Xiàn Lǎo Mǎn

Beijing


No wonder this locals' favourite is always packed – for boiled or fried jiǎozi (dumplings) that are as delicious as they are light on the wallet, you can't go wrong. Ordering via a bilingual menu card is easy – just note that dumplings are sold by the liǎng (50g, about five dumplings), and for each filling, it's a minimum order of two liǎng.

As well as dumplings, there's a huge selection of comforting jiācháng cài (typical home-cooked dishes) such as kung pao chicken (宫保鸡丁; gōngbǎo jīdīng), tofu (麻婆豆腐; mápó dòufu) and braised eggplant.