Eating Out in Nanchang

Nanchang is a great city for food lovers. Restaurants abound on almost every street and range from pokey little holes in the wall to large and luxurious banqueting halls. People in Nanchang love to eat out and restaurants are often packed every night. Dining in a Chinese restaurant is something of a unique experience. Loud, hot and smoky is how many people like it so if you want a more peaceful environment it’s probably best to book a private room, which most restaurants have.

Some tips for eating in a Chinese restaurant in Nanchang include...

Brush up on you chopsticks technique. Most restaurants do not have knives and forks
Learn the Chinese for some dishes or take a phrase book with you. Many restaurants do not have English on their menus. That being said, quite a few restaurants do have pictures of their dishes in their menus whilst in others you go to a display area and simply point to what you want.
Be prepared to dine early. Most people here begin their evening meal at 6pm and by 8.30 most restaurants will be deserted. If you hang around much later than this you’ll not be flavor of the month with the staff.
If you want to eat later there are options. Many hotpot restaurants stay open until the early hours of the morning, and quite a few restaurants re-open later in the evening to serve night snacks.
If you really don’t like spicy food always check with the staff whether a dish is spicy or not. Even if you are told it’s only a little spicy you may still find it too hot. Best to say you don’t want any at all. Even then you’ll probably still get some, but at least it should be bearable.

Local food in Nanchang
The traditional local cuisine is Nanchang Cuisine (Gan Cuisine), which is characterized by hot and spicy flavors. The chili pepper is one of the most important ingredients in local dishes and is often used as a vegetable in its own right rather than as just a flavoring. Douchi (fermented black beans) is also widely used. As with the rest of China, pork is the primary meat that is used, though freshwater fish is also very common due to the numbers of rivers and lakes throughout Jiangxi province. Be warned however that fish is usually served intact, complete with head and all bones. Tofu is another popular ingredient in Gan cuisine and is often served fried.

Other Chinese regional cuisines in Nanchang
It is quite easy to find restaurants which specialize in other Chinese regional cuisines, though Northern cuisines are not very well represented.
Western Food in Nanchang
Not too long ago visitors to Nanchang would’ve been hard pressed to find any western food outside of a few top-end hotels, and even then it was probably best described as 'western food with Chinese characteristics'. The situation has improved in recent years though and it is now much easier to find good quality western food. Western fast-food chains have sprung up throughout the city with KFC being particularly common. Many of the large coffee houses have western food on their menus and there are now a few small restaurants with western chefs. Some of the larger hotels offer western buffets and Brazilian BBQ as well as a la carte menus. Nevertheless, Nanchang is not Shanghai or Beijing and the quality and authenticity of western food here can still be a bit hit-and-miss.
Other International Cuisines in Nanchang
Besides western food, Thai and Japanese food are becoming easier to find with more restaurants opening every year. Korean BBQ is another option. Mongolian hotpot is also available, though some may argue that it should be classed as Chinese food rather than foreign.

Vegetarians
According to How To Order Chinese Food Dot Com "Vegetarianism is not widespread in China, and with cooking variances from region to region, restaurant to restaurant, and even cook to cook, there is no way to be sure what you ordering will be completely meatless unless you ask. The following dishes should give you a good start, but be sure to tell the waitress 不放肉。 我吃素 (bu2 fang4 rou4. wo3 chi1 su4) which means "don't add meat, I'm a vegetarian." Note, even if you ask for food in this matter, it is likely your dish was cooked in the same wok, and possibly the same oil as a meat dish minutes earlier, which may or may not be a problem depending on your degree of vegetarianism."
For a list of common non-meat dishes click here

Locations
Some streets in Nanchang are well known for the number of restaurants they contain. In addition, similar types of restaurants can often be found in close proximity to each other. In fact there are restaurants on probably every avenue, road and back alley in the city. Some noteable locations though are...
Ruzi Lu. Probably Nanchang’s first restaurant street, Ru Zi Lu is still a popular destination for locals with many large restaurants serving mostly local cuisine.
Hama Jie. Particularly noted for it's concentration of hotpot restaurants.

Useful Links
How To Order Chinese Food Dot Com