Metro: Hua Qiao Cheng YANTIAN FOOD STREET
There’s lots of seafood on offer at Shenzhen’s eat streets and some people think Yantian is the most important of them. It’s the classic Hong Kong formula. Ingredients: a fish market, cooks, chopsticks, tables and stools. Yantian has all of these plus an old village plus views of the sea and the container cranes. Not bad.
It sounds lyrical but we don’t want to give you the wrong impression. This is industrial eating. The fish market isn’t the sort where you wander in and look at the quaint fisherfolk. It’s big and municipal they probably won’t let you in. The eat street is right on the container terminal. We like container ships and cranes. You might not.
The fish market offers the usual fresh as in still flapping fish plus a great range of dried fish and other seafoods in cellophane. You can smell them from a long way away. Don’t dismiss dried fish. It’s very good in some classic Cantonese dishes such as steamed minced pork with dried fish. The fish adds that salty tang.
The restaurants are all arrayed in a 3-storey building facing the seafront. On the roof of the building is a terrace with expansive sea views just the thing for one of those perfect autumn evenings.
King of the Yantian restaurants is Shi Gong Hui 0755 2520 0233. Shi Gong Hui has the widest range of dishes in Yantian and that’s what the local punter wants. It’s busy; they’ve recently added a 120-space carpark, making it easy for locals to just rock up. And they do. Book early. You won’t get an unreserved seat on a weekend night.
We like the Dong Huang 0755 2520 0988. The brand’s well known in Shenzhen but it’s only been in Yantian since 2000. It occupies 3-storeys in building A of the complex and has an enormous neon sign in the front. You can’t miss it.
We also like the Hong Yun 0755 2520 0881. The food’s fine, but what attracts us is the yun in the name. It also means transportation, a container port in full view of so many cranes appeals to us.
Address: Yantian Seafood Street, Yantian
