Dragon Well Manor is the most celebrated restaurant in Hangzhou and one of the most admired farm-to-table restaurants in China. Set in a series of traditional buildings in the Longjing tea hills, it sources everything from a network of local farmers and producers — vegetables from the garden, fish from the lake, rice from Yunnan — and changes the menu entirely with the seasons. There is no printed menu; you eat what the kitchen decided to cook today.
The food is rooted in Hangzhou cuisine but elevated by exceptional produce and technique. Expect Dongpo pork braised in Shaoxing wine, river shrimp stir-fried with fresh Longjing tea leaves in spring, osmanthus-scented dishes in autumn. Reservations are essential and notoriously hard to get — book weeks in advance online. The setting among bamboo and tea terraces is part of the experience.