1. High-end restaurants, represented by "Bada Cheng", specialize in high-end banquets and do not accept individual guests. Most of their customers are dignitaries and celebrities. "Badacheng" are all located in the area behind Houjia. Juqingcheng Restaurant was the first to open among them, followed by Juhecheng, Julecheng, Yihecheng, Yishengcheng, Fujucheng, Jushengcheng and Juyuan. Chengfanzhuang opened one after another and became famous in Jingu.
The "Badacheng" are all courtyard-style structures. The surrounding wings are richly decorated seats, and there is a stage in the middle of the courtyard for singing halls. A sedan can be parked in front of the door, and there is a garden in the courtyard where customers can chat and rest in the pavilion corridor. The quiet living room is decorated with mahogany furniture and displays various antiques and celebrity calligraphy and paintings. Most of the utensils used in the restaurant are complete sets of high-end porcelain with various words and patterns painted with words and patterns such as "Longevity without Borders", "Happiness and Fortune", "Eternal Descendants", "Four Seasons", etc. The craftsmanship is extremely exquisite.
"Badacheng" only entertains tables of banquets that have been booked in advance. It specializes in barbecue dishes, which is in line with the customs of the Manchu aristocrats after they took over the Central Plains. In front of the restaurant, there are gold-lettered plaques hanging with "Manchu and Han banquets", "North and South dishes", and "Delicacies from the mountains and seas". The business scope ranges from the highest-end Manchu and Han banquets (also known as barbecue banquets, 108 pieces), bird's nest and shark fin eight banquets (48 pieces) ) to mid-range duck wing mats (36 pieces), and low-end sea cucumber chicken mats (16 pieces). When Li Hongzhang was the governor of Zhili and was in Tianjin, whenever he entertained foreigners with Chinese banquets, he would do so from Juhe to Yingcai. He also invited the chef of Prince Gong’s Mansion from Beijing, who skillfully used Tianjin fresh food and seasonings, and integrated Tianjin cuisine techniques to create a delicious meal at the Prince’s Mansion. The dishes and Tianjin dishes are blended together.
Second and Second Meat Restaurant, the Tianjin-style Ermeishi Restaurant not only reserves high-end banquets but also caters for casual dining. It is good at cooking "four big steaks" and "eight big bowls", and its business is very prosperous. In the early days of Tianjin's Ershi Restaurant, "Tian Yifang", "Shi Jin Zhai" and "Hui Luochun" were the most famous ones. They were large in scale, well-equipped and had strong technical force. Most of the chefs in charge of the stoves were from Bada Cheng Restaurant. A young and middle-aged chef who has completed his apprenticeship.
Tianyifang Restaurant, the most representative of the two meat restaurants, opened in the fifth year of Guangxu reign of the Qing Dynasty (1879) and is known as "the best restaurant in the world". The newly opened Dengyinglou Restaurant at that time hired a chef from the Tianyifang Restaurant to make a dish of "fried shrimps" with a daily salary of one yuan a day. From this, we can see the prominent position of the Tianyifang Restaurant in Tianjin cuisine. .
Another famous Ermei restaurant is Shijinzhai, which is located to the north of Tianyifang, less than 100 meters away from Tianyifang. As early as the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty, Shijinzhai has been famous in Tianjin for its good cooking of Tianjin local dishes with pure flavor. "Tianjin Literature and History Series" records: Ding Boyu, the fourth generation of the Daguan Ding family, and his brother Ding Boru, who have been in charge of customs and customs houses for generations in Tianjin, love Shijinzhai's "Agate Wild Duck" most, and would invite Shijinzhai even to family banquets. The chef only makes this dish. In addition, Shijinzhai’s assorted hot pot is also very famous. It has no less than 20 main and side ingredients. The main dishes include chicken, duck, fish, meat and seafood. It is unique and beautiful in appearance and has a unique flavor when eaten. It has become a long-standing famous delicacy in Tianjin.
3. The banquet area, in addition to receiving receptions, mainly hosts door-to-door banquets for weddings and funerals, which is called "waitaizi". This type of restaurant is generally not very large in scale, and does business outside. The banquet office sends chefs with various utensils to set up tents and stoves at the homes of pre-arranged customers to cook various red and white banquets, mainly for weddings and funerals. There are two types of restaurants: one with a restaurant, and the other without a restaurant. Banquet places with restaurants are usually named with the word "garden", such as Yongqing Garden, Hongsheng Garden, Jusheng Garden, and Fushun. Garden, Zuichun Garden, Yixing Garden, Zhongli Garden, etc. Most banquet places without shops have spacious courtyards with various cooking utensils. Although the business of this type of restaurant is not very busy, due to its small expenses and the concurrent business of renting tables, chairs and tableware, the profits are very considerable. Around the 1930s, there were thirty or forty such banquet places.
Tianjin’s banquet restaurants are mostly located in residential areas such as Hedong, Hebei, Nanshi, Xitou in the old city, and Beikai. They mainly sell medium and low-end authentic Tianjin-style dishes. . Moreover, each restaurant has its own specialties and special dishes to form different characteristics to attract customers.
The main dishes of the banquet department are the four representative steaks and eight bowls of Tianjin-style dishes, but the quality is slightly lower than that of Ershi Restaurant.
4. Halal restaurants are divided into mutton restaurants, beef restaurants and pasta filling shops.
Halal cuisine is an important part of Tianjin cuisine. In its formation and development process, it is inextricably linked with Han cuisine. It absorbs the exquisite cooking skills of Han Chinese cuisine, makes full use of the rich Tianjin products, and gradually forms its own system after a hundred years of integration and development. Mutton restaurants should be recommended first for halal dishes in Tianjin. They are high-end restaurants that sell halal dishes. They are generally larger in scale, with luxurious restaurants, elegant furnishings and rich dishes. They not only make whole-sheep dishes (whole-sheep banquets), but also cook fresh food from rivers and seas. Some also serve roast duck, seasonal fresh food, and snacks. This type of mutton restaurant is usually named after the word "lou". The catering industry in Jinmen once had the sayings of "ninth floor" and "twelfth floor" to describe the prosperity of high-end Muslim restaurants. Hongbin Tower and Huifang Tower are the most representative of the 12th floor. Hongbin Tower specializes in cooking delicacies and other high-end halal banquets, and is particularly famous in Tianjin for its whole lamb dishes. Huifanglou opened after the Republic of China and is famous for its high-end swallow-wing seats. It enjoys a high reputation among halal mutton restaurants.
The operation scale of Tianjin Halal Beef Restaurant is moderate, and its business scope is smaller than that of mutton restaurant, but its history is earlier than that of mutton restaurant. At first, some beef shops processed the leftover beef into "clear stew" or "casserole stew" for sale. It was popular among customers because of its sophisticated seasonings, skillful cooking and delicious taste. After that, they added sauced beef offal, gradually opened more restaurants, hired chefs, and developed into a medium-sized Muslim restaurant with the main dishes of beef and mutton, ox tongue tail, beef offal, and Tianjin specialty river and sea delicacies. Because of its mellow taste and affordable price, it is very popular among customers.
Halal pasta stuffing shops refer to bun shops and dumpling restaurants run by Hui people. The halal stuffing shop has a long history and has appeared since the early Qing Dynasty. In addition to selling steamed buns and dumplings, it also sells simple stir-fry dishes. Among the halal pasta stuffing shops, there are also some pan-fried foods. The round ones are pies, and the long ones are Called Huitou, they are all thin-skinned and filled with large fillings. They are very popular among diners because of their high quality, low price and unique flavor.
5. Vegetarian restaurant, which mainly sells various vegetarian dishes and pasta snacks with various vegetarian fillings. Vegetarian cuisine is part of Tianjin cuisine. The earliest vegetarian restaurant recorded was in the middle of the Qing Dynasty. At that time, there were two vegetarian restaurants, Zhensulou and Zangsuyuan, both opened in the Drum Tower area, the center of Tianjin’s old city. Most of the diners were Buddhists, followers of Buddhism and vegetarians. The ingredients used in vegetarian dishes are all natural plant foods and their re-products, but the cooked dishes can look just like the real ones in terms of color, aroma, taste and shape.
Among the vegetarian restaurants, Zhensulou, which opened in Dahutong in the 33rd year of Guangxu’s reign in the Qing Dynasty (1906), is larger in scale. Its “equipment is clean, the price is cheap, and its business is quite developed.” By the early years of the Republic of China, more than 10 vegetarian restaurants had opened in Tianjin, including Cai Genxiang, Vegetable Fragrance Restaurant, Suxiangzhai, Liuweizhai, Chang Suyuan, and Shitushijing. In the early 1930s, it became the largest vegetarian restaurant in Tianjin. Prosperous times.
Tinmen vegetarian food also includes the famous Stone Threshold vegetarian buns. The Su Bao shop was originally the "Zhen Su Yuan" in those days. Every time it rained heavily, the water did not drain smoothly and the store was flooded. A stone threshold was built at the door. Over time, the words "Zhen Su Yuan" gradually disappeared, and the "Stone" Threshold" spread. The stone threshold is stuffed with a thin crust and a large stuffing. 19 kinds of supplementary ingredients are added to the stuffing.
In addition, in the early years of the Republic of China, the food stalls and restaurants in the bird market were as dense as a forest. After the 1930s, Nanshi, Guozhuangzi, and Qiandezhuang were together known as the four major rice stalls in Tianjin. market. In the 1940s, restaurants flourished in the three major shopping malls of Tianxiang, Taikang and Quanye. By 1946, there were still nearly 100 Tianjin restaurants among the more than 210 restaurants and restaurants in Tianjin. In 1947, the Kuomintang regime was on the verge of death. Those in power intensified their efforts to plunder the people's wealth, which led to a depression in all industries and people's livelihood. Most restaurants also closed down under the influence of the climate.
In today's Tianjin City, restaurants with Tianjin cuisine as their signature include Tianjin Restaurant, Hongqi Restaurant, Tianyifang, Bohai Restaurant, etc.