend would benefit from this advice regarding the protocol at each of the weird and wonderful recommendations in Trevor’s guide:
1. LIAOLAO ZAJIANG MIAN
Our Airbnb host took us here as a welcome meal upon arrival. It was absolutely delicious – and incredibly daunting for Westerners crammed into little tables sharing 4 bowls of noodle in close proximity to the neighbouring patrons. It didn’t help that I am left handed and therefore literally clash elbows with anyone who is chopsticking to the side of me! The whole ordeal was amazing but our host ordered all of the dishes for us – we had the sweet water noodles, ‘liangfen’ cold style noodles, wontons in chilli oil, a goukui with pickled veg and beef broth noodle (not sure of the specifics). After watching Trevor’s videos for over 2 years the taste was even better than I imagined. Despite the chilli oil being the main factor in all but one of the dishes – each bowl had its own unique twist. The second time we went back to this restaurant we managed to order by ourselves – they have pictures at the counter which helped us to point and choose. For anyone else who is as anxious as we are in a completely alien place: you order at the desk, get a receipt which you take to a counter and then they pretty much instantly provide you with your requested dishes. Your challenge is then to find a table to share with other customers who are willing to have your chilli oil spilt into their lap…
2. XIAMIANGUAN
I walked here about 4km on the first night whilst my gf was recovering from a tiring journey. I have to say this was the anomoly in all the food tried in Chengdu so far. There was no English menu (as with almost all places as you will see) but the waitress did speak enough English to take my order – showing Trevor’s article to request the rabbit noodle dish. I stupidly ordered a ‘big size’ bowl – read this advice – always order small bowls and try multiple dishes that will balance the flavour where possible!!! The rabbit noodles were too salty and samey for my taste, the seemingly dry / instant cook noodles served in a vat of plain-tasting chilli oil with a few dry strands of rabbit to garnish on the side. Definitely by no means the best meal of our trip…
3. CHUNYANGGUAN YUXIANG PAIGUMIAN
On our second day we went to Trevor’s number one spot and had amazing dan dan noodles, cow pea noodles and wantons in a mushroomy clear broth. This was delicious (hoping to revisit in our final few days) and it was super easy and stress free to order – Trevor’s translated English menu is provided on the tables and you can point to the correlating Mandarin dish names to order.
4. GANHAIJAO CHAOSHOU
On our third day we found ourself hungry mid bike ride, following the river south from Wenshu Monstery where we were staying. Luckily we were in the East of the city near Trevor’s recommended wonton spot. It was hard to find, but when we regaled the name of the restaurant to an old Chinese nene she was more than delighted to show us the way. Following Trevor’s picture advice we did end up climbing through what seemed to be the window. BE WARNED! This is not the regular entrance to the restaurant. Do a loop round the block, exit through the gates into the driveaway / main (back) entrance to the restaurant to avoid embarrassment! Another great meal at this establishment although we possibly did order too many samey chill-oil based wonton dishes. It’s hard to order as everything is written in Chinese, so the best you do is cross-reference the menu with Trevor’s English translated version. You order and pay in the garden out back before entering the (very busy at the time we visited at least) restaurant and waiting to be seated.
5. LAOHUANGJI SHOUSI KAOTU
Later in the week we were in Yulin district and decided to try Trevor’s BBQ Sichuan Rabbit recommendation. Ordering with the help of Google Translate (everything was Chinese) we managed to order half a rabbit – mala style – on Trevor’s recommendation. Our only downfall is we ordered it to go, wrapped up in a very sturdy bag, which we ended up taking into the sit-down restaurant next door to feast on anyway. When ordering at the window in this style you pay in advance. The food was delicious and Yulin is a great area – there is a very cool low-key street-side craft beer on tap place a few streets away where a pint of beer is less than 10 RMB. We plan to return on our final night here – this time with a full mala style sichuan rabbit in tow – taking advantage of the takeaway option and cheap delicious beer at this bar.
6. CHENGDU DIYIJIA ZIGE KAO YANGROU CHUAN
Absolutely incredible tasting food. And not too far away at all as Trevor’s article seems to suggest – download and install the Mobike app and cycle around the city with the easy-to-rent bikes – nothing in Chengdu will seem that hard to reach. When we arrived at this establishment there was considerable confusion, the waitresses seemed very perplexed as to why we were there. Their utterances translated as ‘Excuse me??’ in my Google Translate app. However we were able to get our point across eventually – we were there to eat their tasty Uighur BBQ food – and they pulled our an extra tiny plastic table and chairs onto the roadside to accommodate us. The food here was delicious. We ordered with the help of Google Translate camera, with the benefit of the menu being quite condensed – limited to lamb skewers, tripe skewers, kidney skewers and what I believe was fatty beef skewers (Tendon?). The food was incredible, and there are a number of street food hawkers walking by that enable you to temporary leave and purchase side dishes e.g. super tasty edamame beans. The only shortfall of this restaurant was that they forgot our first round of naan bread orders, but this was soon rectified with our second ordering of skewers. Incredible taste and a great experience.
tbc…….
more on – sweet potato intestine noodles & chuanchuanxiang skewers….
This list is so comprehesive it blows my mind. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for taking the time to create it. It’s amazing how helpful this is gonna be when I visit! I can’t wait. You have seriously saved me so much stress of trying to find amazing local spots. Well done!
Hi Trevor,
Love the amount of work you have put into this. Would love to meet up with you in Chengdu. I am coming from Australia in late March.
Wow. I’m from South Africa and love your video’s. I am planning a trip towards the end of the year and I would love to visit Chengdu and I will be trying your recommendation for good local food!
Wow I just went to 纯阳馆 and didn’t realize that you actually helped them update their menus!
Great food there as always!
haha awesome!!
Hi Trevor and ting ting
We have just come back from a whirlwind food tour of Chengdu and Xi’an. We loved all of your recommendstion, especially the goukui and hot pot!
Thanks for making such fantastic , fun, interesting and accessible videos for everyone to enjoy the incredible cuisine of china!
Tony and Lucy
Hi Tony! That’s so awesome to hear! I’m so happy these blog posts came in handy!!! Where was your favourite place?
Hi Trevor,
My husband and I really enjoyed your videos! Great info and very entertaining!!
I am a Chinese American from Chicago, looking into real cooking school in China. Interested in snacks and baking, not good at knife skills nor care to acquire. I can read and speak mandarin and Cantonese.
I have learned that you were enrolling cooking school through one of your videos (the one you got bullied – funny:) Appreciate if you can share any recommendations. I am open to class from 2 weeks to 3 months course.
Thanks in advance for your insights
Happy travel and Happy tummy:)
Rita Fong
Trevor and Ting,
This is a wonderful guide and my wife and I can’t wait to use it in May. What would be REALLY helpful would be a downloadable .PDF that included all the maps and recommendations. . I’d pay $15 for that or any of your other guides. Going to Xian also, so would work out well.
Tai Hao Le!
Hi Bruce! Thanks so much for the comment! Just emailed you about the guidebook, would love your feedback!
Hello Trevor, thanks for the awesome videos, making me very hungry.
Is Supo farmers market there on Saturday mornings?
I’m flying London-Chengdu-Bangkok, and have an 8 hour layover in Chengdu (06:00-14:00), and the Supo farmers market sounds like heaven to me, especially as I’ve been experimenting with Sichuan cooking for the last 2 years, though I’ve never visited China, I hope I’ll get about 3 hours at the market, and don’t mind missing out on other traditional tourist attractions.
Thanks
Hi Trevor,
We’ll be in Chengdu for 4 nights between Apr 26-30, Chongqing Apr 30-May 1, Xi’an May 1-6 & Beijing May 6-12. Guessing you are travelling elsewhere?!
Regarding Chengdu, do you not have recommendations for Chongqing Chicken, Kung Pao Chicken or Sichuanese cold dishes?
We’re a group of 3 university chums from London visiting China for the first time. Familiar with the cuisine but can’t wait to go deep with your help for Chengdu & Xi’an.
Happy New Year!
Best,
Oscar
Hi Trevor
As a Sichuanese, I like your food travel videos very much.
I have a burning desire that you should make a video in HanZhong (汉中).
These’re also tons of delicious food waiting for you.
Kevin
I’m going to be visiting chengdu soon and am looking forward to trying out the food in this guide. Thank you for the work you put into making this for the fans. Will be updating about the food I try.
My wife is from Chengdu and even she acknowledges your food reviews (Chengdu meizi is very picky when it comes to food). We’re going back to Chengdu for a little shy of 2 weeks for Christmas break, can’t wait to try out most if not all the noodle joints you recommended in your videos 🙂
Thanks for the great guide. We’re looking forward to trying all of this out in late February!
Gidday Trevor
Congratulations on your “Food Ranger” videos – the absolute best!
We will be in Chengdu in May 2019 and looking very much to visiting some of the food areas, restaurants and eateries there and you have enhanced our upcoming visit to Chengdu.
I hope we see you during our visit and dinner will be on us for yourself and Ting!
Thank you for the good work in producing the videos and sharing the information.
Cheers!
Thanks a lot Gary!!
Hi Trevor,
My wife who is from Wuhan, and I am American, will be going back to Wuhan to visit her family, and we will be stopping in Chengdu for a couple of days. We will be trying your recommendation for good local food
Hi Brian! Awesome!! I hope that the guide comes in handy!
Hi Trevor,
Loving yours videos,in future I have plan to round a China. The thing is everywhere I see only pork and beef ,can I get chicken in spicy noodles??
You can also get rabbit. I will update the guide and put a rabbit noodles place in!
You made my memories come alive!! had an awesome year back in 2010 in chengdu..! will definitely try out the places that you have recommended..
Awesome! I hope you can come back to eat these!
Hello Trevor,
This is the best Chengdu food guide I ever read! Nice job – How about doing a Chongqing Food Guide as well? 🙂
Cheers
Nicole
That’s a great idea Nicole!
Hi Trevor,
I‘m a fan of your video, it will be funny if you change 太好了 to 太牛逼了.
nvm, just saying and love your video, kind jealous sometime coz you can eat everything with such a cheap price and I can only eat Dominos.
Hi Shawn! haha! I hope you can come here to Chengdu to eat the foods in this guide!
Wow Trevor we are huge fans of Sichuan food and this is an amazing guide, thank you soooo much!!
Thank you so much Ann!! I hope the guide comes in handy!!
Hello Trevor,
We (I’m Korean and my wife Chinese, both live in Germany) love your videos so much.
Big big Thanks for yourgreat Chengdu Guide! We visited Chengu last month and could enjoy most of all the recommended food in Chengu at the place of origin.
It was an amazing experience for us, especially for me.
The speciall traditional restaurant (No.8) ist so awesome. What a atmosphere and what a taste! Absolutely my favorite.
Thousand thanks to you and your wife Ting for all these interesting videos. Great job!
Tai Won and Yunhua
Wow thank you foor the nice comment!!
Trevor I’m a chef from Denver and I will be in Chengdu in one and a half weeks. I will follow your guide. I hope I can find some of the places. I can hardly wait!
Hi Trevor,
I like your Chengdu videos very much.We are now in Chengdu for one week from Prague Czech Republic. I would like to visit the hotpot restaurant from second hotpot part Extreme spicy Chinese food challenge in Sichuan, China | death level SPI … but I don’t have the address … Can you say it to me ? Thank you
HI Michal! That is a chain restaurant called Xiaolongkan hot pot 小龙坎火锅. You can find one near you and enjoy!
Hi Trevor.
Firstly ABSOLUTELY LOVE your videos!
I would just like to ask…how easy is it to be a vegan in China? Are there any traditional foods I can eat? vegan restaurants/options? What is the general perception of being a vegan there? (do they understand what it is)
I’m so worried its all meat that its been preventing me from going to the beautiful country for years!
Hi Rosie! Thanks for writing! Being vegan in China is slightly difficult. Your best bet is to cook for yourself or visit specific vegetarian/vegan restaurants as many restaurants aren’t aware of what vegan is. Here is a link for being vegan in China https://cetacademicprograms.com/ultimate-guide-vegan-china/
We are planning a trip to Chengdu in a couple of months. My husband loves spicy and Szechuan. I prefer less spicy. Will I have a problem finding food to eat?
Hi Ellisa! No, there is lots of food that is not spicy in Chengdu. And actually you might be surprised by how some dishes aren’t too spicy even though they are red with chili oil. You can try a bite and see. It’s not too bad, honestly.