Around town you will find what I like to call a classic Guilin Restaurant on almost every corner. These have pretty much always been a thing, but have seemingly grown in importance as the government has cracked down on real street food.
What makes them stand out is that they are pretty much everywhere, they stay open late, are usually buys and have pictures up. This is particularly useful if you do not speak Chinese.
The classic Guilin Restaurant
The classic Guilin Restaurant is also epitomized by what it sells. As a westerner we might just see them as a Chinese restaurant, although the Chinese surely don’t! These restaurants in Guilin while serving a whole smattering of Chinese dishes (usually 40+) cook very much in the Guangxi style.
By and large this means less spicy than in the south, more emphasis on broth based noodles, as well as serving classic Guilin foods. These include beer fish, numerous other river fish, as well as snails, which are overall pretty good. Of course there are a number of other dishes that they also serve form the region, as well as ones from other places with a local take on things.
How is Guangxi Cuisine
The cuisine of Guilin and the province of Guangxi are in many ways similar to that of Vietnam and northern Vietnam in particular. This is particularly true for both street BBQ and indeed how they consume beer.
Guangxi alongside Vietnam also like to eat dog, which I will not give an option about as it is such a spicy meatball…….
If you look hard enough though you can find this.
Drinks wise they and particularly around Guilin Railway Station they also serve their own fruity moonshine, not all that different from in Railway Street Hanoi.
It is though not quite PNG PaiaWara.
Fish is also a big deal here with you being able to see fish and shell fish swimming around bowls to show how fresh they are. Generally though these are river fish rather than seafood, such as the well known beer fish, as well as crash fish being overall more common than say shrimp.
The Guangxi Fried Noodle
Fried noodles should be a super simple dish that does not c change the world over, but this could not be further from the truth. In fact from Cambodia to Beijing and beyond they are almost un recognizable.
People in Guilin prefer their noodles with soup and thus barely fry their noodles, this means that what you get is a very bland dish without much flavor or indeed spice. Best avoided if you do not want to be disappointed.
So, while the Classic Guilin Restaurant will not blow you away it is always a safe bet for some classic Chinese and Guangxi cuisine