Beijing Dining and Restaurants

Beijing Local Food
Peking Roast Duck
Peking Duck has the reputation of being the most delicious food Beijing has to offer. Some find it a bit too greasy, but others get hooked after one taste. In any case, a Peking Duck dinner is usually a fixed item on any Beijing tour itinerary.

The place that offers the best Peking Duck is the Quan Ju De Restaurant, which has outlets at Qianmen, Hepingmen and Wangfujing. It was established 130 year ago and, if you count from the time when founder Yang Renquan began his duck business, it is 160 years old.

Another famous restaurant offering Peking duck is the Bian Yi Fang (Cheap Restaurant). Which opened in 1855, nine years earlier than Quan Ju De. At Bian Yi Fang. Roasting is done in an enclosed container fueled with crop stalks.
There are now hundreds of restaurants serving Peking Duck all over the city. Most of these restaurants offer ducks for about 50 yuan a piece, cheaper that at the larger places.

Imperial Court Food
Imperial court Food is a style of Chinese food that has its origins in the Imperial Palace. It is based on the foods that were served to the Emperor and his court. Now, it has become a major school of Chinese cooking and there are several places where you can sample this unique flavor. Fand Shan in Beihan Park and Ting Li Guan in the Summer palace are the best ones. 150 years ago you would never have been able to eat this stuff, so give it a shot. It is a little expensive, however.

Imperal Official Food and Medicinal Foods
This first type of food is particular to Beijing. In the past, Beijing officials were all very picky about what type of food they ate. The most famous type of Official food is Tan Family Food, which can be had in the Beijing Hotel. This is the preferred food of the Qing Dynasty official Tan Zongling, and was later introduced into restaurants. Another type of food is that which is described in the classic novel Dream of Red Mansions. The author, Cao Xueqin, described a number of dishes in the book and now there are several restaurants which serve this style of dish. The most famous place is the Beijing Grand View Garden Hotel. This hotel is right next to the Beijing's Grand View Garden which is modeled after the garden described in the Dream of Red Mansions Other restaurants featuring this novel type of food are the Jinglun Hotel and Laijinyuxuan Restaurant in Zhongshan park.

There are hundreds of dishes that are medicated with such choice tonic materials as ginseng, deer musk, bear's paw, Chinese wolf berry and soft-shelled turtle, the cream of the crop of Chinese medicine.

Hotpot
There are basically two kinds of hotpot restaurants in Beijing: mongolian style and Sichuan style. The staple of both types of hotpot is mutton (yang rou). The meat is usually sliced frozen so that it curls up into a tube shape. Then you place the meat into the hotpot, which is a copper pot containing a boiling soup base. After a few seconds the meat is cooked and you dip it into a sesame butter sauce. The verb describing the action of cooking the meat this way is called "shuan."other shuan-ables include beef , frozen tofu, Chinese cabbage , bean sprouts , and glass noodles. Spicy Sichuan hotpot has a soup base which can be described as either superspicy or mildly radioactive, but the pot is often divided into half spicy, half nonspicy soup pots. The soup base for Mongolian style is not spicy, and usually consists of some vegetables and seafood.
Famous Mongolian style hotpot restaurants are Neng Ren Ju at Baitasi, and Dong Lai Shun to the east of Tian'anmen Square. The most well-known Sichuan style hotpot restaurant is Jin Shan Cheng. Of which there are many scattered throughout the city.

Beijing Traditional Snacks
Beijing has over 250 types of traditional snack foods. Many of them are made of glutinous rice, soy beans or fried materials. The king of all snack foods is called "dou zhi." This is a strange-tasting, greenish-grey, fermented bean porridge, and if you can manage to eat a whole bowl of it you will earn great respect from your Beijing friends. Supposedly it is an acquired taste, but who wants to acquire it? For a taste of snack foods from outside of Beijing, take a trip to Snack Street, just off of Wangfujing Street. Starting from about 5:00pm, the vendors line up in their stalls and start selling foods from all parts of the country. You can have an entire meal's worth of food walking from one end of the street to the other, trying this and that along the way.

Cuisine from Other Provinces
A huge chunk of Chinese culture is devoted to food and drink. There are hundreds of different dishes, and each region has its own distinctive flavor. The majority of Chinese restaurants in Beijing feature what is known as "homestyle dishes', which are basically the most common types of food that any self-respecting Chinese can make at home. These dishes are usually a combination of the spicy Sichuan style and the more hearty Shandong. True Sichuan style restaurants have a special type of tea called Eight Treasures Tea. This tea is poured from a kettle with a yardlong spout, which the boy wields skillfully. Aside from jia chang cai restaurants, there are also many places that are devoted to a certain type of food. Specialty restaurants include such classics as Donkey Flesh King, Dog Meat City and Fat Sister's Meat Pies.

Shanghai style tends to be sort of sweet and features lots of seafood. Shanghai restaurants have been quite popular for some years now. Guangdong eaters have a reputation for eating "everything with four or more legs except for the table, and everything that has wings except for airplanes." All of the really funky dishes you hear about like live monkey brains and raw rat babies are Guangdong style dishes. However there are lots of excellent, non-scary Guangdong dishes, and the seafood is especially tasty.

Northeastern dishes are usually composed of large quantities of meat in thick, fairly saltysaues. Potatoes also feature heavily in dongbei cai. This is a great style of food to have in winter. Other famous schools of Chinese food include Huaiyang and Shanxi styles. There are also a number of regional minority cuisine.

Uygur Food. The Uygurs are a Muslim minority from Xinjiang Autonomous Region in the Northwest. There are Uygurs all over the city selling lamb kebob, but there are two places where they are fairly concentrated together, one is tempted to call them ghettos. These two locations, weigongcun and Ganjiakou, abound with Uygur restaurants. The best thing at these restaurants is the roast fried spicy mutton, square noodles in tomato sauce, and the roud nang bing, a type of bread which is scrumptious whencool. There is also a smaller, fatter type of round bread which can satisfy a bagel-craving. The streetside lamb kabob can be delicious, too, but is not always the paramount of sanitary foodstuffs.

International Cuisine
In addition to the thousands of Chinese restaurants, there are also lots of places serving foods from all over the world. You can basically get any type of food you want here if you know where to find it. For years the only thing missing was an American-style deli, and now there are some of those. These are also tons of fast food restaurants, including almost 50 McDonald's and a mess of Pizza Huts, KFCs, Dunkin'Donuts, A&W's and Kenny Rogers'Roasters. There are more foreign restaurants - Beijing Asian restaurants, Beijing Indonesian restaurants, Beijing Indian restaurants, Beijing Japanese restaurants, Beijing Korean restaurants, Beijing Singaporean restaurants, Beijing Thai restaurants, Beijing Malaysian restaurants, Beijing Vietnamese restaurants...

Beijing Snack Street

Local snacks are a special feature of Beijing. Tourists can taste not only the local Beijing flavors, but those of other regions as well. Snack-stalls in the night markets are always popular and busy destinations.

Donghuamen Snack Night Market
By following the wafting aroma of cooking, tourists can find the most natural and simple flavors of Old Beijing in the street. Located at the northern entrance of Wangfujing Street, Donghuamen Night Market is the most famous snack street in Beijing, popular with both locals and tourists as well. After its pedestrianization, Donghuamen Snack Night Market became the No. 1 snack street in Beijing. When the night falls, the assortment of tasty treats from both northern and southern China, plus the bustling crowds and the rhythmical huckstering is another attraction in Beijing you shouldn't miss.

Gui Street
Most restaurants in the street are open around the clock. If you are a night owl, Gui Street in Dongzhi Gate, is a good place to spend until the wee hours of the morning. The late hours of the night are usually the busiest times on this street, whose specialty is Spicy Lobster. Picture yourself sitting in an old chair inside an ancient courtyard house under the grapevines appreciating photos from long-ago but most important savor the aroma and taste of the succulent dishes.

Wangfujing Snack Street
A dazzling array of snacks from all corners of China can be found here. The majority of diners here are foreign, and the cost is not low. However, for a comfortable and relaxing meal, Xin Dong An Restaurant comes highly recommended.

Longfusi Snack Street
This street is also famed for its Beijing local snacks. Bai Kui Lao Hao, a Muslim restaurant, is recommended for its authentic Beijing fare.

Niu Jie Muslim Snack Street
Niu Jie Muslim Street occupies an area about 35.9 hectares (88.7 acres). There are people from over 20 minority groups living in the street. Hui make up the greater part of that. The largest and oldest mosque -- Niu Jie Mosque is located here. Everything is heavy with the exotic flavor of our minority groups. So is the food. The famous Turpan Restaurant offers visitors genuine Uygur food.

Qianmen Snack Street
There are a number of time-honored restaurants in Qianmen Street, including Quanjude Roast Duck, Duyichu Shaomai and Yitiaolong Restaurant.

Guanganmen Snack Street
Starting from Liuliqiao in west to Hufangqiao in east, Guanganmen Snack Street is the only snack street in the southern part of the city. Known for its hot and spicy flavor, Sichuan cuisine is a specialty of this street. Li Lao Die Xiang La Xie (Father Li Hot Crab) and Tan Yu Tou (Fish Head Tan) are special favorites with customers.

Shichahai Snack Street
The most popular snack street in Beijing, day or night it is filled with throngs people busily coming and going and partaking of the fare. In addition to the traditional local snack shops, there are many famous chain restaurants such as Starbucks here.

Hao Yun Jie (Good Luck Entertainment Street)
Lying in the Yansha Business Circle, Chaoyang District, Hao Yun Jie is a special entertainment street fulfilled with the exotic. The street combines 'fast food' snack outlets as well as restaurant-style delicacies, bars and art all together, perfectly forming an 'international dining mall' worthy of the name. There are over 20 international chain restaurants gathered here, offering diners genuine foreign cuisine. After dinner, the art galleries are just a stroll away.

Suzhou Jie Entertainment Street
Situated between Suzhouqiao and Haidianqiao, Suzhou Jie Entertainment Street is a recent development and has risen rapidly in popularity. Now, it can be mentioned in the same breath with Gui Jie. It gains its high reputation from deep culture deposits. The traditional garden style restaurant predominates here.

Beijing Cuisine Restaurants
Donglaishun Restaurant
With a nearly 100-year history, Donglaishun is a long-standing Muslim's restaurant famous for its Shuan Yang Rou (instant-boiled mutton). It is praised for its excellent material (Inner Mongolian lambs), exquisite processing, rich ingredients and high degree of heating. Now it has attracted a lot of celebrities from home and abroad Instant-boiled Mutton: put the thin pieces of mutton to the boiled water with some traditional stuff. After the mutton's color changed, put it in blended seasonings, the traditional one is made from sesame soy sauce, sesame oil, preserved bean-curd, leek flower, caraway and shallot's mixture. You can also boil all kinds of vegetables. Be sure you can use the chopsticks well.
Style: Instant-boiled muton

Duyichu Restaurant
Located in the bustling Qianmen Street, Duyichu is the well-known century-old brand name in Beijing. It was set up in the 3rd year of Emperor Qianlong's reign in the Qing Dynasty or 1738, about 250 years from today. Its name is favored by Emperor Qianlong after he enjoyed the service here. The Tiger Head Plaque described by Qianlong is hanging in the center of the hall reads Duyichu. The dishes here is famous both domestic and overseas. Once the Chefs went to Japan to spread the feat, which has been getting very good rating by Japnese. Featured foods: Steamed Dumpling of Three Delicacies, Fried Triangle Rolls, Steamed Dumpling, Qianlong Cabbage, Fried Round Mass of Food.

Fangshan Restaurant
Want to enjoy the Chinese flavor from the bygone imperial diet? Come to Beijing Fangshan Restaurant. This restaurant, established by chefs who used to work in "royal kitchen" (Yu Shan Fang) offers the food similar to what the emperor ate in the past. To have a meal here, you can not only not enjoy the delicious royal cuisine but also savor the magnificent royal gardens. Fangshan Restaurant is located in the Beihai Park in a traditional courtyard. The waitress and waiters there all wear traditional clothes as the Qing Dynasty. Apart from delicious dishes meticulously prepared with rare and expensive foodstuffs such as birds nests and sharks fins, you can also enjoy the most famous Chinese meal-set "Man Han Quan Xi". In order to keep the original taste, many snacks still made by hands. Visiting Beihai Park and have a meal at Fangshan Restaurant is a must-part of the Beijing tour.
Style: Imperial Ciusine

Fengzeyuan Restaurant
Fengzeyuan Restaurant, famed for its Shandong food, has a series of sea cucumber dishes as the highlights of its menu. The flavor of its dishes is a little light but spicy, mellow not greasy, fragrant, tender and crisp. The featured dishes here are Bird's Nest, Shark's skin, Fish Maw in Casserole, Stewed Turtle Rim.

Gongdelin Vegetarian Restaurant
Just like its name, Gongdelin Vegetarian Restaurant serves incredibly delicious vegan dishes. If you have a try, you will doubt whether you are in a vegetable restaurant, because you can see Crisp Chinese Eel, Sauteed Crab Meal, Cumin Shish Kebab, Braising Pork, Braising Sea Cucumber, Fried Fish Slice in Sauce and so on. Only chewing carefully will you feel the faint scent of vegetables. The dishes here are not only pleasant-looking but also nutrient and good for health. All of these make Gongdelin Vegetarian Restaurant out of other restaurant.
Style: Vegan dish

Hongbinlou Restaurant
Set up in 1835, Hongbinlou Restaurant is well-known for its Muslim flavor mainly offering the Whole Mutton Banquet and Seafood Flavor of Tianjin. It has the high reputation as the First Mansion for Muslim Flavor of Beijing City.
Style: Muslim Cuisine

Laijinyuxuan Restaurant
Built in 1915, Laijinyuxuan is situated in weatern Zhongshan Park. Its architectural style features the traditional Chinese design principle. Inside the courtyard is decorated with bridges, fountains, waterfalls, grass and flowers. Walking along the Jade Corridor, looking into the distance, you will see the Great Hall of the People as well as the Forbidden City are surrounded by the clumps of trees. The scenery is indeed elegance. Red Mansion Dish, described in the famous Chinese classical novel, A Dream of Red Mansions are mainly offered by Laijinyuxuan. It incarnates the dietetic custom in the Ming and Qing Dynasty. The cuisine is unique in terms of its color, taste, style, refinement, delicacy, healthfulness as well as its style of presentation.
Style: Red-Mansion Cuision

Li Jia Cai Restaurant
Hidden in a courtyard of Yangfang hutong, you will wonder why Li Jia Cai is so popular. Once you have a try, you will be attracted by its specialty. It only owns one table and has a special rule you have eat what chef has cooked, no ordering. Its dished is devoted to imperial Court without any chemical and all flavor is natural. It welcomes many celebrities such as the former US president Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, the former premier of Britain, John Major, and Chinese superstar Jackie Chan.

Nengrenju Restaurant
It is also a time-honored restaurant with the feature of instant-boiled mutton. One of the key reasons making it so popular is its special seasoning. As the meat is mopped up, the plate is clean without any blood left, and as the dinner finished, the soup is clear without any bubble. This is really rare among all restaurants nowadays. Customers could appreciate what is "clean plate and clear soup" if coming here.

Quanjude Roast Duck Restaurant
Established in 1884 (the third year of Tongzhi of Qing dynasty), Quanjude is the most famous Peking Duck restaurant of China. With a development of long history, Quanjede Roast Duck enjoys a high reputation both home and abroad for its special roast technique, palmary quality and delicious. Quanjude has always kept the traditional method of roasting duck: Hang the duck on a pole over a wood fire until the skin turns golden and crisp, then cover the slices of the duck with sweet paste and green-onion shreds on a duck-shaped pastries. Quanjude also offers you a variety of tempting dishes featuring different parts of the duck such as abalone and duck breast with chill sauce. How mouthwatering! At the same time you can watch 60-70s Kung Fu movie with wooden benches.
Style: Peking Roast Duck

Tanjiacai
Beijing cuisine, not only include the world-famous Gongtingcai, but also contains a large number of famous private vegetables. Tianjiacai is another very famous Beijing food besides Roast Duck. Tanjiacai is rooted in Beijing for its unique appearance, smell, shape and other characteristics. The most famous specialties of Tanjiacai are shark's fin, bird's nest, steamed bear's paws and steamed duck with ham and so on. The Tanjiacai cuisine also well-known for its delicious vegetable dish as well as a variety of desserts, which have been enjoyed in Beijing for as long as 100 years.

Shaguoju Restaurant
In Beijing the time-honored brands called Ju and all have their own featured foods. Shaguoju purchases its name for its Plain Meet in Casserole. According to the historical records, Shaguoju was set up in 1741. The chefs of Shaguoju cooked various dishes as the "All Pork Banquet" by using the plain boiled meat, Deep Fried Pork and Liver, Tossed Pork Skin and Jelly Fish, and Marinated Pork Intestine. Through the development of more than 20 years, plain-boiled Pork Casserole is no longer the major repertoire. More basic ingredients such as chicken, fish, shrimp, crab, sea cucumber and shellfish can be prepared in the casserole manner. They are all decorous in terms of flavor, looking and smell.

Xiaochang (small intestine) Chen Restaurant
If you want to take the genuine Luzhuhuoshao, Xiaochang (small intestine)Chen, the China's time-honored restaurant should be commended firstly. Because of the daintily material as well as the enough quality, its taste is the most famous and authentic.

Foreign Food Restaurants
Arabian Night Restaurant
As soon as you enter Arabian Night Restaurant, you will be attracted by the strong Arabian culture. Rich Arabian atmosphere will bring you to the mysterious country where Gene was said to live in a lamp. Arabian Night Restaurant is the first real Arabian restaurant. Here you can enjoy the pure Arabian flavor of all dishes, Hommos, Tubuli, Kabab, which are all specialties of the restaurant. The most gorgeous dish in Arabian Nights Restaurant is the Baked Whole Sheep. The whole sheep is from Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, filled with Thailand spices, green been. You are sure to enjoy the most delicious Baked Whole Sheep.
Style: East Cuisine

Dadi Western Restaurant
Set up in 1945, Dadi Western Restaurant is one of the earliest time-honored brands that provides Western food in Beijing. It is located in the West Changan Avenue and outstanding from the restaurants there by its authentic Russian food. The mural paintings are decorated on the wall, which overflows the full-bodied cultural atmosphere. When Dadi Western Restaurant began its business, it kept on the feature of the original Russian taste. The dishes are focused on the color, the oil, and salty taste. It is abundant in variety with high, medium and low grade, which is fit for the different customer-level, so it is named "affordable restaurant" by the local people. Feature dishes: Chicken Roll with Butter, Ham Salad, Jilin Pawn, Pan Fried Hodgepodge, Roast Mandarin Fish with Milk, Stewed Beef in Pot, King Bakemeat, borsch, Fried Pork Chop.

Leopard
As and international cafeteria, Leopard offered the most popular catering style around the world now. Without any hall, six open kitchens in Leopard presents American cuisine, Japanese cuisine, French cuisine, Taiwan cuisine, Hongkong cuisine and Chinese cuisine at the same time. Besides the large dinning hall there is also live music in Leopard creating a wonderful dinning environment for customers.
Style: International cafeteria

Moscow Russian Restaurant
"Moscow Restaurant, the beginning place for dreams", this is the big sign of Moscow Restaurant. Next to Beijing Exhibition Centre, Moscow Restaurant is the first western restaurant named "Laomo" friendly by local people. It mainly provides the Russian cuisine such as Russian foods, Ukrainian foods, Caucasian foods and there are other food, for example English Cuisine, French cuisine, Germany cuisine and Italian cuisine for you to choose. The taste here are well-known for faint scent, plateful, thick but not greasy. There are famous old songs such as The Evening at Moscow's Countryside, Red Berry Blossom, Road, in the hall to bring people back to the years of Vivia Ding.
Style: Russian Cuisine

Restaurant Maxim's Paris
If you want to enjoy the French culture and the soul of the French cuisine in Beijing, the Maxim's would be an excellent place to choose. Its first dish and soup will impress you greatly. The first dish including Roasted goose liver, Roasted plum rabbit meat, Orange juice prawn salad, Smoked salmon, Roasted Chinese mushroom and escargots and so on. Besides the delicious dished, Maxim's is also praised for its cake. From cream flavor, cocoa flavor, coffee flavor, fruit flavor to chocolate flavor, from wedding cake to birthday cake, Maxim's cakes are various shape, wonderful taste and reasonable price.
Style: French Cuisine

Salabor Korean Restaurant
As the coverage of the Korean Flow, the Korean food also comes to people's mind. Of course, Salabor Korea Restaurant is the principle destination for the Korean food's enthusiast. "Salabor"means" the holy land shined by the sun foremost in the morning". It is the representative of the traditional Korea Cate. Its scientific dinning contracture, genuine Korea taste, unique cooking craft as well as service make it turn into the famous dinning brand all over the world.
Style: Korea Cooking, Bake Beefsteak, Smoke Beef Fillet

Venice Italian Restaurant
Venice Italian Restaurant, located on the first floor of Kempinski Hotel in Beijing Lufthansa Center, is a nice restaurant offering the real Italian flavor and Middle East cuisine. The wholly Italian style decoration and fabulous dishes make you feel you are in Italian rather than Beijing. Pizza and pastas are the marked representatives of Italian. Here among the dozen of pizzas and pastas, the Fresh Seashell Mushroon and Seafood Pasta are the most popular. Here can also enjoy the Italian cuisine like Muskmelon and Ham, Bamboo Shoots Prawn Pasta, Orange Rainbow Fish, Fresh Scallop Rice and so on.
Style: Italian Restaurant,

Author/Editor By : Athena

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