Harbin Restaurants

Ambience and surroundings are wherever you happen to be, whichever street, with whatever going on around you. That's part of the benefit to eating street vendor fare. The other benefit is the game of chance you get to play with whatever it is you are eating.

If you don't play the game, however, you miss out on what is a very common and daily part of life here.

Mornings at our bus stop finds eggs boiling in a stainless steel mixing bowl over coals that take a bit of the chill out of the early day. I'm sure there's other stuff, but those are the most noticeable. The game? How many days have those eggs steamed the morning air? There are no lines, at least.

For the rest of the day, you'll find popcorn, caramel if you want, seeds (sunflower) and nuts (chestnuts, peanuts, and others), lots of fruits (you name it), roasting meats, chicken heads and other cooked goods which are, aside from a great relief from the more unpleasant smells one comes across, just tantilizing. Some sell heavy pastries and occasionally there are noodle stands.

Ice cream and cold drinks are quite common, as is roasted corn.

Across from our old apartment, in the early hours of morning, a line of vendors set up a fruit and vegetable market every day. Steamed bread and dumplings

These places are frequented by locals.

Favorite Dish: The Honduran corn, roasted over coals has found a home here, as well, though without the salt and lime. I'd say that would be my favorite.

What the good people of Harbin must be thinking as we wheel our grocery cart up to the register, I can only guess. Loads of bottled water, chili oil and toilet paper; batteries, bread, Enoki mushrooms, ketchup (katsup) and creamed corn... As if we're not an oddity enough around here.

But my apartment is home to many a good meal. Yes, ketchup and bread go well together, and Harbin is known for its bread.

To welcome us to Harbin, the school for which we work told us that we were going to have a party for about ten people at our place. Five actually showed, but they brought a traditional winter soup that we cooked together, and we made chicken soup, traditional for us. I had plans on making a curry as well, with a salad and dessert and wine and beer. I have lots of wine and beer, and much of the salad went bad. The curry, a Lhaksa (sp) curry, which is pretty good, we put on hold, as they also brought other local things: pickled garlic and cucumber, sausage (also famous here), chicken and a bean curd dish. All very interesting, and, some would say, good, from a certain perspective. The "100-year-old egg" type eggs were quite good, though the texture is certain to throw some people off- gelatinous and somewhat eggy...

Well, the main course was a soup of shaved mutton, wide, thick noodles, shrimp, dumplings and greens, boiled in a broth and served in a bowl partially filled with a mixture of sauces that reminded me of a salt block covered in nut butter. Quite good, especially at first, but almost too salty for a western palatte after a while.

Very nice evening, however, building up further international relationships, which is, afterall, much of what travel is about. Even if the relationship lasts only a day or a few hours, it's still a connection to the locale, which is the reason we travel, and especially the reason we moved to China.

This place is almost perpetually full, we had to make a reservation and down-payment in order to guarantee seats -- and then had to wait for about 10 mins for a table anyway. Step inside the restaurant and you feel like you've teleported out of China. There's a homely feel to the decor and the music is pleasant.
I think there's only 1 cook for the entire cafe, so it takes quite a while for the food to come.
There was also apparently only 1 server for the entire cafe despite the fact that it was quite busy, so service was really difficult to come by! We asked for plain water which never came; the server asked if we wanted our Russian tea served before the meal and we said yes; but the tea never came till we asked repeatedly for it after we'd finished our meal -- no language barriers as an excuse as all of us speak Mandarin at a native level!
OUTSTANDING POINT: I paid a 100 RMB deposit for the table reservation and forgot to collect it after we finished our meal at around 1530 and we just left; only remembered it when we had dinner around 2100 and I hurried back to the restaurant to collect it. Surprisingly they still had it and returned it to me at once. Had it been another place, I would've expected the restaurant staff to have misappropriated it already.

Favorite Dish: One of the best dishes here is said to be the hamburger, but we didn't get to try that as it was sold out. :(
Other good dishes to try are the Russian cabbage rolls, Russian red soup (borscht?), cream of mushroom soup, beef/lamb/prawns cooked in little urns and Russian bread.
Russian tea was simply normal black tea + raspberry jam...? None of us have had Russian tea before, so we were a little surprised.

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The restaurant is within Pai Lian Complex and can be access from the main street.

You can choose to have a big pot or individual pots. The food is great and nicely arranged / cut. The decor is nice and service is great. Choice of 2 types of soup for the hot pot.

We asked the waiter for recommendation and the choice was a good. Avoid the toufu (fresh or frozen).

Favorite Dish: The sliced fish for the hot pot is excellent. It is thinly sliced and when you put it into the hot soup base, the fish is instantly cooked and is very fresh.

This place is small but really cute. The owner is from Papua New Guinea and has decorated the space with hangings from his home country. The deserts here are divine and a wicked treat for those of you a little over eating food that you can't recognise. The same goes for the rest of the menu but the sausages are definately NOT the normal ones for sausage rolls. The food is pretty pricey but the coffee is great. The place is like a little oasis away from the hustle and bustle. I think the price keeps a lot of locals away. The owner is very friendly. Closed on Sunday. I was a little disappointed with the caesar salad but overall it was a nice change from noodles.

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There is no speical dish in this area, as I am told.

Hotel attendent recommended this restaurant.
It is for Taipei food.
Taipei food at Harbin?........It sounds weird.....But I gave a try.

They offer draft beers brewed in house.
It tastes like Pils~~~~my favorite German beer.

There are also aquarium for seafood selection.
The only problem is English is useless there......^^*
After several discussion, I can have what I want.

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Harbin Beer is the liquor of choice here manufactured since 1900, and apparently large quantities are consumed as Harbiners are said to be the 3rd largest per capita consumers of beer after Munich and Moscow, etc.

Sausages are another local specialty, the main variety is one with round globules of fat interspersed, and for those who like to reduce fat intake, another version without.

Other random local food we ate are illustrated here.

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This restaurant in the Central Street district began operations from 1925 as a Russian-owned and operated fine restaurant. Now, of course under of new management over revolving generations, it is a general Western Restaurant with Russian-like dishes mostly. It's quite famous and popular among young locals.

The food can't be considered authentically Russian, and taste is just mediocre - nothing to recommend specifically, but edible if you are in "eat-to-live" mode. In the photo is beef stew pot, borscht, bread and salmon roe caviar (Ikra/Ikura) with somewhat sloppy food presentation.

(I once heard a sort of proverb in Japan whereby those in their 20's prefer quantity, those in their 40's prefer quality, and those in their 60's prefer dish presentation, but no, Junichi and Rose are not quite in their 60's yet.)

Here was the only place we found Chinese wine, but the taste has yet to compete on an international level.

It's still worth to go just to dine in the magnificent ballroom restaurant on the 2nd floor, imagining what it must have been like in the 1920's.