Sanya's food scene runs on seafood. Boats unload at the city's wharves daily, and the menu in any decent restaurant — local or hotel-attached — will include grouper, snapper, shrimp, lobster, abalone, sea cucumber, and a long catalogue of shellfish. The Hainan style of cooking is lighter than mainland Cantonese — more steaming, less heavy sauce. Standout local dishes include Dongshan lamb (a Hainan breed served stewed or roasted), Wenchang chicken (poached with a ginger-scallion dip), and harmony crab (a Sanya specialty served in honey and chilli sauce).
The First Market (Diyi Shichang, in the city centre) is the main place locals buy seafood — you can pick out your own catch and have it cooked at one of the surrounding restaurants for a modest fee. The Chunyuan Seafood Square in Dadonghai operates on the same principle but is more polished and more obviously aimed at tourists. The Dongjiao Yelin restaurant in Dadonghai has been the standard recommendation for years — large, busy, English menus, consistently good.
For something different, Sanya has a small but visible Hui (Chinese Muslim) community on the western edge of town. The street food around the mosque on Huixin Street is the best place in the city for halal noodles, mutton skewers, and flatbreads.