Qinghai food is characterized by distinct flavors and hearty meals designed to ward off hunger in the cool mountain climate. Many dishes from the region incorporate medicinal ingredients typically used in TCM, like aweto fungus. The local cuisine relies more heavily on local ingredients than is typical for cuisines from other parts of China.

Some local specialties are chicken cooked with aweto, lamb cooked with mushrooms and a number of dishes cooked with nostoc, a microorganism that forms into a jelly-like mass in damp environments. It is another typical TCM ingredient.

Xining also has a variety of restaurants that represent most of the other major cuisine styles in China.