Plenty of delicious dishes can be found in the market, in front of the bus station, or in the pedestrian zone downtown. Cheap (but spicy) food is thenorm, with plenty of meat options. Vegetarians had better find a Han Chinese restaurant, many of which are north of the main square ("Grape Girls"square) on a parallel alley on the eastern side of the bazaar opposite the long-distance bus station serves excellent lamian (streching noodles), baked dumplings and barbecue skewers. Try the tandoori lamb or lamb dumplings in black-eyed peasoup for a different taste of Uighur food you won't find in other cities in Xinjiang.
Night Market, Guanghui Street, near Bezeklik Street. An alternative to the night market outside the bazaar, this option is more for locals than tourists.

The Roasted Whole Lamb

The roasted whole lamb is a well known dish in Xinjiang that can compete with Beijing Styled Roast Duck and Crispy Skin Suckling Pig in Guangzhou. Many restaurants around the whole Xinxiang offer the original cooking form of these dishes in food streets. Especially in Kashgar and Hotan in the south of Tianshan Mountain , you can easily feel the delicious smell around there. The roasted whole lamb is famous and expensive mainly because of the unique cooking method in addition to the strict material selection and the lamb with high quality produced in Xinjiang .The lamb meat is very delicate enjoying a wide spreading fame on the meat market domestic and abroad.

Naan (Nang): Nang is the most popular and staple food for the Uyghurs, Kazaks, and Tajiks. Nang can be preserved very long time. For an ordinary family, baking nangs is an indispensable job of life.

Baked samosa (baked bun): Baked buns (samosas in Uygur) is one of favorite foods of ethnic groups in Xinjiang. Making baked baozi need fresh mutton. Baking baozi is mainly baked in the nang pit. Roll the steamed stuffed bun with dough and fold the sides into a square. The filling is made of diced lamb meat, diced lamb tail oil, onion, cumin powder, refined salt and pepper powder, and mixed with a little water. The best choice is mutton meat from the leg with even fat and lean. Only choosing lean is not suitable for filling because it does not tastes so well. Stick the wrapped raw buns in the naan pit, and about ten minutes the buns can be baked,which looks yellow and tastes crispy, tender, fresh and fragrante.

Big Plate Chicken

This is one of the top dishes for travelers and local people. When you travel to Urumqi, you have chance to order it in many restaurants. It serves a huge plate with potatoes, peppers, a whole chicken and various spices. This dish can be ordered as a half plate or a full plate.The average full plate feeds 3~4 people. You can order noodles or naan mixed with this dish. This is an incredible cuisine in Xinjiang. 

Kebabs

Mutton is the most famous and popular meat in Xinjiang. The famous kebab is an essential part of Xinjiang cuisine. You may taste different flavored kebab in every Muslim restaurant in Urumqi. Xinjiang kebabs are nothing more than lamb meat on a stick, usually with alternating meat and fat piece on the skewer. Then drop pepper powder, refined salt and cumin powder onit. As you eat kebab, drinking some Wusu beer might be another different feeling.

Lamian (stretching noodles)

The locals call the Uyghur Lamian as “Ban Mian (mixed noodles)”. This can be the main noodles in Xinjiang. Lamian is made by mix vegetables and meat, vegetables and oil poured over a plate of hand pulled noodles. There are many kinds of Lamian in Urumqi. No matter which type of Lamian you ordered, you will love it.

Drink
Wusu beer - all around Xinjiang. Probably only 4% chinese beer.

Warning and Tip for Food:

Hui and Uyghur food can be very spicy. If you do not like spicy food too much you may tell them "bú yào là de" (non spicy) in Chinese or in Uyghurs "kizil mooch salmang".