We study the chiral phase transition inside a rotating cylinder within the framework of the Namb--Jona-Lasinio model. A spectral boundary condition is imposed to avoid faster than light. We investigate how the geometry of the cylinder and rotation influence the chiral phase transition at finite temperature and chemical potential. The inhomogeneous effects caused by the finite size and rotation are also taken into account. It is found that finite size will reduce the chiral transition temperature and raises the chiral transition chemical potential, while the rotation reduces both the chiral transition temperature and chemical potential. In addition, we discuss the implications of our results in heavy-ion collisions and equation of states of neutron star.