Sanya's seafood pays attention to "vigorous", and it must be just fished out of the sea for a short time, natural and fresh, rich and colorful, light and fresh, and original. Most seafood in Sanya is steamed or boiled, which keeps the original flavor of seafood. If seafood is not fresh, restaurants dare not cook or steam it. There are many ways to eat seafood, such as steaming, stewing, frying, boiling, etc. One of the most common ways is to cook hot pot, which is called "edge furnace" by locals. There are many kinds of seafood in Sanya, with more than 111 kinds. Abalone, sea cucumber and sea urchin are the three treasures in Sanya, which have high nutritional value and are regarded as treasures locally. Blue crabs, bloodsuckers, oysters and lobsters are also rare delicacies. It is said that local fish, shrimps and crabs are more delicious than shellfish and snails. Fish are hard to taste. Grouper, catfish, red fish, mackerel, squid, shark, eel, sea snake, squid, etc. are tender and delicious, so you must not miss them. All kinds of shrimps, such as metapenaeus ensis, prawns, and shrimp, and all kinds of shellfish, such as scallops, drumsticks, and scissors shellfish (all local people call shellfish "snails"), are also must-eat treasures. Worms and eucheuma are also very distinctive.

With the sustained and steady growth of tourism in Sanya, seafood restaurants have mushroomed. The seafood restaurants that locals prefer to go to include the Spring Garden seafood stall at the north end of Hexi Road in Sanya, the Crystal Palace, Coral Shore, Gulf Seafood City and Golden Beach Seafood City in Dadonghai, Nanshan Hotpot City between Renmin Road and Yuejin Road, Mingji Food Stall at No.48 Yuejin Road, Yipin Pot Seafood Hotpot Restaurant in Sanya Port, Tiandu Hotel, offshore fishing rafts and people in Hongsha Community, and Yuelai in Anyou.

tasting the traditional delicacies from the ends of the earth has become an indispensable part for Chinese and foreign tourists to visit Sanya. The traditional local cuisines in Sanya mainly include four famous dishes in Hainan (Wenchang Chicken, Hele Crab, Jiaji Duck and Dong Goat), coconut cup, coconut milk chicken, shredded glutinous rice cake, golden eel skewers, colorful bones, sour powder, old duck soup, tropical fruit feast, milk goat hot pot, home health porridge and so on. The main restaurants are coconut grove in the eastern suburbs, Hainan family, Haiya restaurant and Tianze flavor restaurant.

Several Hainan specialty restaurants located between Shengli Road, Jixiang Road and Xinfeng Road adjacent to Jiefang Second Road in Sanya City can be said to be the most authentic. The signature dishes are braised pork with shrimp sauce, fish with bean sauce, stewed pork intestines (vermicelli sausage), fried sweet potato leaves with shrimp sauce "bean sauce", vermicelli pot with squid and shrimp, vegetarian dish pot and so on, which are first-class in taste. There are many restaurants on Shengli Road to eat Huang Liu old duck, among which hot pot is the best and most authentic way to eat. There are also ways to eat it for nothing, and it is very tender. It is suggested that water spinach soup should be made with duck's dirty meat, duck's blood should be fried with leek, duck's intestines should be boiled, and duck's treasure should be stir-fried with bitter gourd. Wenchang chicken rice and Fujibashi fried ribs are available in every family.

Sanya is a place where ethnic minorities live together. With the long-term integration of ethnic groups, some flavor snacks which are widely loved by Sanya people have gradually formed. Coupled with the long-term migration from other provinces, the condiments are collected locally, and the cooking is learned from abroad, and according to the hot local climate, the taste of Sanya flavor snacks has been continuously improved, and many unique flavor snacks have gradually formed, which are favored by local and foreign people, such as sour noodle soup, Gangmen powder, pig rice rolls and so on.

BBQ in Sanya brings together different local flavors, taking seafood such as squid and conch as raw materials, highlighting the seafood flavor and forming the characteristics of Hainan BBQ. There are also Xinjiang BBQ, Dongzhe BBQ, Japanese BBQ and Korean BBQ with different flavors, which can meet the needs of different tastes. There are barbecue areas in Zhonghua Square and Dadonghai on Xinfeng Road, and the seaside coconut grove barbecue garden of Tianyu Resort Yalong Bay is romantic and unique in style.