Beijing dining

[Fengyi]

Actually....er.... turns out that I'm going there tonight - so I guess that it's open already!

I will write it up when I return.....

[Christopher Haatuft]

Actually....er.... turns out that I'm going there tonight - so I guess that it's open already!

I will write it up when I return.....

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Great! Mayby I should go there. Im leaving for Beijing tomorrow...

[Christopher Haatuft]

After lots of asking and walking in circles, we just had a great lunch at Sichuan Government restaurant. Highly recommended. Now we have to figure out where to go to dinner....so many choices.

Fengyi - how was the restaurant?

[Shiewie]

Try the Hunan Provincial Govt Restaurant - it's really good especially the dishes with smoked bacon and tea tree mushrooms

[Fengyi]

Sorry - I didn't make it to the Legation quarter in the end (typical messed up Beijing life...)

Most of the governmental restaurants are ace! The Xinjiang one is also good

BTW, I finally got to the Quanjude out in the Tsinghua Science park. It was really quite good!!!! Not quite as good as Dadong, but the pluses were cornmeal as well as flour pancakes and the neat touch of having lettuce leaves for the low carb version.

They also had good ostrich - which we all talked about as it's not common here, but one person at the table turned out to be from a town in Dongbei that breeds ostriches - so he was an expert. He says that they often stir-fry the eggs with tomato, etc.. just in the regular way and that they're not as tasty as chicken eggs.

Anyway, might be a useful stop if anyone is out that way looking at the Old summer Palace/ buying dodgy electronics.

[Christopher Haatuft]

Try the Hunan Provincial Govt Restaurant - it's really good especially the dishes with smoked bacon and tea tree mushrooms

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Good advice. Where can I find it?

[Fengyi]

The address is:

海淀区北太平庄七省驻京办大院

电话: 010-82005999-8158

Doesn't rate highly on www.dianping.com but I haven't been there yet.

[Shiewie]

Try the Hunan Provincial Govt Restaurant - it's really good especially the dishes with smoked bacon and tea tree mushrooms

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Good advice. Where can I find it?

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Here's the namecard and menu I took pictures of. Ticked items are what we ate. Some items are spicy but more subtle compared to Sichuan food.

The location is pretty central, remember passing either Four Seasons/Ritz Carlton further down the same road.

[Fengyi]

Err...sorry to be a party pooper, but that above isn't the Hunan government restaurant, but the Xiangxi one.

Hey, if it's not HOT HOT HOT, it ain't Hunan

There's pictures of the restaurant and a map on

Xiangxi restaurant

It actually specializes in Tu people minority cooking (must be the leading minority in Xiangxi - I've never been there and don't know anyone from there so am not sure on this point).

I can't get into dianping.com at the moment, so can't tell you the rating - but it looks interesting.

Meanwhile, the Hunan government restaurant is definitely in Haidian area (I checked against another book). And if you go there, prepare to have your head blown off with spices!!! but not numbing - that's why I love Hunan over sichuan. . .

BTW why on earth is the business card written in Fanti Chinese - how bizarre!!! it must be a favourite of Taiwan visitors.....

[Shiewie]

Thanks Fengyi for clarifying - since I can't read it and was told we were going to eat Hunanese food.

We went with johkm who posts on e-gullet and his friends who are mainly from the tea trade. One of his friends is Hunanese and she ordered the food and she said it's all simple home-style dishes that remind her of home.

To get there, we went to the nearest underground station, jumped into a cab and passed the phone over to the cab driver so that johkm could give the cab driver directions to get there .

Thanks for the link - the bowls look familiar . I did take some pictures of the but they didn't turn out that well. It was a marvellous meal!

[Fengyi]

I've been asking and now I get it!!! (sorry I'm a bit slow on the uptake) - the reason this is also referred to as a Hunan government restaurant is because the Xiangxi

Autonomous region is actually a part of Hunan province - its just autonomous so it has a different government restaurant for all those Tujia people who don't want the regular Hunan food.

The penny has dropped!

This reminds me - about two years ago (I think) - wasn't there a total craze in Beijing for Tujia "pizzas"? I seem to remember something of the kind......

Edited July 23, 2008 by Fengyi (log)

[Fengyi]

On another 'ethnic' note, I took my great auntie out yesterday and we ended up lunching at the newly re-built (well, sort of new) Kaorouwan 烤肉碗. This is a restaurant which dates back to the Qing dynasty and like Kaorouji 烤肉季 in the north, was celebrated for its roast lamb dishes.

The last time my Great aunt was there was 52 years ago - she took great delight in telling every waitress in the place that fact!

The food seems very much the same as Kaorouji with the famous kaorou available in beef and lamb, roasted lamb leg, the exact same style of sesame shaobing 烧饼 and a range of other non-lamby dishes. The quality was about the same - perhaps a modicum higher and generally it was a nice old-skool place.

If you're staying on the west side of town (Financial street or Xidan) or if you're visiting the new Capital Museum (an excellent little trip!), I recommend stopping there for a taste of a true Beijing Laozihao 老字号 (famous old brand).

I can't remember the road, but its right next to the Beijing children's hospital, so it's really easy to find.

Edited July 23, 2008 by Fengyi (log)

[Fengyi]

Judging by the amount of pigging out I've been doing in the last year, I feel I should post a bit more on Dining in Beijing.

I note that I forgot to post on Maison Boulud!

I've been going there kind of regularly since about October and it has been amazing just about every time. The service is by far and away the best I've experienced in Beijing and the atmosphere is fantastic.

We enjoy it so much that my company helped hold a wine dinner there too:

Maison Boulud and Grand-Puy-Lacose

Recently they've started to do brunch - which I've now been to twice! The DP Burger is fantastic...

If you want a break from Chinese food while in China, I cannot recommend this place more!

[Fengyi]

I had guests in town a while ago, and while at a Food and Wine magazine meeting, I asked where was best for Hot Pot - traditional and new style.

The consensus was for Dingdingxiang Chinese site English review for new style.

But I wanted Old Skool, so I went with a Editor's suggestion of Nanmen Shuanrou 南门涮肉 English address

And it was fantastic!

The Shaobing 烧饼 were amazing - far better than Donglaishun or Kourouji. Light and crispy with great sesame taste. The hand cut mutton was tender and delicious. In fact, all the mutton was terrific! Prices are remarkably good - and even if, in winter, you have to eat in our overcoat, it is very fun - with lovely cloisonné individual hot pots.

We went to the one at Houhai, but I've been lectured since on the fact that the one at Tiantan is better.

Nevermind! If you're in the mood for proper old style Beijing HP, this is great!

[Fengyi]

If you're in the mood for fast Shaanxi food while in Beijing, I do recommend the fast-food joint '顺口溜' Shunkouliu. a bowl of Yangroupomo is 20 RMB - not bad for around here - and it's HUGE.

They also have rather nice bowls of chemian 扯面 if you want some Shaanxi comfort food....

[Fengyi]

No fish market to speak of - though there are nice markets around.

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And BOY was I wrong...!

Down in the south - there is the Jing Shen wholesale market.

It opens very early - and you can get your seafood cooked at restaurants there in the market. I plan to go soon!

[eternal]

Am here in Beijing for another 5 days before heading to Shanghai for about a week. I'm just wrapping up a 5 week tour of China but spent most of my time in Yunnan, with short trips to Chengdu and Xi'an.

We had some great duck today down the street from our hotel, on the 4th ring not far from the Bird's Nest. Best I've ever had, but I've only had Peking duck in Seattle and NY. Sounds like we need to hit Da Dong (though my wife has vivid memories of Quandobe or however it is spelled so we might end up there too.

From this thread it appears we also need to stop by The Loft Noodle shop and the Hunan Government Restaurant, but the address isn't clear to me and a quick google search doesn't yield much. Can anybody verify the address?

Any other options/advice would be recommended. For the last 3 weeks my father-in-law, who is from Shanghai, has just asked locals where to eat and had our success rate has been very high...'cept for a couple meals in Lijiang and one in X'ian....

Thanks

[eternal]

We went to Universal Studios Walk, Beijing err I mean Qiamen Rd today and had the duck at Quandobe. Wow. What a racket that is. We missed the last seating for the main restaurant and ended up eating at the "casual" place in front. They are really leveraging their brand and in my mind, completely devaluing it though here in China, people just go places because they are famous so maybe it won't hurt them...

We got the set menu, which came with a few cold sides, none of them very good and then the duck. A service for 3 was plenty for four, but the price was 436 Yuan so hardly a bargain and the beers are 25 Yuan each!

The crown of ridiculousness is that everything is served on plastic plates and the plum sauce comes from a packet that the waitress opens and pours into your little plastic bowl.

The good news is the duck is pretty good, though not as good as the local place we went last night and the skin gets greasy because it lays in a puddle of fat on the plate. The ambiance is horrible. Just absolutely bad. it feels like you are in a cafeteria. I would never go back.

I'll try Da Dong in the next few days. Hopefully it is better.

[Fengyi]

Eeek! Quanjude at Qiangmen....scary!

The ONLY QJD I have rated as any good is the one at the Tsinghua science park (and by now I've been dragged to nearly every one...)

The Xiangxi government restaurant described above is quite a way from central Beijing (apparently Fengtai district!)

Tel: 66214788

Add: 太平桥大街湘西大厦10层

it's at Taipingqiao Boulevard on the 10th floor of the Xiangxi autonomous region government building.

That will probably be a horror to find...

Why not the Sichuan gov restaurant? Much more central - and very good indeed.

BTW, a chief magazine editor, my SO and I have now decided to embark on a serious eating escape: we will eat through all 50 of the government office restaurants. It must be done.....

Meanwhile, had a nice lunch today at Mosto - it's no wonder that restaurant is so crowded: a nice two course Latin-american/French lunch at only 70RMB....

very nice break from Chinese food if you can make it. Dinner is also good - I attended a Hewittson winery dinner there recently and the dishes were very good indeed (very nice pan-seared salmon with sauteed fennel).

Also, went to the new branch of Hatsune. Menu same as the old one (i.e. Japanese-North American style food with well executed monster rolls and other Japanese-NA style offerings). Located on the 3rd floor of building 8 of the new Sanlitun village.

Also this week, went to Manzo for the first time (just east of Panjiayuan). Quite surprisingly authentic Japanese food. Excellent home-made tofu within the izakaya style menu. Almost as good as some of the izakaya's I've been to in Tokyo. . . A nice surprise.

Finally got to Duck de Chine in 1949: the Hidden City. Very much what I expected....i.e. Chinese food for those who value surroundings over flavour. The duck was quite OK - but the Tianmianjiang was pretty dreadful. Bo-bing were so-so, the shao-bing OK, in the Da Dong style but less refined. At least they were trendy enough to have the pink radish on offer - which I quite like!

Other dishes were alright but not particularly well-executed and not particularly focused on Beijing cai. In fact, I saw a promotion for dimsum on......not a good sign in a roast duck restaurant. The person I was with ordered some. Not very good at all :-(

But the interior is very stylish and is a good place to show off to visitors. Pity that they can't cook better...

[Fengyi]

Loft is called 面酷 (pardon my typo previously - I misread the sign!!!).

and there's two - one on Dawanglu on the West side of the road opposite from a new property development called 首府 in Chinese. It's south of Tonghuihe river and before the junction with B and Q and Carrefour.

The other's down an alley just south of 2nd ring road.

For most Beijing listing try:

City weekend

THey have most place listed in Chinese and English.

Have a good stay!

[eternal]

The best duck we had was at TianTian, I believe is the name. It is up north, between the 3rd and 4th ring. I can get the actual directions if anybody is interested. After my father-in-law talked to some family, they all mentioned it was a place that a lot of locals go to. IT wasn't particularly busy when we were there but I guess it does get busy on the weekends.

Speaking of family, my father's cousin who runs The Telecom Hotel had us over for a special lunch. It was a ridiculously formal affair where the manager of the restaurant stayed in our private room for the whole meal, watching his staff of three, who in turn watched all of us. Not many people spoke and I spoke even less, not speaking Mandarin or its gurgling sounding Beijing version.

And despite several years of home cooked meals y my mother-in-law, living in Seattle and NY and the last 6 months of Asian adventure travel, a lot of the stuff was a first for me and the wife. It was all the stuff that you drag out for your family once a year, if that.

The cold dishes were duck's tongue in a brown sauce (very good if you can get past the eating the meat off the boney inside), smoked tofu, sliced jellyfish (sashimi-style), shrimp with vinegar side, deep fried small fish, an asparagus spear like vegetable that was stacked neatly like a set of linkin logs, duck, whole steamed pigeon.

While that was being served, waitresses came around with single serving sized tea kettles of a delicious and fully-bodied chicken soup/broth.

We sat with little cups of Chinese wine and the thimble sized glasses of maotai, which we drank during the toasts (which of course I couldn't understand though they were generally directed at me - the foreigner.)

After the apps, the staff would bring out one main dish at a time, spin it around the lazy susan slowly for everyone to see and then bring it back to another table to cut and serve for us.

The first dish was the duck. Roasted and stuffed with sticky rice, it was completely de-boned and reconstructed back into the shape of a duck. The duck was moist and the sticky rice inside, delicious.

Next up was scallops with celery and strawberries, not unlike strawberry shrimp I've had before. No thick sauce here, just a light added sweetness from the berries. My guess is that they berries were added at the very end as there were still in good shape.

We continued with deep fried crab claws and stuffed squid balls, the stuffing I think was the liquified innards of the crab, but I could be mistaken. The outside was made of 1cmx1cm breadcrumbs that reminded me of my techniques class back at FCI, heavily buttered and uniformly cut.

After that we were presented with a whole fried fish in sweet and sour sauce, which no, did not taste like Panda Express. The sauce was just slightly sweet without the heaviness I generally think of back home and therefore never order. The fish was so light it its cut, which seemed to be crosshatched so that the fish looks like a porcupine, floured and deep fried. I've seen this again in Shanghai and if anybody knows how this is done, I'd love to know.

After the fish, the servers came around with big, earthenware bowl (*maybe 4 gallon or so) filled with rice and topped with lots of chinese sausage. The vessel was still very hot and the rice was crisping on the sides of the bowl. The servers came it the spin and then mixed it all up and served it to us. My favorite part of the meal.

The second to last course was the Turnip cakes and almond jelly and papaya dessert followed by a giant ice cream sundae - which at this point we were so full that we couldn't eat much more, but managed to get down into the dragon fruit, mango and papaya.

I have pictures by I can't upload them here. If you're interested, I can point you to my flickr account.

[eternal]

I checked out the loft. I was solo and while I ordered way too much food, it still wasn't enough to sample 1/100th of the menu. The lamb was definitely the standout. I had a fried egg ad noodle dish that was totally bland and dry. The noodles cut with single chopstick in pork and soy sauce were tasty as well. I'd go back for more but honestly didn't think it was all that special.

I went to a Hunanese restaurant across the street from the hotel we were staying up by Huixinxijie Beikou station and had a wonderful meal of hot and spicy caramelized cauliflower (chosen after reading egullet), whole deep fried fish (about 5 inches long - eat bones and all)), a spicy and chicken peppers dish and cold draft beer (all of 4 yuan a piece!) that i drank way too much of. I would put it up there with the best places we have eaten at over the last month in China

Now in Shanghai, we stumbled across some really great shao long bao after three other mediocre versions in just as many days. The place, which I think might be famous based on the queue and the English menu is Yang's Stir fried dumplings and there are two of them right next to each other. We happened to walk by and then bought 4 for 4.5 yuan. They were awesome. Tons of juice inside and a good thick and crispy bottom with thin wrapper on top. They look more like Snowballs then the Shao Long Bao I'm used to and the flavors were rich and tasty. This is near Shimen No. 1 Road, close to the 4 Seasons (though we are staying at the Hanting Hotel).

[eternal]

With a little help from a moderator, I got some pictures uploaded. Here they are:

From our formal Beijing Meal at Telecom Hotel:

Jellyfish

Deboned and reconstructed duck with sticky rice

Served duck

Scallops and Strawberries

Sweet and Sour Fish - If anybody knows how to do this, I'd love to hear!

Whole pigeon - picked over

(this might not be a pigeon, but that is what they told me. If you know, again I'd love to know)

My favorite - crispy rice and Chinese sausage

Turnip Cakes and Almond jellies

The pictures are only mediocre because I was using the wife's camera. More images from other meals to come!

[Sabrosita]

Hi all! I'm planning to be in Beijing for 9 days this fall for the sole purpose of delicious eating. I'm guessing that mostly we're just going to wander until we see something crowded and tasty looking, but would love to hear if anyone has suggestions for areas to look and for specific restaurants. I love Sichuan hot pot, we'll need to try some duck, I eat anything and everything and the less likely it is I can get it in the US, the better!

[hzrt8w]

Hi all! I'm planning to be in Beijing for 9 days this fall for the sole purpose of delicious eating. I'm guessing that mostly we're just going to wander until we see something crowded and tasty looking, but would love to hear if anyone has suggestions for areas to look and for specific restaurants. I love Sichuan hot pot, we'll need to try some duck, I eat anything and everything and the less likely it is I can get it in the US, the better!

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Deep-fried scorpions? Guaranteed that it cannot be found in the USA.

Yours is one idea. Except that a lot of delicious items are cooked-to-order in restaurants and you may not find them on the street to look at.

One idea I have, which is what I plan to do the next time I visit Beijing: hire a local tour guide (from Craight's List or something). Let him/her guide you to some of the good, and not necessarily touristy, restaurants. Treat him/her to those meals. Meals don't cost too much in the Mainland China (unless you go to the 5-star hotels). For a big group, it shouldn't be a big deal. If not, meet the tour guide for a few hours shortly after you arrive. Pay him/her. Have them list out / write down the restaurants of reommendation in Chinese (and any specialties).

Or bribe Fengyi...