The restaurants around and in Nankin-machi offer some of the best Chinese food in Japan. The Kobe Chinese community has roots in the Meiji era, and several of the older establishments have been in business for generations. Cantonese and Shanghainese cooking predominate, with good dim sum available at lunch and proper banquet-style Chinese meals in the evenings.
For a quick meal, the street stalls in the central plaza sell fresh nikuman (steamed pork buns), fried gyoza, and grilled skewers. For a sit-down meal, walk past the stalls and into the quieter streets around the edges of the district where the better restaurants are found. Kobe Chinese food tends toward the richer, porkier end of the Chinese spectrum — the cold cuts and braised pork are particularly good.