Eating My Way Around Shenzhen

When planning how I’d live when I moved to China, one of the easiest things to decide on was how much, or should I say how little, I was going to cook. I know there are a lot of people out there that love to cook. I’m not one of them.

I can’t stand cooking. I’m also not that good at it. My cooking skills are mostly limited to boiling water, chopping things, and mixing stuff together. I’ve never been able to make 2 things at the same time, like a main and a side. It’s too much and something usually goes wrong.

Here in China, my kitchen is extremely limited. I have a hot plate, 2 pots, a pan, a good knife for chopping things, a plate, a bowl, and a single set of silverware. Reheating leftovers is entertaining, to say the least. They like to get stuck to the bottom of my pan/pot.

But, a good thing about living in China is that everything is so cheap. I order delivery food to work every day and it only costs 15-50 yuan ($2.5-8 USD), including delivery. Eating out can be more expensive, especially for foreign foods. I’ve spent anywhere from 20-150 yuan ($3-23 USD) for a meal.

While I’ve not eaten at the fanciest restaurants I could, I doubt that there are many places that would come close to charging what a lot of nice restaurants in the US or Europe would.

Here are some of my favorite restaurants in Shenzhen:

Taco

Yes, there really is a restaurant here named Taco. And, yes, it is Mexican food. It is in the foreigner-friendly area of Shenzhen, Shekou, right by the Sea World metro station.

They make some very good soft shell tacos. I can say their chicken tacos are the best I’ve had in China so far. But they don’t have any rice or chips, so the 3 tiny tacos, while delicious, are not completely filling. It is a bit depressing to spend nearly 100 yuan on some amazing food and still be hungry after.

They also make some amazing, and massive, margaritas. You may remember this picture from an earlier post.

Teqo

Teqo is another Mexican food place. The closest metro stop is Convention & Exhibition Center. It’s around the outside of what I’m assuming is some kind of shopping center, or the convention center (I’m not sure. I haven’t gone inside), with a lot of other restaurants and places to get a drink.

Teqo has half-off tacos on Tuesday. They have a large selection of some very yummy tacos. I’d recommend their Taco Bell tacos, ground beef, lettuce, and melted cheese in a crunchy shell, which are good but were problematic for me to eat. I’d take a bite and all the insides would fall out. I also recommend their chorizo and potato tacos in a softshell. They were delicious! The chicken tacos are good, but oddly sweet. I’ve also heard great things about their fish tacos.

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Their tacos, even without the half-off Tuesday, are a bit cheaper than at Taco. Their alcohol selection was a little less impressive. There was only one option for a margarita, along with other drink selections that I didn’t pay all that much attention to. But I have yet to leave Teqo still hungry, and going on Tuesday, I haven’t spent 100 yuan on my meal, either.

Little Papa

There’s a very good Indian restaurant at Shopping Park, also called Coco Park. It’s a little hard to find because it’s inside in this random walkway under a building, but just off the metro stop.

This one is a little more expensive as you have to order any rice and naan separately from whatever else you’re eating, but it’s all delicious, if a little spicy. I usually spend about 100 yuan whenever I eat here, but it’s worth every one.

Starling

Most burgers in China are hockey pucks, unless they’re from an expensive or foreigner-friendly restaurant. I got one through a delivery app that was thin and tasteless, while the picture looked large, juicy, and delicious. I nearly cried!

My friend heard about a new 50s era American dinner. They have burgers, milkshakes, pancakes, chicken and waffles, mac and cheese, and a couple other American staples.

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We were able to find it more because it was really an authentic 50s dinner. It, like a lot of stores and restaurants in China, is not very big. It was packed and we had to wait a while to get a seat. We got stuck at the bar with the guy making milkshakes.

So far, I’ve just had the burger and fries, which were delicious! But, I intend to go back and try everything. It all just looks so good!

Mystery Kitchen

This isn’t one restaurant, but a kind of type of restaurant that my friend dubbed “mystery kitchen”. They are all over Shenzhen, and probably the rest of China. They are usually fairly cheap and serve good Chinese food.

It’s a little like eating in a cafeteria. When you walk in, you get handed a plate with some rice and can grab a tray. The chefs make a bunch of different dishes, which rotate, and you can pick out, aka point at, which ones look good to you. I’ve only seen one or two different dishes heaped onto a plate. Not all of the dishes cost the same, usually depending on the meat.

The dishes also rotate. So, if you don’t see anything you like, give it 5 to 10 minutes and something different will pop up. But, because of the constantly changing menu, something you find that you really like might not be available when you get there.

They are a bit of a crapshoot, but there are at least 15 different dishes available at any one time. The odds are good that you’ll be able to find something to try.

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Happy eating!