Yangzhou

This chain of Imperial/Huaiyang cuisine restaurants serves excellent Longjing shrimp, shi zi tou (lion's head meatballs), Yangzhou fish heads, sea cucumber and more.

This fancy-pants restaurant on the 32nd floor the New Century Hotel is tailor-made for flashy expense account dinners and serves the usual sharks fin/abalone assortment. The crab and Shanghai dishes are also recommended.

Features chefs from the renowned Zhenjiang Yangchun restaurant, known for its lavish state banquets.

Dianping users recommend this Huaiyang restaurant for its signature dishes, including "Yangzhou fried rice, beancurd threads braised in chicken and ham stock made from free-range chickens - the extremely thin beancurd strands represent the knife skills of the chef," as well as the "lion’s head crab flavored meatballs and stir-fried prawns."

Tastefully themed in lavender and aromatic dark wood, this three-story restaurant focuses on light and mildly sweet Yangzhou cuisine. Don’t miss the “lion head” meatballs and wild mountain greens, a native specialty.

The China World Hotel’s Summer Palace serves a menu of refreshing Huaiyang and Cantonese dishes in smart, upscale surrounds. Dishes include beautifully delicate dim sum and vegetables wrapped in sheets of tofu, and even the juicy pork belly, often heavy on the stomach in other restaurants, is surprisingly light. Check out the daily tea cocktails and French Bordeaux selections. Weekend dim sum buffet is RMB 98 per person, plus 15% service charge. Voted "Outstanding Cantonese (High End)" in the Beijinger's 2011 Restaurant Awards.

This Huaiyang/Zhejiang restaurant makes ordinary dishes extraordinary. Try the noodles with a choice of sauce or the stir-fried green beans. Other highlights include hongshao rou (pork in brown sauce) and the eight treasures in spicy sauce, which includes tofu, shrimp, pork and cashews. Cordial waitstaff and a spacious, modern environment.

Getting lost on the way here is definitely part of the fun. The Huaiyang dishes prepared in this elegant courtyard restaurant filled with antiques were once served to the great Peking
opera star Mei Lanfang. The set-meal menu changes daily and must be ordered in advance. This hidden charm is far from cheap – RMB 300 per person minimum (and goes up to RMB 2,000 a head) – but the gasps of delight make it all worth it. Definitely a place to impress.

The Asia Hotel's Huaiyang restaurant serves artful cuisine in elegant surroundings - the blanched chicken baizhan ji is highly recommended.