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A taste of Pingyao

Tianyuankui

天元奎饭店

The oldest restaurant name inside Pingyao's walls, founded in 1791 and still trading on South Street in the Ming-Qing commercial strip, in a courtyard dining room with dark timber and lattice screens. It is the most convincing of the old-town restaurants: tourist-facing like everything inside the walls, but with a real kitchen doing Shanxi dishes properly and prices that have not been inflated to match the setting.

¥50–70 per person≈ US$7.45No. 7 on Dianping's Pingyao county local-flavour restaurant list (平遥县当地风味餐厅榜), rated 4.8Inside the walls, South Street (南大街) 72, on the Ming-Qing Street (明清一条街)
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Why come here

A place worth making time for

Founded in 1791 and the highest-rated Pingyao local-cuisine restaurant on Ctrip at the time of checking (4.8, around ¥50-68 per head); Pingyao 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.

  • Pingyao beef, sliced cold (平遥牛肉)
  • Buckwheat wantuo (碗托)
  • Oat-flour kaolaolao, dry-fried (干煸栲栳栳)
  • Knife-cut noodles (刀削面)
  • Pingyao braised beef with aged vinegar (陈醋牛肉)

What it actually tastes like

Shanxi aged vinegar is used as a primary flavour, not a condiment, and several signature dishes taste frankly sour. Pingyao beef is cured, dense and salty rather than tender, and is eaten cold.

Allergens in this kitchen

gluten/wheatsoysesamepeanut

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

Pingyao Beef 平遥牛肉Deeply savoury and salty with a faint sweetness, extremely tender — it genuinely falls apart in the mouth.Wantuo Buckwheat Jelly 碗托Earthy buckwheat under a punchy garlic-vinegar-chilli dressing; springy and bouncy to bite.