Luoyang Water Banquet

The city's defining dish — a 24-course procession of soups and braised dishes

The Luoyang water banquet (水席) is the city's defining culinary experience and one of the oldest surviving formal meal formats in Chinese cuisine. Every dish involves liquid — soups, braised dishes with generous sauce, poached vegetables — giving the meal its name and its distinctive character. A full banquet runs to twenty-four courses and takes two to three hours to eat.

The best place to experience the water banquet is at one of the traditional restaurants near Lijing Gate in the old town. Zhen Bu Tong restaurant (真不同饭店) has been serving the banquet since 1895 and is the most famous address — book ahead. For a shorter version, most restaurants in the old town area offer a simplified five- or eight-course water banquet that covers the main dishes without the full ceremonial length. The key courses are the pork belly in broth, the turnip soup that mimics shark fin, and the sweet red date dessert at the end.

eating out restaurant luoyang old town
A story
The water banquet (水席, shuǐ xí) dates to the Tang Dynasty and was originally served at the imperial court. According to local legend, it was invented by the Empress Wu Zetian, who ruled from Luoyang during the late 7th century. The format of twenty-four courses — eight cold dishes, four main dishes in soup, eight further soup dishes, and four dessert soups — is said to mirror the twenty-four solar terms of the Chinese calendar. Whether or not Wu Zetian invented it, the banquet remains the most elaborate surviving example of Tang court cuisine.