Linxia is a good place to eat if you like Hui Muslim cuisine, and a difficult one if you don't. The city is almost entirely halal, which means no pork appears anywhere and lamb dominates the menus. The food is hearty, flavoured with cumin, chili, and dried spices, and broadly similar to other Hui cooking you'll find in Lanzhou and the northwest — noodles, hand-pulled or pressed, with lamb broth; lamb skewers; steamed buns; and flatbreads baked in clay ovens.
The night market along the main street near the mosque is the best place to eat cheaply and well. Look for stalls serving paomo (bread crumbled into soup) and the local hand-pulled noodle variation. Linxia also produces a regional specialty of fried dough twists, sold by street vendors in the mornings with tea.