Chaozhou Eat: Shaxian Delicacies (沙县小吃)

7 January 2026

Shaxian Delicacies (沙县小吃), a Chinese fast-food chain originating from Shaxian District in Sanming, Fujian Province (福建省.三明市.沙县区), is renowned for serving Shaxian delights fast and affordable. From a local specialty eatery, it has grown into one of China’s most widespread F&B brands nationwide and expanding internationally too — often considered to be China’s McDonald’s, a Western fast-food chain.

In Chaozhou City, there are no fewer than 10 Shaxian Delicacies outlets. We visited the outlet near Borrman Hotel (柏曼酒店) closest to Chaozhou Ancient City (潮州古城).

Shaxian Delicacies has a long list of items on its wall menu, ranging from various types of dumpling to noodle / rice vermicelli / rice dishes with different toppings. A separate menu highlighted its signature Shaxian-specialties, such as dry-tossed noodle with tasty sauce (拌面), meat dumplings called bian rou (扁肉) in soup, steamed dumplings (蒸饺), steamed bun (小笼包), braised beef brisket noodle (红烧牛肉面), dry-tossed seafood noodle (海鲜面), century egg minced meat porridge (皮蛋廋肉粥) and rice dishes with braised duck leg / chicken offal (鸭腿饭 / 香辣鸡杂饭).

Our jaws dropped when the Meat Dumplings Soup (馄饨汤) is served. It has much more meat dumplings, called bian rou (扁肉) in Shaxian District, than soup with some greens. The clear soup has light savoury flavour with scallions and not stealing the show from the meat dumplings. The meat of the dumplings uses fresh lean pork from pig’s hind legs and hand-beaten with wooden pounder till they are “flattened” — hence the name “扁肉”, literally translated as “flat meat”. The resulting meat, added with little salt and wrapped in soft wrapper skin, is tender and bouncy with slight savoury flavour and distinct freshness of the meat.

The Braised Beef Brisket Noodle (红烧牛肉面) is typical Chinese rice noodle in clear, savoury soup and added with braised beef brisket, greens and scallions. It is a light-tasting dish with tender beef. Aside from beef brisket, other meats, such as black chicken, pork ribs, pig’s heart, pig’s brain, pigeon, partridge (鹧鸪), free-range chicken, etc, are also available as toppings.

The Seafood Kway Teow Soup (海鲜粿条汤) — opted for hot soup since it was in winter — has quite a number of ingredients, including prawns, squids, sliced fishcakes, greens, scallions, in similar clear soup as the other dishes. The seafood ingredients are undoubtedly very fresh.

Top-left: The Steamed Dumplings (蒸饺), served in 10 pieces per steamer, has twisting patterns that make them look like mice — thus, also known as “mouse” dumplings (老鼠饺) in Shaxian District. The pork fillings are meatier with scallions and similarly fresh, juicy and tender.

Top-right: The Steamed Buns / Xiao Long Bao (小笼包) — not the thin-skin soup dumpling that are actually called “小笼汤包” or just “汤包”) — are meat buns served in a steamer with 6 pieces. As Chinese buns, they have soft dough skin stuffed with juicy minced pork as well.

Bottom-left: The Pork Ribs Dumplings (排骨馄饨) is served with fewer, but bigger, meat dumplings and added with pork ribs, bitter gourd and greens in soup. The meat dumplings are the staple and the pork ribs are toppings. Other toppings for the noodle dishes are also available.

Bottom-right: The Century Egg Minced Meat Porridge (皮蛋廋肉粥) is a bowl of non-starchy congee with century egg, minced lean pork, scallions and coriander. It has light, savoury flavour and best for breakfast.