Lvliuju

Founded in 1912 beside Taoye Ferry on the Qinhuai River near the Confucius Temple, the restaurant took its name from the willows lining both banks. It began as a small vegetarian eatery yet created many Nanjing-style meatless dishes.

It won renown across Nanjing for vegetarian dishes shaped and flavoured to mimic meat — mock knifefish, mock beef and 'eight-treasure duck' — keeping its reputation for a full century.

Drawing on temple, court and folk vegetarian traditions, it works vegetables, mushrooms and soy products through dozens of techniques and can even draw clear and rich stocks entirely from plant ingredients.

Named a first-batch China Time-Honoured Brand by MOFCOM in 2006; its vegetarian cooking technique entered the fifth national intangible-heritage list in 2021.