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This is the smallest of the three price bands, and I would rather say why than pad it.

About this guide

This directory was built from places I go back to, and that biases it upward — it is not a survey of where Shenzhen eats. The city has enormous quantities of excellent food below ¥100 a head that is not represented here: street-level noodle shops, canteen rice plates, the entire night-market layer. What follows is honest about being a shortlist, not a census.

How this list was chosen

The midpoint of the published per-head range falls below ¥100. Banding on the lower bound instead would let a room listed at ¥80–140 present itself as a sub-¥100 dinner, which it is not.

The dim sum trick worth knowing

Golden Imperial Court in Futian halves the bill if you settle before 10:30am on a weekday. That makes proper dim sum in the CBD cheaper than a mall sandwich, and it is the single best value in this directory.

Coffee counts

Four of the seven are coffee rooms rather than restaurants. That is a fair reflection of where the sub-¥100 spending actually goes for most people here — and Shenzhen’s specialty coffee is genuinely good, which was not true a decade ago.

The list, cheapest first

  • All Day Roasting Company

    Nanshan · OCT-LOFT · Specialty coffee · ≈ ¥30–60

    Small roastery space inside the OCT-LOFT complex doing single-origin work. Not a place to eat a meal — go for the coffee and combine it with the galleries and bookshops around it. Best on a weekday when the park is empty.

  • Old Wu Coffee老吴咖啡

    Luohu · Guomao Building · Japanese-style kissaten coffee, whisky bar · ≈ ¥30–50

    Japanese kissaten style with hand-drip through a flannel filter, which is slow and worth the wait. It turns into a whisky bar at night, so it works at either end of the day. The Guomao address also pairs easily with a walk through Luohu’s older market streets.

  • Fukang Lou福康楼

    Futian · Shuiwei Village · Cantonese teahouse and coffee · ≈ ¥30–55

    A Cantonese teahouse that serves coffee in gaiwan bowls — osmanthus wine latte and sesame latte are the signatures. It is the most interesting fusion of the local tea habit and the new coffee scene I have found, and it sits in Shuiwei, one of Futian's remaining urban villages.

  • Jifu Coffee集福咖啡

    Nanshan · Nantou Ancient City · Specialty coffee · ≈ ¥35–55

    The owner won the 2019 China Barista Championship, and it shows. House-roasted Yunnan beans and a good dirty coffee. It sits inside Nantou Ancient City, so pair it with a walk through the restored lanes — that combination is one of the better mornings in Nanshan.

  • The Raven乌鸦咖啡馆

    Nanshan · Dachong · Specialty coffee · ≈ ¥35–55

    Literary-themed room in Dachong with a double-skin milk latte that borrows from the Cantonese dessert. Quiet enough to actually read in, which is rarer than it should be. Handy if you are working around the High-Tech Park and Dachong office towers.

  • Gaga

    Citywide · started at OCT-LOFT, now citywide · All-day café, brunch · ≈ ¥50–100

    Started at OCT-LOFT and now in most decent malls in the city. Australian-style flat whites, separate brunch, lunch and dinner menus, and the sort of room you can sit in for two hours with a laptop. It is the default when you want something reliable and Western-leaning without planning ahead.

  • Diandude点都德

    Futian · Cantonese, dim sum · ≈ ¥70–110

    A chain, and none the worse for it — this is where I send people who want dim sum without a queue or a language barrier. Ordering is by QR code with photographs, tea arrives in copper kettles, and the golden sand shrimp rice rolls are the thing to get. Multiple branches across the city.

Prices are per head, drinks excluded, as published on the full directory and last checked on 23 August 2026. Restaurants close and menus move — confirm anything that matters before you travel for it.