There are few dishes or specialties that distinguish the cuisine of the fort and its surrounds. What you can sample here are combinations from across China, which the local chefs are able to churn out with their ambidextrous hands--steamed dumplings from Tianjin, beef noodles from Lanzhou, Yangrou Paomo (mutton soup with bread) from Xian, kebab from Xinjiang and roast chicken from Henan, to name but a few. The main problems that non-Chinese speakers will have is in both finding a decent restaurant, since there are few in town, and in ordering a decent meal, since almost none have English speakers or menus.

A good start for finding your ideal meal is to try some of the hotels in town, since although still without English, the service is mostly fair and the dishes varied. The best of the lot for selection is the Fulihua Restaurant in the Wumao Hotel (Wumao binguan), although the restaurant in the Jiayuguan Hotel (Jiayuguan binguan) is also good. For cheaper, and perhaps more interesting, food you should also try the Night Market on Jingtie lu, just past the Wumao Hotel heading southwest, where you can find a variety of fast cooked food, mainly noodles and kebabs. There are also some good restaurants in the area around the railway station, especially the Linyuan Restaurant (Linyuan jiujia) that serves spicy Sichuan cuisine at affordable prices.