Hainan Food & Cuisine | What to Eat in Hainan 2024

• Chinese: 文昌鸡 • Pinyin: Wénchāng jī • Average Cost: CNY 70/pp
• Recommended Restaurant: Jiujishu Wenchang Chicken Hainan Chicken Rice Restaurant 九吉树.文昌鸡海南鸡饭

As one of the most famous Hainan's specialties, Wenchang Chicken is a signature dish in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia, due to the nostalgia for their home of the Hainanese diaspora. It is normally boiled and then cut into pieces. It is then eaten by dipping the pieces in a mixture of spices including chopped ginger, garlic, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, and freshly squeezed calamansi fruit. The skin is typically yellow, and the meat is very juicy and tender.

• Chinese: 椰子鸡 • Pinyin: yē zǐ jī • Average Cost: CNY 100/pp
• Recommended Restaurant: Original Flavor Coconut Chicken 原味主张椰子鸡

The coconut chicken is often served right inside the coconut or cooked with coconut milk and flesh. The chicken coconut soup is a true Hainan specialty. The soup tastes salty and fresh, with perfect tropical flavor. The refreshing soup contains a lot of protein, fructose, glucose, sucrose, fat, vitamin B1, vitamin E, vitamin C, etc. 

• Chinese: 和乐蟹 • Pinyin: Hélè xiè • Average Cost: CNY 150/pp
• Recommended Restaurant: Chunyuan Seafood Square 春园海鲜广场

Hele crab is famous for its fat creams. There are a variety of cooking methods such as steaming, boiling, frying, and baking. Especially "steaming", it keeps the freshness of the original taste of the tender crab meat and fat crab paste. In addition to eating this dish in major restaurants, the crab is so popular, you can also find it almost in any market. 

• Chinese: 嘉积鸭 • Pinyin: Jiājī yā • Average Cost: CNY 150/pp
• Recommended Restaurant: Ledong Huangliu Duck 黄流老鸭

Jiaji Duck, also known as "Fanya", has a red crown, yellowfins, and black and white feathers. Due to the unique feeding method in Jiaji area of Hainan, the duck has a large breast, thin skin, soft bone, and tender meat, and is fat but not greasy. You can try it in almost every restaurant in Sanya.

• Chinese: 东山羊 • Pinyin: Dōngshān yáng • Average Cost: CNY 130/pp
• Recommended Restaurant: Qiongcai Memory Restaurant 琼菜记忆

Dongshan lamb, also known as Hainan black goat. Dongshan lamb is named because it is produced in Dongshan ridge of Hainan Province. Dongshan mutton soup is very delicious. Dongshan lamb has a variety of food methods, including baking, stewing, and boiling.

• Chinese: 海南鸡饭 • Pinyin: Hǎinán jīfàn • Average Cost: CNY 60/pp
• Recommended Restaurant: Jiujishu Wenchang Chicken Hainan Chicken Rice Restaurant 九吉树.文昌鸡海南鸡饭

Hainan chicken rice is a famous traditional dish in Wenchang City, Hainan Province. The main ingredients of Hainan chicken rice are chicken and rice, and the main cooking method is scalding. It is light yellow and bright with crisp skin, fragrant tender meat. It is a very popular dish in Southeast Asia.

• Chinese: 抱罗粉 • Pinyin: bào luó fěn • Average Cost: CNY 20/pp
• Recommended Restaurant: Yao’er Baoluo Rice Noodles 么二抱罗粉

Baoluo Rice Noodles is a famous local snack in Hainan, named after Baoluo town, with sour soup and a variety of seasonings. Simmered with pork or beef bones, the overall flavor is sour and spicy. Popular with locals, this dish is inexpensive, tasty, and filling.

• Chinese: 椰子船 • Pinyin: yē zǐ chuán • Average Cost: CNY 50/pp
• Recommended Restaurant: Coconut Chicken Restaurant 椰小鸡.椰子鸡

Coconut rice is also known as coconut boat. It is steamed with Hainan high-quality glutinous rice, natural coconut meat, and coconut milk inside a freshly picked coconut. It is a traditional farm snack in Hainan. Don't forget to try it at that time. In this coconut shadow whirling City, taste authentic coconut rice, which has a unique flavor.

• Chinese: 清补凉 • Pinyin: qīng bǔ liáng • Average Cost: CNY 20/pp
• Recommended Restaurant: Laopengji Qingbuliang 老彭记清补凉

Qingbuliang is a cool refreshing sweet dessert soup commonly sold from small carts in tropical Hainan Island. Common ingredients include dates, red beans (mung beans), taro, watermelon, quail eggs, and nuts, but you can choose which you want, with cold coconut milk or sweet syrup base. The price is cheap, generally 3-5 yuan per bowl. You can also ask the store to choose more or fewer ingredients according to your personal preferences.

• Chinese: 兴隆咖啡 • Pinyin: xìng lóng kā fēi • Average Cost: CNY 40/pp
• Recommended Restaurant: Xinglong Coffee Culture Experience Hall 兴隆咖啡文化体验馆

As the most famous coffee brand in Hainan, Xinglong Coffee was first planted by returning overseas Chinese, who fell in love with drinking coffee on their travels and couldn’t bear to come home without it. This was the beginning of the local coffee drinking culture in Hainan, which still continues to this day, with locals drinking freshly brewed coffee grown right here in Xinglong.