Hotpot capital of the world, Yangtze river city, and now — since January 2025 — home to the first two-Michelin-starred imperial-Chinese restaurant on earth. The Black Pearl Guide lists six tables here. Michelin lists four. And the city has only just begun.
Chongqing is the largest city you have never heard of — a 32-million-person mega-municipality on the confluence of the Yangtze and Jialing rivers, a place of vertical neighbourhoods, mountainside stairs, and the numbing, burning mala cuisine that defines modern Sichuan cooking. For most of the last two decades, the city's culinary reputation was entirely local — hotpot counters, cold-skin noodle stalls, chongqing xiao mian — and international fine dining was almost non-existent. That changed in January 2025, when Family Li Imperial Cuisine opened four floors of restaurants inside the Metropolitan Oriental Plaza in Jiefangbei and the 2025 Michelin Guide arrived to anoint them. The city's fine-dining story is, quite literally, a year old. It is moving at extraordinary speed.
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The world's first two-Michelin-star Chinese imperial-cuisine restaurant — a Qing-dynasty recipe archive brought to the Yangtze in January 2025, and the defining table in Chongqing.
Cantonese roast goose at the highest level — the Hong Kong tradition arrives in the Yangtze basin with Michelin-star technique and Chongqing market prices.
A Spanish grill kitchen arrives in Chongqing with Michelin-star technique — grilled octopus, suckling pig, and a wine list that introduces serious Rioja to the Yangtze.
Tokyo-quality sushi omakase on the banks of the Yangtze — a ten-seat counter where the neta flies in from Toyosu twice weekly and the shari is aged for three days.
A Black Pearl-ranked teppanyaki counter inside the Regent Chongqing — dry-aged beef, live scallops, and a river view that doubles as a Chongqing postcard.
Jiefangbei — the commercial heart of the old city. Metropolitan Oriental Plaza on Level 6 now houses four Michelin-starred restaurants, including Family Li Imperial Cuisine. This is the capital of fine dining in the city. Nanbin Road — the river promenade. Yanshe Featured Hot Pot operates here; the skyline views across the Yangtze define the room. Jiangbeizui / Grand Theatre District — the new city, glass and steel, with several chef-driven rooms inside Raffles and InterContinental properties. The MixC Chongqing / Yuzhong District — luxury shopping tower housing Camellia & Seasons and several tasting-menu rooms. Regent Chongqing — home to Robin's Grill & Teppan, the Black Pearl-ranked teppanyaki counter.
The dominant cuisine remains Sichuan — and specifically the Chongqing expression of it, which is fiercer, more aggressive, more generous with the sichuan peppercorn than anything you will eat in Chengdu. Hotpot here is a quasi-religious experience. But the new fine-dining scene is deliberately diverse. Family Li Imperial Cuisine imports Qing-dynasty imperial recipes to the banks of the Yangtze. Aleia serves octopus from the Atlantic. Changben runs a Japanese omakase counter. The MixC tower cluster adds Nordic-influenced tasting menus. Robin's Grill & Teppan runs a Black Pearl-rated teppanyaki room inside the Regent hotel. The city is being written, fast, in multiple languages at once.
The four Michelin-starred restaurants on Level 6 of Metropolitan Oriental Plaza fill weeks in advance, especially for weekend dinner. Book via your hotel concierge or Dazhong Dianping (the dominant Chinese reservation platform). Family Li Imperial Cuisine — two Michelin stars and the marquee property — is the hardest table in the city; three to four weeks' notice is realistic, and a Mandarin-speaking contact will materially help. The hotpot temples are an entirely different booking culture — walk-ins with a queue, or short-notice bookings, are the norm even at the best establishments.
Dress code: Smart casual is standard. Chongqing is humid and hot for eight months of the year; summer attire is breathable and local. Imperial-cuisine rooms like Li's Kitchen lean a touch more formal. Tipping: Not practiced in mainland China. Service charges may apply; do not tip beyond that. Timing: Lunch runs 11:30am to 2pm and is a major dining occasion in Chongqing — many of the best tables are available only at lunch, and business deals often close over lunch here rather than dinner. Dinner runs 6pm to 9pm. Language: Mandarin is the operating language; English-language menus are increasingly common at Michelin-starred rooms but not universal. For Family Li Imperial Cuisine and the Metropolitan Oriental Plaza restaurants, a bilingual concierge is strongly recommended. Payment: WeChat Pay and Alipay are the default. Many restaurants still accept cash and international cards but the process is smoother with a local payment app linked to an international bank card.
The world's largest municipality by population — 32 million people across a mountainous river basin — and the home of Sichuan's fiercest, numbing-hot cuisine.