Biomolecular recognition events involving carbohydrate-protein interactions are ubiquitous in biological system and central to numerous fundamental biological phenomena, the intrinsic nature of which is multiple noncovalent weak interactions worked cooperatively. CH-π interaction occurring between CH group in carbohydrate and aromatic amino acid residue in protein is one of the most important weak interactions and plays a significant role, which has been intensively investigated over the past three decades. The fundamental understanding of CH-π interaction from several aspects of physical origin, structural features and energetic contribution have been obtained with the advance of modern analytic techniques. Therefore, comprehensive understanding on CH-π interaction paves the way to explore the application prospects in the field of recognition, detection, drug development and tissue engineering materials, which represents a challenging but also a promising research direction. In this review, we briefly summarize several characteristics of CH-π interaction based on the investigations of researchers over the years. Then, the potential application explorations based on CH-π interaction are introduced from three aspects: inhibiting effect on amyloid aggregation, artificial carbohydrate receptors, and transformation of macroscopic properties. Finally, the research prospects are briefly presented.