Beijing dining

[Swisskaese]

My trip to China has been postponed on a weekly basis.

I may be going in two weeks.

[Pan]

Michelle, one question that hasn't been asked is, would you be willing to go to a halal Muslim eatery and just avoid seafood? There is a substantial Muslim community in Beijing.

[Swisskaese]

Michelle, one question that hasn't been asked is, would you be willing to go to a halal Muslim eatery and just avoid seafood? There is a substantial Muslim community in Beijing.

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Sure, I eat halal when Kosher options are not available.

[Makan King]

Okay I've dug up a pamphlet. The place, in English, is called "Barbecue Ji" which sounds like it could be the translation of Kaorouji (sorry, Mandarin skills nonexistant). It's located in "Shishahai" (a bit of a stretch to "Houhai"?), was established in 1848, and has hosted an assortment of world figures including George Bush Sr in 1973. 

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Yup, "Barbeque Ji" is a translation of Kaorouji. Shichahai is actually the general name for the whole of the Qianhai/Houhai/Xihai area.

[Pan]

Michelle, one question that hasn't been asked is, would you be willing to go to a halal Muslim eatery and just avoid seafood? There is a substantial Muslim community in Beijing.

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Sure, I eat halal when Kosher options are not available.

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I just did a Yahoo search of "+beijing +halal +list" hoping to find a list of halal places in Beijing. I haven't found anything of the kind, and it's been tough to get any relevant information. Here's something from 2002:

http://www.islamicity.com/travel/China/journal2.asp

We were delighted to board a very comfortable bus taking us to Xiyuan International Hotel, about 45 min from the Beijing Airport.

We later find out that that hotel had a halal restaurant. But I don't know if you want to go to a hotel restaurant; it might not be any good, plus I don't know where the hotel is. That said, the report continues:

http://www.islamicity.com/travel/China/journal3.asp

As we stepped into the Halal Restaurant our first morning at Xiyuan International Hotel we realized why Br. Yusuf advised us to be 'ready' for breakfast. This was equivalent to an Emperor's Breakfast. We were treated with a 12 course 'breakfast'.

Later on that page:

   

* A sumptuous lunch at Bawang Hua Muslim Halal Restaurant.

* Dinner at Mata'am al-Islami, world famous for it's Peking Duck  and for hosting the Muslim dignitaries visiting China. We were given a quick pictorial tour of the Muslim dignitaries on its roster which included the Foreign Ministers of Malaysia, Iran, many Middle Eastern countries, etc.

Halal Beijing ka ya; cool! Anyone know either of these places?

I've also gleaned the information that Niujie Street is the heart of the (a?) Muslim neighborhood in Beijing and halal eateries can be found there.

I hope others can provide more information. Having found little of real use after looking through over 50 search results, I'm quitting for now.

Edited June 2, 2005 by Pan (log)

[jokhm]

Beijing is fantastic for Halal food.. It's everywhere. Not much in kosher food as far as I know, but an israeli resto that happens to be also kosher is currently in the works by two people i know. We'll see if that happens. Anyway if you can resort to Halal, it is everywhere. Let us know where you plan to be staying and I'll see which good Xinjiang (halal) places are nearby. My favorite is in the west side near Nanlishilu subway. The Lamb nearly melts off the stick. If you'll be here on a friday you can also come join a truly kosher meal at the chabad on the north east side. Check out chabadbeijing.com The rabbi is really fantastic and there are generally 50-60 people there each week; mostly israeli and mostly expats.. really interesting stuff.

[Swisskaese]

I am finally in Beijing and have eaten at some nice, not fancy restaurants:

Hunan restaurant off of Wangfujing near all of the night food stalls. A colleague took me to this restaurant and they didn't have any cards. I will try to find out the name and address. I had very good fish. One was fried in a brown sauce and the other was steamed with green onions.

Szezhuan restaurant next to the Hunan restaurant. Very good. I had a very interesting eggplant dish with five different types of nuts, broccoli rabe, snowpeas and garlic and Mandarin fish with ginger, garlic and hot peppers. Really good. One of my colleagues order a spicy shrimp dish that he said was outstanding.

Japanese restaurant near the China Mobile headquarters. Very good. Excellent selection of Japanese dishes. I had butter salmon and an assortment of vegetable tempura. The sushi looked very good, but was quite expensive.

Green Angel Vegetarian restaurant across the street from the Holiday Inn. It is above a shop that sells amythest rocks and chinese trinkets. This restaurant specializes in vegetarian meat made from gluten, tofu and something else. Very interesting. We had vegetarian shrimp (tofu), stir-fried broccoli and steamed dumplings, vegetarian spicy fish hot pot and curry potatoes. I liked everything except for the vegetarian shrimp. They were very tough. Everything else was delicious. I also had Kiwi juice which was pureed Kiwi, fantastic. The portions are very large, so order less than you normally would. The service is very good and they will tell you when they think you have ordered too much.

I am here until next Thursday, so I will update you on more restaurants and try to get the missing names.

The Oriental Malls is a mall that is about 5 blocks long. They have about everything you could possibly think of. There is a bakery there called Bread Talk that has some very interesting things with very funny names, such as Miss Congeniality and Crouching Tiger. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my camera with me . They have Green Tea bread which I haven't tried yet. I may buy some this week.

Edited June 26, 2005 by Swisskaese (log)

[Swisskaese]

This evening I went to a Beijing Hotpot restaurant that has been in existence since 1903. The restaurant is called Dong Lai Shun and is a chain that has locations all over the city. My colleagues and I went to the branch at the Sun Dong an Plaza which is very close to the hotel I am staying at.

It is a Halal restaurant. You can order a vegetarian hotpot with just water, onions and ginger, but make sure you tell them not to put tiny shrimp in the water . This is very common in China and Taiwan. For some reason when you say vegetarian they think it is ok to put tiny shrimp in the dishes.

Anyway, I had slices of fresh fish, a variety of mushrooms (one of them was called Monkey Head), bok choy, watercress and other greens. My colleagues had lamb. It was very simple and very good. It was served with a spicy sesame paste sauce. I also tried the lamb because it was halal and it was very good. I had this with fresh pear juice that was very nice.

Edited June 26, 2005 by Swisskaese (log)

[Makan King]

The Oriental Malls is a mall that is about 5 blocks long. They have about everything you could possibly think of. There is a bakery there called Bread Talk that has some very interesting things with very funny names, such as Miss Congeniality and Crouching Tiger. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my camera with me  .  They have Green Tea bread which I haven't tried yet. I may buy some this week.

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Great that you are finally here in Beijing! I hope that you will have many great meals here.

Bread Talk is actually a Singaporean bakery chain. It now has a few outlets in Beijing and Shanghai. One of its best selling items is a meat floss bun, but I can't recall if the floss is made from chicken or pork, so please check!

I look forward to hearing about your other meals in the capital!

[Swisskaese]

Great that you are finally here in Beijing!  I hope that you will have many great meals here.

Bread Talk is actually a Singaporean bakery chain.  It now has a few outlets in Beijing and Shanghai.  One of its best selling items is a meat floss bun, but I can't recall if the floss is made from chicken or pork, so please check!

I look forward to hearing about your other meals in the capital!

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It is pork.

[yakiniku]

Is there still a food mall in the basement of the Oriental Plaza? That was a great way to grab a quick snack--especially if your Mandarin is as limited as mine.

[Swisskaese]

Is there still a food mall in the basement of the Oriental Plaza? That was a great way to grab a quick snack--especially if your Mandarin is as limited as mine.

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Yes, there is and there are also a number of restaurants on the Gourmet Walk.

[Pan]

It's a long story why these photos weren't in my possession until recently, but ever since we found this place in Beijing during the summer of 2004, I've wanted to let you all know about it. As you will see, their business card is only in Chinese:

This restaurant wasn't listed in any of our guidebooks, and no-one recommended it to us. We found it because we looked in while passing by it in taxis and noticed that there was a large and happy-looking crowd there. One night, we had planned on going to Liqun for ka ya. Our cab driver had a lot of trouble finding the place, which is at the end of a narrow hutong, and got lost twice, ultimately having to ask a couple of people for directions and make a phone call. Once we got as far as he could go, we saw an entire large busload of American students heading there. Now, it's possible that the best ka ya in the city is to be found at a restaurant unknown to many Beijingren but on the tour bus circuit, but we didn't believe it and got another cab ASAP, directing him to the place on the card above by using our rudimentary Mandarin to tell him to go in the direction of our hotel (the Novotel Peace Hotel, or Heping Fandian) and then told him to go straight, turn right, etc. Anyway, once there, we found we were the only foreigners in the room. We got a warm welcome, the waitresses worked hard to understand us and make us happy (there was an English-language menu, which helped), and we got a terrific meal. This restaurant was better than any other place we ate at in Beijing except for the Li Family Restaurant, and we thought it was a very good value.

First, we got some terrific sweet/sour/spicy pickles:

Next to arrive was this bak choy with little dried shrimp:

We then had this excellent shrimp dish:

Following that was this eggplant dish, which three of us liked (my brother doesn't like eggplant in any context):

This was a lovely mixed vegetable dish:

And especially after seeing so many of these cute duck-shaped dishes being delivered to other patrons, of course we had to have their Beijing ka ya (Beijing roast duck), which was excellent:

We had another meal a few days later which didn't include ka ya and was equally good.

Do any of you know this place?

[hzrt8w]

.....Next to arrive was this bak choy with little dried shrimp:

.....We then had this excellent shrimp dish:

.....This was a lovely mixed vegetable dish:

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These 3 dishes are surprisingly similar to Cantonese style cooking.

Are those shrimps fresh water shrimps? They look a bit small in size.

I learned long ago that while in Beijing, avoid ordering seafood items. Bejing is inland, any seafood items would need to be hauled by train from the coastal ports. At least that's 20 years ago. Perhaps their transporation technologies have improved now. River fish are okay.

[Jon Tseng]

Following that was this eggplant dish, which three of us liked (my brother doesn't like eggplant in any context):

Nah, this one's clearly a Beijing dish

Check out the half inch thick coating of oil glistening on top

Who said stir-fries were healthy???

J

Edited October 11, 2005 by Jon Tseng (log)

[hzrt8w]

I just noticed... what is that little paper slip on the right side of the eggplant dish? Fortune cookie slip?

[Pan]

.....Next to arrive was this bak choy with little dried shrimp:

.....We then had this excellent shrimp dish:

.....This was a lovely mixed vegetable dish:

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These 3 dishes are surprisingly similar to Cantonese style cooking.

Are those shrimps fresh water shrimps? They look a bit small in size.

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I wouldn't have known how to ask, if I had thought of it.

I learned long ago that while in Beijing, avoid ordering seafood items.  Bejing is inland, any seafood items would need to be hauled by train from the coastal ports.  At least that's 20 years ago.  Perhaps their transporation technologies have improved now.[...]

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I you haven't been to Beijing in 20 years, you couldn't even imagine how drastically the city has changed! I visited in 1987 and 2004, and the changes were so immense that the city was practically unrecognizable. And of course, since so much wealth has been generated by the very rapidly growing economy, the food was much better.

[Pan]

I just noticed... what is that little paper slip on the right side of the eggplant dish?  Fortune cookie slip?     

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What does it say? I was guessing it had the name of the dish on it or something.

[hzrt8w]

What does it say? I was guessing it had the name of the dish on it or something.

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Those look like printed characters. I can only guess they are Chinese characters but they are too small to read.

[Fengyi]

Did you go to the Dong Cheng branch or the Yuetan one? Judging by the tick, I would guess the Dong Cheng one. I think I've passed the Yuetan one this summer - I was also trying to find a restaurant (a Brazillian one, this time!) and it amazed me the number of huge restuarants on the Yuetan west road! It looked really happening! I wouldn't be surprised if some of those restaurants were good, since the competition seems so high!

As for seafood, we had some excellent sushi this visit - the seafood has really improved over the years. I lived in Beijng in the 90s and it was much harder to find good stuff then. Now, it seems that good restaurants are flourishing everywhere, with lots of choices to boot!

Mind you, I did find the ole Quanjude nearly the same as ever (this time I was brought to the Sick Duck branch by my relatives).

However, there *are* more smilies to be seen and my great-aunty managed to bag the roast duck carcass to take home! I don't know whether it was by dint of her force of personality...or the niceness of the waitress, but that was a point scored!

[Pan]

Did you go to the Dong Cheng branch or the Yuetan one? Judging by the tick, I would guess the Dong Cheng one.[...]

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Ah, so there are two branches of the place! I suppose Dong Cheng is right. It's not very far from Wangfujing; in fact, my brother and I later walked home from the restaurant to the Novotel Peace Hotel.

What is the name of the restaurant, and what are the addresses?

[Fengyi]

Ah, so there are two branches of the place! I suppose Dong Cheng is right. It's not very far from Wangfujing; in fact, my brother and I later walked home from the restaurant to the Novotel Peace Hotel.

What is the name of the restaurant, and what are the addresses?

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The name is a bit strange to me (but, although reasonable fluent, I am not a native speaker)....phonetically it's Beijing Tianwai Tian Can (pronounce Tsan) Yin Youxian Gongsi.

Which is roughly Beijing "Heaven(ly) beyond the Heavens" Food and Drink Limited Company. The Limited Company bit is kind of strange....and the reference to food as "can" would indicate (at least to me) that the food isn't particularly high-class stuff, more 'family -style'. It's a word for food used in such binomes as 'cafeteria' (Canting) - there are fancier words in Madarin for food

The addresses are (in Western style, i.e. giving street number first):

No. 141A North Riverside (Bei Heyan) Boulevard (i.e. Dajie Large street),

Dong Cheng District

and

No. 1 (building) West road, Yuetan (Altar of the Moon Park) -that's in the XiCheng distrinct (other side of Tiananmen from Wangfujing)

The first address must have been somewhere near the Jingshan park? I know there's a few 'North RiverXXX' streets around there.

Speaking of which, in the same area-ish (bei chizi lu=North Pool Road)is the absolutely stellar Courtyard Restaurant. Did you go there? I love it! Last time I was there, I had the most wonderful lemongrass-soy Creme Brulee and a fantastic beef Tartar with Red curry flavourings (yes, I know they sound dubious and scarily fusion-ish, but they were heart-stoppingly good!).

[Pan]

[...]The addresses are (in Western style, i.e. giving street number first):

No. 141A North Riverside (Bei Heyan) Boulevard (i.e. Dajie Large street),

Dong Cheng District

and

No. 1 (building) West road, Yuetan (Altar of the Moon Park) -that's in the XiCheng distrinct (other side of Tiananmen from Wangfujing)

The first address must have been somewhere near the Jingshan park? I know there's a few 'North RiverXXX' streets around there.

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You're talking about the small park on the side of the road?

Speaking of which, in the same area-ish (bei chizi lu=North Pool Road)is the absolutely stellar Courtyard Restaurant. Did you go there? I love it! Last time I was there, I had the most wonderful lemongrass-soy Creme Brulee and a fantastic beef Tartar with Red curry flavourings (yes, I know they sound dubious and scarily fusion-ish, but they were heart-stoppingly good!).

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Nope, didn't go there.

[Tom Gandey]

I might be going to Beijing this weekend.  Does anyone have recommendations on restaurants and speciality items?  Not familiar with the city, so any help would be great.

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You want to try the Beijing Duck from 2 different places:

1. "Roast Duck King" aka Ya Wang to Chinese speakers. Close to the "friendship store" and awesome date wood roasted duck for 88 yuan/whole. The other dishes are quite good as well, excellent value and (for me) tied for the best duck in the city. I've been 3 times and consistantly excellent. They do have another location, but I've never been.

2. Quanjude (again, numerous locations). I've been to the one close to my regular hotel (Peninsula)... can't remember the address, but its just off of the main shopping street close to the night market. Excellent and they use a different wood blend (I think more lighter fruit wood and juniper), much more fat under the skin but not greasy and supremely tasty.

You can try the night market as well if you have a stronger stomach, not 100% sanitary but you can get everything from frog legs to silkworms. An experience and you can have just the candied fruit if you are queasy (like my wife).

In Beijing, you pretty much want to gorge on duck!

As an aside, if you want decent dim sum and Moet Champagne, they have a super deal at the Grand Hyatt for I believe 300ish yuan. All you can eat cooked to order AND unlimited champagne (although they may have reconsidered this format after I drank 2+ bottles at lunch). The veggie dishes seemed to be their strength.

Did I mention to eat more duck?

[Tom Gandey]

more Beijing restaurants:

For Peking Duck:

'Da Dong' Beijing Kao Ya is not one of the big factories, but a smaller chef owned very popular-with-the-locals eatery that features exciting traditional and contemporary Bejijng food. There is a whole 'spiel' on their menu about their less fat, 'Superneat' Beijing Duck. They carve and serve it with great finesse. You might also want to try the abalone mushroom with saffron sauce (saffron is the new 'in' ingredient in Beijing) or homemade pasta with lobster flavor.

Gui Gung Foo (phonetically correct)

This 2-year-old Hangzhou restaurant is difficult to locate and find. It is housed in a 100 year old hutong that was home to a princely member of the Empress Dowager's family. The surrounding's have an untouched-in-100-years patina, and currently one needs to walk through a construction site to get to the dining room. Nevermind, it's worth the difficulty. There is no English menu but the food was special. A cold appetizer of house smoked pressed dofu was intense, and a dish of minced eggplant in a sweetish brown sauce was delicious with its unusal garnish of chopped mixed nuts, peppers and seeds. However the most memorable dish was a simple toss of soft noodles and vegetable shreds infused with the taste of fresh jasmine - a major WOW!

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Great peking duck skin at Da Dong, very good soups... but the duck is all dried out and has no wood flavour. My worst duck in BJ but a decent meal.