Best Halal Food in Shandong: Jinan, Qingdao and Hui Muslim Local Dishes
Reposted from the web
Summary: This Shandong halal food map follows Jinan, Qingdao, Hui Muslim restaurants, Lu cuisine, seafood, local snacks, and practical food stops kept from the original guide.
Lu cuisine is the first of China's eight major culinary traditions. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, many Shandong chefs moved to the capital. Their cooking won favor with the royal family, making Lu cuisine a staple of palace banquets and deeply influencing the flavor of Beijing cuisine. Halal food, an important part of Beijing cuisine, essentially originated from Lu cuisine. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, Shandong produced many masters of Islamic studies, and the local religious community was far more prosperous than it is today.
Jinan
There are five mosques in the urban area of Jinan Prefecture. Halal restaurants are mainly concentrated in the alleys between the South Mosque (Nandasi) and the North Mosque (Beidasi). These two historic mosques are only a few hundred meters apart, and the streets are lined with small eateries.
Qingzhenlou is the largest halal restaurant in Jinan. It is the top choice for Hui Muslims in Jinan when they have business to attend to.
Qingzhenlou specializes in classic Lu cuisine. If you look closely at the menu, you will find it is no different from a Beijing-style halal restaurant.
When eating in Shandong, be careful not to waste food because the portions in Shandong restaurants are quite large. For an average appetite, one or two dishes are enough.
Jinan has a Hui Muslim village called Xiaojinzhuang, where most residents are Hui Muslims. There are a few scattered halal restaurants in and around the village. The specialties of halal restaurants in Jinan are large bone marrow (dalianggu) and barbecue. When Jinan locals want barbecue, they choose the Hui Muslim street barbecue first.
Yixiangzhai, a halal pastry shop in Xiaojinzhuang, has a wide variety of items at affordable prices.
These pastries have a moderate flavor and are not too sweet. The owner is very kind; she even refused to sell me pastries that were not fresh.
Yiqingyuan Rotating Mini Hot Pot
Address: No. 67 Puli Street
Libaisi Street
This is a residential area for Hui Muslims in Jinan. The street is made up of many small halal eateries, mostly barbecue shops, but also Kaifeng lamb soup shops, Anhui flat noodle shops, braised chicken with rice (huangmenji mifan), and Qingzhou pastries.
Braised chicken with rice is one of the local specialties of Jinan, and you can find a halal version on Libaisi Street.
Laobaiji Lamb Restaurant
Address: No. 30-3 Luo'an Road, east side of Luoxin Hardware
Wuyang Charcoal Grilled Lamb Leg and Traditional Old Beijing Hot Pot
Address: No. 60-2 Weiyi Road, Shizhong District, Jinan
Shouguang
Big Xinjiang Barbecue King
This shop is likely the most distinctive halal restaurant in Shouguang. It has been in business for over a decade. There are no mosques in Shouguang, and the halal restaurants there are mostly noodle shops.
Address: No. 388 Guangming Road, Shengcheng Subdistrict
Qingzhou Ancient City
Qingzhou Ancient City is basically a halal food hub, with all kinds of halal snack shops scattered throughout the city.
You must try the local barbecue in Qingzhou. A bundle of 20 small skewers costs 30 yuan. They come with a small charcoal stove for every table, which keeps the meat warm even in cold weather.
Qingzhou also has many unique sesame flatbreads (shaobing) that are hard to find once you leave.
These thin and crispy sesame flatbreads (shaobing) cost 12 yuan for 500 grams.
Old Locust Tree Pan-fried Buns (laohuaishu jianbao)
Pan-fried buns (jianbao) are a snack common to both Shandong and Henan, often eaten for breakfast. This shop inside the ancient city has lines forming early in the morning.
The prices are affordable, with one pan-fried bun (jianbao) costing 0.7 yuan and a bowl of tofu pudding (doufunao) costing 2 yuan.
The tofu pudding (doufunao) here is served with soup, unlike the version in Beijing which is served with a thick savory sauce.
For breakfast, one person can get full on four pan-fried buns (jianbao) and a bowl of tofu pudding (doufunao) for less than five yuan total.
Hui Muslim pastries are a major local specialty. Honey-glazed fried dough (misandao), walnut cookies (taosubing), and sugar-coated fried dough (tang'erduo) are all delicious. Shandong Hui Muslims have also brought these halal pastries to Beijing.
Existing records suggest that boiled dumplings (shuijiao) likely originated in Shandong. The province is full of dumpling shops, and it is easy to find halal boiled dumpling (shuijiao) shops inside Qingzhou Ancient City.
These are handmade boiled dumplings (shuijiao) made to order.
A plate of beef boiled dumplings (shuijiao) features delicate shapes, thick fillings, and thin skins.
Qingzhou's large pancakes (jianbing) are served with Shouguang green onions. Shandong onions are not spicy and are very juicy, so you can eat them like fruit.
Address: All the restaurants mentioned above are located inside the ancient city.
Gong Ban-zhang Fish Hot Pot (Gongbanzhang yuguo)
Just outside the ancient city, there is a fish hot pot restaurant nearby that offers grass carp or snakehead fish.
Address: Near No. 2178 Tuoshan Middle Road, Qingzhou City.
Weifang
A local specialty in Weifang is the open-air pot (chaotianguo), a soup pot served with rolled pancakes. The soup is made by boiling pork. Weifang does not have halal open-air pots (chaotianguo), and the local Hui Muslim population is small. There is only one mosque, and in a community not far from the mosque, there is a Ma Family Beef Sauce (Ma Jia Jiang Niurou) restaurant run by local Hui Muslims.
The owner is quite polite. I arrived late and the fire was already out, but when he learned I was a Muslim, he turned the stove back on. I ordered a bowl of beef soup, which was very tasty, and the owner gave me a sesame flatbread (shaobing), a type of bread very similar to Xi'an pita bread (paomo).
Address: 50 meters east of Furunde Building, north of the intersection of Heping Road and Fushou Street, Weicheng District (east side of Furunde Building).
Tai'an
Tai'an is the city where Mount Tai is located. Tai'an has a Hui Muslim street where the West Mosque is located. The largest halal restaurant on this street is Zhongyishun Restaurant, and there is also Ahmed Halal Burgers.
There is a Confucius Temple on Mount Tai. One branch of Confucius's descendants converted to Islam and eventually became the Hui Muslims of today. Influenced by the ethnic integration policies of the Ming Dynasty, Confucius gained Hui Muslim descendants starting in Yongjing, who are commonly known as Kong Huihui.
Zhongyishun Restaurant
Try the stir-fried chicken (chaoji), a classic Shandong home-style dish that comes in a large portion with plenty of flavor.
Address: No. 90 Daizong Street, Taishan District, Tai'an
Summary: This Shandong halal food map follows Jinan, Qingdao, Hui Muslim restaurants, Lu cuisine, seafood, local snacks, and practical food stops kept from the original guide.
Lu cuisine is the first of China's eight major culinary traditions. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, many Shandong chefs moved to the capital. Their cooking won favor with the royal family, making Lu cuisine a staple of palace banquets and deeply influencing the flavor of Beijing cuisine. Halal food, an important part of Beijing cuisine, essentially originated from Lu cuisine. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, Shandong produced many masters of Islamic studies, and the local religious community was far more prosperous than it is today.
Jinan
There are five mosques in the urban area of Jinan Prefecture. Halal restaurants are mainly concentrated in the alleys between the South Mosque (Nandasi) and the North Mosque (Beidasi). These two historic mosques are only a few hundred meters apart, and the streets are lined with small eateries.
Qingzhenlou is the largest halal restaurant in Jinan. It is the top choice for Hui Muslims in Jinan when they have business to attend to.
Qingzhenlou specializes in classic Lu cuisine. If you look closely at the menu, you will find it is no different from a Beijing-style halal restaurant.
When eating in Shandong, be careful not to waste food because the portions in Shandong restaurants are quite large. For an average appetite, one or two dishes are enough.
Jinan has a Hui Muslim village called Xiaojinzhuang, where most residents are Hui Muslims. There are a few scattered halal restaurants in and around the village. The specialties of halal restaurants in Jinan are large bone marrow (dalianggu) and barbecue. When Jinan locals want barbecue, they choose the Hui Muslim street barbecue first.
Yixiangzhai, a halal pastry shop in Xiaojinzhuang, has a wide variety of items at affordable prices.
These pastries have a moderate flavor and are not too sweet. The owner is very kind; she even refused to sell me pastries that were not fresh.
Yiqingyuan Rotating Mini Hot Pot
Address: No. 67 Puli Street
Libaisi Street
This is a residential area for Hui Muslims in Jinan. The street is made up of many small halal eateries, mostly barbecue shops, but also Kaifeng lamb soup shops, Anhui flat noodle shops, braised chicken with rice (huangmenji mifan), and Qingzhou pastries.
Braised chicken with rice is one of the local specialties of Jinan, and you can find a halal version on Libaisi Street.
Laobaiji Lamb Restaurant
Address: No. 30-3 Luo'an Road, east side of Luoxin Hardware
Wuyang Charcoal Grilled Lamb Leg and Traditional Old Beijing Hot Pot
Address: No. 60-2 Weiyi Road, Shizhong District, Jinan
Shouguang
Big Xinjiang Barbecue King
This shop is likely the most distinctive halal restaurant in Shouguang. It has been in business for over a decade. There are no mosques in Shouguang, and the halal restaurants there are mostly noodle shops.
Address: No. 388 Guangming Road, Shengcheng Subdistrict
Qingzhou Ancient City
Qingzhou Ancient City is basically a halal food hub, with all kinds of halal snack shops scattered throughout the city.
You must try the local barbecue in Qingzhou. A bundle of 20 small skewers costs 30 yuan. They come with a small charcoal stove for every table, which keeps the meat warm even in cold weather.
Qingzhou also has many unique sesame flatbreads (shaobing) that are hard to find once you leave.
These thin and crispy sesame flatbreads (shaobing) cost 12 yuan for 500 grams.
Old Locust Tree Pan-fried Buns (laohuaishu jianbao)
Pan-fried buns (jianbao) are a snack common to both Shandong and Henan, often eaten for breakfast. This shop inside the ancient city has lines forming early in the morning.
The prices are affordable, with one pan-fried bun (jianbao) costing 0.7 yuan and a bowl of tofu pudding (doufunao) costing 2 yuan.
The tofu pudding (doufunao) here is served with soup, unlike the version in Beijing which is served with a thick savory sauce.
For breakfast, one person can get full on four pan-fried buns (jianbao) and a bowl of tofu pudding (doufunao) for less than five yuan total.
Hui Muslim pastries are a major local specialty. Honey-glazed fried dough (misandao), walnut cookies (taosubing), and sugar-coated fried dough (tang'erduo) are all delicious. Shandong Hui Muslims have also brought these halal pastries to Beijing.
Existing records suggest that boiled dumplings (shuijiao) likely originated in Shandong. The province is full of dumpling shops, and it is easy to find halal boiled dumpling (shuijiao) shops inside Qingzhou Ancient City.
These are handmade boiled dumplings (shuijiao) made to order.
A plate of beef boiled dumplings (shuijiao) features delicate shapes, thick fillings, and thin skins.
Qingzhou's large pancakes (jianbing) are served with Shouguang green onions. Shandong onions are not spicy and are very juicy, so you can eat them like fruit.
Address: All the restaurants mentioned above are located inside the ancient city.
Gong Ban-zhang Fish Hot Pot (Gongbanzhang yuguo)
Just outside the ancient city, there is a fish hot pot restaurant nearby that offers grass carp or snakehead fish.
Address: Near No. 2178 Tuoshan Middle Road, Qingzhou City.
Weifang
A local specialty in Weifang is the open-air pot (chaotianguo), a soup pot served with rolled pancakes. The soup is made by boiling pork. Weifang does not have halal open-air pots (chaotianguo), and the local Hui Muslim population is small. There is only one mosque, and in a community not far from the mosque, there is a Ma Family Beef Sauce (Ma Jia Jiang Niurou) restaurant run by local Hui Muslims.
The owner is quite polite. I arrived late and the fire was already out, but when he learned I was a Muslim, he turned the stove back on. I ordered a bowl of beef soup, which was very tasty, and the owner gave me a sesame flatbread (shaobing), a type of bread very similar to Xi'an pita bread (paomo).
Address: 50 meters east of Furunde Building, north of the intersection of Heping Road and Fushou Street, Weicheng District (east side of Furunde Building).
Tai'an
Tai'an is the city where Mount Tai is located. Tai'an has a Hui Muslim street where the West Mosque is located. The largest halal restaurant on this street is Zhongyishun Restaurant, and there is also Ahmed Halal Burgers.
There is a Confucius Temple on Mount Tai. One branch of Confucius's descendants converted to Islam and eventually became the Hui Muslims of today. Influenced by the ethnic integration policies of the Ming Dynasty, Confucius gained Hui Muslim descendants starting in Yongjing, who are commonly known as Kong Huihui.
Zhongyishun Restaurant
Try the stir-fried chicken (chaoji), a classic Shandong home-style dish that comes in a large portion with plenty of flavor.
Address: No. 90 Daizong Street, Taishan District, Tai'an
