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A little preparation. A much better adventure.Independent travel advice · Made for China

A taste of Inner Mongolia

Gerile Ama Milk Tea House

格日勒阿妈奶茶馆

The best-known Mongolian restaurant group in Hohhot and the one to use as your introduction to the cuisine, because it serves the whole grammar of a Mongol meal on one table: milk tea, boiled mutton on the bone, dairy pastries and sand-leek dumplings. The milk tea arrives in a vacuum flask and is refilled without limit, which tells you how central it is.

¥60–90 per person≈ US$8.94Several Hohhot branches including the Jinqiao area (金桥店)

Why come here

A place worth making time for

Ranked No. 2 among Hohhot local-cuisine restaurants on Ctrip at the time of checking, around ¥71 per head; Inner Mongolia has no Michelin or Black Pearl coverage.

The house favourites

What to order

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

  • Mongolian milk tea by the flask (蒙古奶茶)
  • Hand-grabbed boiled mutton (手把肉)
  • Sweet milk-curd pastry (甜奶酪馅饼)
  • Mutton and sand-leek buns (羊肉沙葱包子)
  • Mongolian pot tea with millet and curd (蒙古锅茶)

What it actually tastes like

The milk tea is SALTY, not sweet, made from brick tea boiled with milk and salt, and is often enriched with butter or mutton fat — this catches almost every first-time visitor out. Shouba rou is mutton boiled in plain water with no seasoning at all, dipped in salt or leek sauce at the table, so the flavour is pure sheep. Dried curd is sour and hard.

Allergens in this kitchen

dairygluten/wheatsoy

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