The streets around the Xiguan Mosque are lined with halal restaurants, barbecue stalls, and street food vendors catering to Lanzhou's Hui Muslim population and everyone else who has discovered that this is where the best cheap food in the city is. The area is most active in the evening, when smoke from lamb skewer grills fills the air and the restaurants fill up with families.
Key things to try here: hand-grabbed mutton (shoukua yangrou) with flatbread, stuffed dumplings (jiaozi) made with lamb and leek, roasted flatbreads (nang), spiced lamb offal soups, and a wide range of Central Asian-influenced sweets. The noodle shops in this area tend to be a cut above average because the customer base is local and demanding. For a real Lanzhou food experience, an evening wandering and eating in the Xiguan neighborhood beats any restaurant recommendation.