Eating out should be one of the great pleasures of visiting China. Real Chinese food is leagues away from the overly-salty, oily concoctions that takeaways try to pass off as authentic. Even in the most pedestrian of Chinese restaurants, there's a dedication to using fresh, seasonal ingredients that the most picky gourmands will appreciate.

Food in China is generally cheap. For almost next to nothing, anyone can have a feast at the dinner table. More reason then, to head on to a restaurant and enjoy the guilty pleasure of eating out rather than cooking in.

Choosing a place to eat can be quite confusing, given the sheer number of restaurants and eateries that can be found, for example, in a city the size of Hangzhou. Since Sara and I ate every meal for all of two weeks in some restaurant, we thought it would be nothing short of irresponsible not to share the results of our “research” with you.

Huqingyutang Yaoshanguan
Dajing Lane

One of the most interesting places to have a meal has to be this restaurant which incorporates the principles of Traditional Chinese Medicine in its menu. The restaurant is actually part of a well-known Chinese pharmacy.

The menu is in Chinese only, but the first two pages contain the “medicated” dishes which incorporate the appropriate remedy for certain medical conditions. Food prices range from a couple to about ten euros, although some dishes, like those that have ginseng, could cost much more.

Service in this restaurant is quite good, with the staff more than willing to help you find the food best suited to your particular condition. Where else could you find anti-fatigue tofu to boost your flagging energy in the middle of the day?

Linglong Town Restaurant
198 Nanshan Road

This exotic-looking dessert takes hours to prepare but only costs a couple of euros from Linglong Town Restaurant. (Image: Radio86)Nanshan Road is the restaurant center of Hangzhou and one of the most popular places there is Linglong Town Restaurant. It's fast becoming the favorite hangout of the 20-something set who are drawn to the simple yet chic ambience of the place. The menu has a wide-range of snack items, but the most impressive has to be the humongous shaved ice desserts that they serve.

The restaurant also takes the cake for the most interesting food item – a large inflated ball made of fried rice dough that takes hours to prepare. We were surprised to learn it cost only about a couple of euros.

Green Tea Restaurant
83 Longjing Road

Speaking of tea, there is a restaurant called Green Tea just down the road from the National Tea Museum. The décor is decidedly tropical, lots of bamboos and an open feel to the place. The food was very good and the prices quite reasonable. A vegetable dish could be had for as little as a euro, while meat dishes cost between four and six euros.

What I remember most is the selection of fresh fruit shakes and juices that they made from a huge fruit bar near the entrance of the restaurant. I ended up ordering a cucumber fruit shake which at first I found strange but ended up asking for a second glass of.

They also had a dessert called homemade bread, which, although it sounds strange, is worth a try.

Grandma's Kitchen
Hangzhou Tower Shopping Center

A seafood dish from Grandma's Kitchen (Image: Radio86)With over two hundred dishes on the menu, you'll be spoiled for choice in Grandma's Kitchen. You won't even have a hard time finding a Grandma's Kitchen in Hangzhou, as there are about 30 branches in the city.

Grandma's Kitchen caters mostly to families, although they're also trying to reach young customers by promoting healthy options. They make their own non-carbonated drinks, such as winter melon juice, which we couldn't seem to stop drinking.

Their specialty, Chicken with Longjing tea fragrance, sells over 1,000 portions a day. If you're coming during the lunch rush, be prepared for a long wait if you haven't called ahead and made a reservation.

Mei Wu Xing's teahouse
Meijiawu

The nearest to a home-cooked meal we got was lunch at a teahouse in the village of Meijiawu. Our hosts were almost apologetic, saying that the meal might be not much considering that it was a tea farmer's house we were having lunch in. To this day, I don't know why they thought a warning was warranted, since the food, although simple, was really quite hearty. And, of course, we got an extra treat from knowing that the Longjing tea we were served with lunch was harvested from a farm just several hundred meters down the road. Now, that's eating local!

Hupanju Teahouse
Inside Number 6 Park on Hubin Road

A range of delicate snacks from Hupanyu Teahouse (Image: Radio86)Visiting Hangzhou really wouldn't be complete without experiencing the city's famed teahouse culture. And what better place to relax on a Sunday afternoon than on the shores of the West Lake sipping tea in one of the city's oldest teahouses?

Fully enjoying the teahouse experience means learning to relax and not worrying about the passage of time. At Hupanju teahouse, a parade of delicate tea snacks plus an almost endless refill of tea help a lot towards achieving this mindset. Budget about ten euros per person for a selection of snacks that could easily take the place of a full meal. And plan to stay at least a couple of hours to soak in the unparalleled view of the West Lake.