Suzhou cuisine is the gentlest of the major Chinese regional styles — sweet, delicate, and built around fresh seasonal ingredients. Fish from Taihu Lake appears on almost every menu: whole braised bass, freshwater shrimp stir-fried with tea leaves, and hairy crabs in autumn. The cooking is lighter on chilli and heavier on sugar than most visitors expect, which takes some adjustment if you're coming from Sichuan or Hunan food.
The old town has restaurants at every price point. The cheaper options cluster around the Xuanmiao Temple night market and along Guanqian Street. For a proper sit-down meal, the restaurants along Shantang Street and Pingjiang Road cover the range from tourist-oriented to genuinely local.