Quan Su Zhai

Quan Su Zhai was established by Liu Haiquan, who worked at the imperial kitchen when he was 14 years old and mastered cooking skills of imperial vegetarian dishes. He was quite good at making vegetarian dishes. In the 28th year during the reign of Emperor Guang Xu in the Qing Dynasty, he left the imperial kitchen and started to sell vegetarian dishes in 1904. His vegetarian dishes became more and more popular among customers and people started to call him “Quansu Liu”, translated as "Vegetarian Mr. Liu".


“Quansu Liu” enjoyed a golden age during the 1930s and many people liked to eat vegetarian dishes. He not only sold his dishes at Dong’an market, but also made dishes for temples. He and his family had to work from sunrise to sunset. But after 1937, “Quansu Liu” started to go downwards.
In 1953, “Quansu Liu” was renamed Quan Su Zhai and its business went well again. After the public-private partnership, Quan Su Zhai moved to Wangfujing Street from Dong’an market. It sold vegetarian dishes in front and made dishes in the back.