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A taste of Datong

Fenglinge

凤临阁

Datong's showpiece restaurant, rebuilt inside the restored old city as a lavish timber-and-lacquer complex and now the most expensive place to eat in town. Its reason for existing is baihua shaomai: tissue-thin wrappers gathered into petal pleats and filled with mutton, crab roe and prawn, finished with crab roe and carrot. It is thoroughly a tourist destination and priced accordingly, but the dumpling work is genuinely skilled and unlike anything you will see elsewhere in Shanxi.

About ¥85 per person≈ US$13No. 2 on Dianping's Datong must-visit food list (大同美食必打卡榜), rated 4.4Pingcheng District, inside the restored Datong old city near Nine Dragons Wall (九龙壁) on Heyang Street
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Fenglinge (凤临阁), Datong
Photo: Mongol · CC BY-SA 3.0

Why come here

A place worth making time for

Known as Datong's most famous and highest-spend restaurant, built around its baihua shaomai pastry work; there is no Michelin or Black Pearl coverage of Datong at all.

The house favourites

What to order

Point at the Chinese. Staff will understand it even where the menu has no English at all.

  • Baihua shaomai, the flower-pleated dumplings (百花烧麦)
  • Sweet-and-sour meatballs (糖醋丸子)
  • Mutton offal in a clay pot (砂锅羊杂)
  • Traditional pork knife-cut noodles (传统猪肉刀削面)

What it actually tastes like

Shanxi cooking leans hard on aged dark vinegar, and it arrives in quantity on the table and inside dishes — far more sour than visitors expect from northern China. The shaomai filling includes mutton, which has a pronounced sheepy edge.

Allergens in this kitchen

gluten/wheatshellfishsoyegg

This is the kitchen, not one dish. Woks, fryers, blanching water and utensils are shared in almost every Chinese restaurant, so for a serious allergy treat the whole premises as the unit rather than ordering around it.

Get to know the menu

Local specialities to try here

Knife-Shaved Noodles 刀削面The noodles themselves are mildly wheaty with a notably springy, uneven chew; the flavour comes from the topping — usually a savoury minced pork and soybean sauce.Datong Shaomai 大同烧麦 / 百花烧麦Juicy and savoury with a thin skin; mutton versions are rich and faintly gamey, vegetable ones mild.