Xiamen eats like the port it is: Minnan snack culture crossed with satay paste carried home by returning Nanyang migrants, and oysters pulled from the strait. Three days of dawn markets, noodle counters, dapaidang seafood and gongfu tea.
The city's oldest wet market, trading since the 1930s between Kaiyuan Road and Datong Road. Fishmongers split ribbonfish at dawn while stalls sell tusundong sandworm jelly, five-spice rolls and salted plums. Open 05:00-19:00.
A tin-roofed shophouse pouring Xiamen's defining bowl: alkaline noodles in a satay-peanut broth built on shacha paste, with pig liver, squid or shrimp added by the skewer. Queue from 11:00; regularly sold out by mid-afternoon.
A 1945 institution on Zhongshan Road where peanuts simmer until they collapse into a sweet white soup, ladled beside oyster omelette, taro cake and glutinous rice zongzi. Order and pay at the ground-floor counter, then carry the tray upstairs.
A narrow lane off Zhongshan Road stacked with snack counters: Ah Ji Zai's mung-bean and meat-floss pastries, fried spring rolls, oden pots, tofu pudding and pressed sugarcane juice. Busiest 17:00-21:00 as office workers detour home.
A Minnan dim sum house running since 1940, known for its small-eats platter: shrimp noodle soup, five-spice pork rolls, oyster omelette and pumpkin rice served together. Peak lunch service 11:00-14:00; weekends need a booking.
Datong Road veteran cooking two Xiamen benchmarks: hai li jian, an oyster omelette bound with sweet-potato starch and duck egg, and tusundong, chilled sandworm jelly eaten with garlic, rice vinegar and hot mustard.
Gongfu tea in the hills above the old town, where Tieguanyin from nearby Anxi is brewed in thumb-sized cups across a dozen short infusions. Staff demonstrate the rinse-and-pour rhythm and refill the pot all afternoon.
Open-front seafood canteen where you pick live razor clams, mantis shrimp and sea snails from the ice trays and name the cooking: steamed with garlic, stir-fried with Thai basil, or finished in shacha sauce.
Breakfast counter built around xia mian: noodles in a stock boiled down from shrimp heads and pork bone, topped with peeled prawns and a braised rib. Opens 06:30 and closes when the pot runs dry, often by early afternoon.
A former fishing village behind Huandao Road, now a dense grid of snack lanes: satay skewers, charcoal-grilled oysters, aiyu jelly with lime, taro balls and Fujian fish-ball soup. Weekdays are walkable; weekends are shoulder-to-shoulder.
The last working typhoon shelter inside the old town, ringed by independent roasteries and the Art West Zone warehouses. Wooden fishing boats still moor below cafés pulling Fujian-roasted beans and tea-infused desserts.
Craft taproom on the seawall road pouring Xiamen-brewed IPAs and sours alongside guest kegs from Fujian and Guangdong breweries, with drinkers spilling onto the harbour wall. Doors from around 17:00.