Hunan and Hubei

This red brick, ruggedly decorated restaurant served authentic Hubei cuisine.

This chain makes Hubei-style flatbreads cooked in a tandoor oven, a moreish snack that's healthier than regular guokui and pairs well with anything. Agan Guokui has over 30 branches in Beijing.

Xiangren Longji’s menu focuses on noodle soups and dry noodles (RMB 22-28), stinky tofu, marinated chicken feet, and marinated duck. All the noodles at this chain are made of rice and shipped from Changsha, the capital city of Hunan province on a daily base. Don't forget to hit the self-served table for Hunan-style snacks, including deep-fried soy beans, chili peppers, preserved beans, deep-fried lard

Regarded in Hunan province as a classic breakfast chain, Xianyuexian Yufen offers authentic dry noodles and fish rice noodle soups (RMB 29-46) with milky-white broth thanks to a six-hour cook time and a mix of ginger, garlic, chili pepper, bird's-eye chili, and facing heaven peppers, giving the dish an assured Hunan spicy kick.

Jeff’s Cuisine’s Chinese name is 姐夫的小菜, literally means brother-in-law’s small dishes, because the traditional customs are that brother-in-laws are in charge of mastering family meals in Hunan province, and normally brother-in-laws are the ones that cook best. Offering Hunan home-style cuisines, such as stinky tofu (RMB 15), Mao's braised pork, head of steamed fish in chili sauce (RMB 89), and steamed yam with ribs (RMB 39).

As a time-honored Chinese brand, Yangyuxing opened in Changsha, Hunan Province in 1894, where there are now more than 20 outlets. They have since also expanded across China, with several outlets in Beijing. 

Yangyuxing specializes in noodles, with a plethora of different styles, including noodle soups, fried noodles, and dry-stirred noodles (RMB 18-32), as well as several Hunan dishes, such as stinky tofu, and various sausages.

An uncle started to sell Wuhan noodles at a hawker-style stall near Shuangjing several years ago, while patrons called him Uncle Hot, and struggled to make its way to open his restaurant at Salitun on third floor on 3.3 Shopping Center, with more than 20 seats.

The menu includes the basic traditional hot dry noodles (RMB 23), and noodles with egg, spam, beef, fish balls or beef balls (RMB 27-32), soup noodles (RMB 27-35), several Wuhan dishes (RMB 16-58). 

Hunan Provincial Government Restaurant serving up Hunan classics with thoughtful and attentive service.

Here’s how it works, you stop by at the fancy machine at the door, put the order on that machine, pay with Wechat Wallet or Alipay (similar to McDonald’s), the grab the receipt and walk in to get a table, then your food will be prepared in the kitchen and delivered on the conveyor belt, you pick it up by yourself and eat, when you finish it, put it back to the conveyor belt and leave. 

Opened in March, Longxiaobao locates on the first floor of Sanlitun Soho. Since it was recommended by local celebrities, the lines with at least 200 people in front of it every day shows that people really buy in for the past several months. There are eight noodle soups and three dry noodles (RMB 19-39). You could also add more beef, dumplings, rib or sausage; to make it more thoughtful, you could choose do you like it with extra spicy chili oil, normal or less. As for snacks, you can order the brown sugar sticky rice cake (RMB 5), or some chicken feet (RMB 15).