1. Wangfujing Snack Street
Wangfujing Snack Street is conveniently located just beside Wangfujing Street, the busiest shopping street in Beijing. It is a very popular tourist destination, and is especially busy at night. Besides street foods, there are also souvenirs and handicrafts for sale here, so you can kill two birds with one stone. The food street has a large selection of somewhat exotic finds, such as deep fried insects, scorpions and animal parts. While people in Beijing do not regularly eat deep fried insects, they can make for good photos to send home. Common traditional snacks such as meat kebabs, dumplings and tanghulu (candied fruits popular in Beijing's winter) can also be found here.
2. Qianmen Food Street
Qianmen Snack Street, namely, Qianmen Street, is located in the south of Tiananmen Square, between Zhengyang Arrow Tower to the flyover area. This is one of the most famous pedestrian streets in Beijing. There are many time-honored restaurants in Qianmen Pedestrian Street and the surrounding hutongs, such as Quanjude (全聚德), BianyiFang (便宜坊), Donglaishun (东来顺), Liubiju(六必居), etc. You can eat the traditional delicacies of Beijing.
There are also many snacks and pastry shops in the street, such as Wu Yutai ice cream(吴裕泰冰淇淋), Beijing yogurt (北京老酸奶), Daoxiangchun (稻香村), etc. and foreign cafes and fast food brands such as Haagen Dazs, Starbucks and KFC can also be seen here. On Qianmen Street, there are Beijing Camera Factory, China Crown Hat Culture Museum and other old shops and buildings. Traditional art performances such as Chinese cross-talk and storytelling shows in various kinds of tea houses are interesting to see, though they may be hard to understand. After trying the delicious food, you might as well go shopping to experience the traditional life in the ancient capital.
3. Niujie Muslim Snack Street
Niujie (Ox Street) is famous for its large muslim community and Niujie Mosque, which is the largest and oldest mosque in Beijing. Twenty-three ethnic groups live in the area, with Hui people making up the majority. This area is the place to go for food items and snacks popular with the muslim Hui community, mostly made of beef and mutton, various pastries, and other traditional Beijing snacks. Street snacks around here are relatively inexpensive, starting at a few RMB for pastries.
4. Guijie (Ghost Street)
Guijie (Ghost Street) is the earliest popular snack street in Beijing. The 1.5-kilometer-long Guijie is full of snack shops and restaurants, which serve snacks with different flavors at a cheap price. It is well-known for serving spicy food hailing mostly from Sichuan province. One food item that is undoubtedly high up on Beijing's favorites are hot and spicy crawfish. Guijie operates around the clock, and it's bustling every day between six in the evening until the early hours of the morning. This is also one of the best places to come for a meal very late at night as many of the restaurants continue to serve until approximately 4am.
5. Shichahai Food Street (Houhai Food Street)
Shichahai (Shicha Sea 什刹海) is said to be "sea", but it is actually a huge artificial lake, which belonged to the old royal family in the ancient time. It is connected with the famous Beihai River and faces Jingshan park and the Palace Museum. Walking along the tranquil lake bank, passing through those tall and solemn doorways covered by the lush leaves, Shichahai is a famous summer resort. There are also snacks hidden in the alleys, hutongs, scattered in almost every mile for you to explore. Food includes kebabs, ferment soybean milk, meat broth, and pancakes, etc.
Today's Shichahai food zone includes Houhai Bar Street, Yandaixie Street, Yinyingqiao Food Street and Drum Tower of Di'anmen Outer Street. Hundreds of restaurants are gathered here. Among them, there are Lamb Barbecue founded in Qing Dynasty, Qingyun Tower Restaurant, Houhai courtyard Restaurant, which only receives three tables of guests a day... More than 300 kinds of Beijing snacks gathered here, let alone Japanese sushi restaurants, Indian restaurants, refined bars, Yunnan cuisines, etc. Gourmet food, beautiful scenery, featured bars, all can be found in Shichahai Food Street.