Harbin Food and Restaurants

Harbin boasts colorful culinary cultures. The city not only inherits the traditional cuisine of nomadic Manchurian style dating back to more than 1000 years, but also develops and learns from the mixture of cultures, which made the Cuisine of Harbin have its unique features.

When you plan a winter tour of Harbin to experience its Harbin Ice & snow festival and visit highlight attractions like Zhongyang Pedestrian Street, Siberian Tiger Park, St. Sophia Church, never miss local Harbin food with the authentic taste of the city, from the famous street food to Harbin Russian Food.

Main Features of Harbin Cuisine

To survive in the freezing days, the local people in Harbin get used to eating the frozen or raw dishes to get more vitamins since long time ago. Another feature of local Harbn dish is that they prefer to stew all the materials in one pot including meat, vegetables and mushrooms. Comparatively the local dishes are saltier and stronger than the Chinese food served in South China. 

And drinking strong alcohol daily to warm up the body is also very popular here like most of other cold places in the world.

Influenced by the immigrants of Russia and other European countries a couple of century ago, Harbin has quite a few nice western restaurants and bakeries here. Therefore you can choose what restaurant and food you like when travel to Harbin.

Harbin Cuisine Guide 

The Most Popular Harbin Food to Taste

Harbin red sausage (哈尔滨红肠)

The red sausage is an iconic food of Harbin cuisine. There are two famous brands of Harbin red sausage: Qiulin Company (秋林公司) and Harbin Meat Processing Company (哈肉联). Choose pure lean meat, slightly fat meat or fat meat according to your personal taste.

Russian bread (大列巴)

Harbin is the only city in China with authentic traditional Russian pastry cook and facilities to bake Russian bread. Bigger than a household steamer, the bread is now becomes a local specialty. The bid bread tastes a bit sour, and has an exterior as hard as a pot cover, thus suitable for storage.

Killing pig food (杀猪菜)

It is originally a stewed dish cooked in the northeast China rural areas at the end of the year when local people are killing pigs for the festival. The dish is rich in flavor as it add almost all parts of pig, from pig bone, pig head, pig blood to pig offals into the dish and mix with pickled Chinese cabbage.

Double cooked pork slices (锅包肉)

Double cooked pork slices is a Harbin famous food, and a featured food  of the Northeast Chinese cuisine. Fine lean meat is wrapped with starch and fried in the wok until it turns to be a golden color, and then add the prepared broth. It tastes sweet and sour - popular among tourists. Double cooked pork slices can be found on Gogol Street.

Stewed vermicelli with pickled cabbage (酸菜炖粉条)

A popular traditional Northeast Chinese dish in Harbin, it tastes sour. The main ingredients include local homemade pickled cabbage, pork belly and noodles.

Demori fish stew (得莫利炖鱼)

Demori fish stew has a history of more than 100 years. "Demori" is a Russian transliteration that refers to the Demori village south of Songhua River, where local people rely mainly on fishing for their livelihood, and demori fish stew is a specialty of the village. The main ingredients of this dish include live carp (or catfish, crucian carp), bean curd and wide vermicelli.

Fried potato, green pepper and eggplant (地三鲜)

Another famous traditional Harbin food, its ingredients are three seasonally fresh ingredients: eggplant, potatoes and green peppers. It is not only about the fresh and strong taste, the natural and green ingredients, but also about a variety of ingredients, making it a nutrient and delicious diss.

Stewed Pork with Pickled Vegetables and Vermicelli (炒肉渍菜粉)

This is a local delicacy from Harbin City. The pickled vegetables are made from Chinese cabbage and have a sour, fresh, and tender texture, making them appetizing and refreshing. The vermicelli is made from refined potato flour and is transparent, flexible, and bright white. The pork is red and white in color, with a balance of fat and lean meat.

Stewed Chicken with Mushrooms (小鸡炖蘑菇)

It is a representative dish of the "Eight Major Stews of Northeast China" and a must-try dish in Harbin. Local free-range chickens and wild hazelnuts are used. After long cooking, the chicken is fragrant, the mushrooms have a rich flavor, and the soup is thick. It is a must-try dish in Harbin during winter.

“Sha Yike” Bread (“沙一克”面包)

Made primarily from flour, yeast, and salt, this bread is baked in a hardwood oven. The surface of the bread is shiny and has a special caramel aroma. When eaten, the crust is thin, soft, and easy to digest. As a popular sugar-free staple bread, it is now one of the specialty foods of Harbin and can be paired with various types of dishes.

Harbin Dumplings

Another Harbin famous food - Harbin dumplings, is renowned for its unique features such as hand-made filling and sauerkraut tripe and seafood. In a genuine Harbin dumpling restaurant, you will find that the chefs still insist on hand-rolling the wrappers and making and boiling the dumplings on the spot. Unlike the dumpling wrappers made by machines, the hand-rolled dumpling wrappers are slightly thicker in the middle and slightly thinner at the edges, giving a soft and chewy texture when eaten.

The filling is the soul of Harbin dumplings. Besides the common fillings like tripe and seafood, pork and sauerkraut, some Harbin dumpling restaurants also offer innovative flavors such as cucumber and shrimp, tomato and egg.
In Harbin's dumpling restaurants, dumplings served with smoked pickled vegetables like smoked pork ribs, smoked pork legs, and jelly are a classic combination.

The Best Harbin Street Food

Grilled cold noodles (烤冷面)

It is a common local specialty snack in Heilongjiang. The method of frying and baking cold noodles is simple. Eggs, sausages and other auxiliary materials can be used. The sauce is mainly used as seasoning.

Harbin beer (哈尔滨啤酒)

Harbin Beer Group Co., LTD., founded in 1900, is the earliest beer manufacturer in China and now the fifth largest beer brewing enterprise in mainland China. Like sausage, bread, beer and other Western specialties, beer has also become basic necessities of life in this city. Don't miss the beer if you tour Harbin.

Modern Popsicle (马迭尔冰棍)

Modern Popsicle is a featured snack found in Harbin Central Pedestrian Street. It is one of the Modern Food Brand founded in Harbin in 1906 by a Russian Jew named Kasper. Modern Popsicle is also one of earliest cold drink in China, made with milk and egg, without using swelling agent.

Frozen Persimmons and Pears

As winter arrives, large persimmons and pear varieties freeze solid, becoming as hard as steel balls or iron discs. People can slowly nibble on them frozen, or thaw the icy crust in cold water before devouring them in big bites—cool and sweet.

Ice Desserts

Ice desserts are year-round bestsellers at cold drink shops. Made from ingredients like milk, egg whites, coffee, and rock sugar, they take on various intricate shapes. Nutritious and richly flavored, they offer a sweet treat. Harbin locals have a peculiar fondness for eating cold foods the colder it gets.

Candied Haws on Sticks

This is one of the most popular winter food in China, including Harbin. Street vendors peddle candied haws on sticks, lining their carts with the sweet treats as they hawk them through neighborhoods. Crisp and sweet, they aid digestion, cut through greasy foods, and sober up drinkers.

Recommended Chinese Restaurants in Harbin

XiangGe LiLa Da Restaurant Coffee Yuan

Shang Palace

Harbin DongFang JiaoZi Wang (ZhongYang Main Street)

DongFang JiaoZi Wang (SuoFeiYa)

Lao Chu Jia (WenZheng Jie)

Harbin Man Tang Hong Bifengtang Mei Shi (Zhong Yang Main Street)

Recommended Western/Russian Restaurants in Harbin

Hua Mei Western Restaurant (ZhongYang Main Street)

Tatoc

Recommended Vegetarian Restaurants in Harbin

Peacock Restaurant (for Indian, Asian, Halal food)

LaoChang ChunBing (SuoFeiYa) - Vegetarian Friendly

Best Harbin Tours to taste authentic Harbin food 

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