ive eaten is so many places, in the southern part of china things are dirtier in my opinion. i look to make sure they have a sink with running water...otherwise, no 'f' way i would eat there.....never got sick yet....... check there oil too and see if they change it frequently or looks clear.

street bbq usually the worst meat, frequently rat! and oil bad, but many other things are good.

I know some people think expensive restaurants are clean, but I've seen chefs from upscale restaurants come back from the toilet without washing their hands and go straight back to work.

You have two choices, a restaurant that looks clean, and one that doesn't. You can merely choose the amount of germs, there is no clean.

I just assume everywhere I eat is crawling with germs, I usually still eat there and am usually ok.

I used to know a western chef here who told me that even in most western restaurants you don't want to know what happens in the kitchen.

I would not worry about the food too much. Dysentry is on everything you touch. Door handles, elevator buttons, the plastic wrapping that your "sterile" chopsticks come in. Its even in the tap water you use to wash your hands with. Sure, buy bottled water... it might be copy anyway, but I would bet my last buck that the guy who put that bottle on the shop shelf did not have clean hands.

You just have to grin and bear it. You will never become immune to it. But after a few bouts of topping and tailing, arse on the squat and head in the wash hand basin, with brown stuff coming from both ends ,it does get better. You get used to not having solid stools. Much in the same way you get used to the red plastic stools collapsing under you as you sit outside a shop