Beijing Restaurant Tips by mke1963 Top 5 Page for this destination

Sculpting in Time Cafe: Sculpting in Time

I have debated for a seriously long time about whether to write a tip about S.I.T, but as it seems to be well and truly on the tourist map now, there seems no point not to!

This is simply one of my favourite places. I can't quite put my finger on why, because the service is often slow and a bit sloppy, but it just has the right atmosphere....good mix of Chinese and foreigners, relaxing, slightly bizarre furnishings, but it feels "light" (as compared to the gloominess of SPR next door).

This is where I go (from the office or home) if I need peace and quiet and good background music, with a decent coffee. They do a fairly wide range of food (deli style + pasta) and good coffee.

Favorite Dish: Note that if you order a large coffee it comes in a rather unwieldy soup bowl. The small size is a good-sized mug.
The banana smoothie is recommended by my daughter, who knows a good smoothie apparently. I intend following up on exactly how she knows this.

Address: Jiangtai Road

Comparison: about average

Directions: In the Hairun Condominium, south of the road that runs past the Lido Hotel *main* entrance. It's the big modern building on the right at the lights.

They actually have 5 locations in Beijing

Phone: 010 5135 8108

Price: less than US$10

Rating: 4

Theme: Coffeehouse

Pink Loft: Pink Loft Pink Loft Review

The Pink Loft is one of Beijing's better known Thai restaurants, set in a cavernous building. Each of th floors seems suspended in the air, and glass floors in parts accentuate this.
The service is good and a tremendous variety of Thai food is available.

I only ever seem to go here at lunchtime, when it is a fairly quiet place for a business lunch. In the evening I understand it can be very difficult to get a table between 5.30 and 7.30 and it is much more lively.

Favorite Dish: I'm no expert on Thai food...I like it all!

Address: Sanlitun Nan Lu

Comparison: about average

Directions: The restaurant is situated on the street south of Jiuba Jie (Bar street), on Sanlitun Nan Lu.

Price: less than US$10

Rating: 3

Theme: Pan-Asian and Pacific Rim

Bento & Berries: Bento & Berries

Bento & Berries is a slightly oddball deli - basically a cake shop - on the ground foor of the Kerry Centre Hotel.
It opened earlier this year, and the huge glass window full of cakes is a real crowd-puller. But they're fake......yep. Every last one of them is fake, as I discovered when I went in to buy one.

While they claim to have them all in stock "at some time", you can only order what is available in the chiller under the counter inside. The evening I went, there were no full cakes left (which is what I needed), only small tarts. Hmmmmmmmm.

Anyway, the tarts were good....kiwi and custard and raspberry and custard, but it's really not the same thing.

Address: Ground floor, Kerry Centre Hotel

Comparison: most expensive

Directions: 1 Guanghua Lu

Phone: 010 6561 8833

Price: less than US$10

Rating: 3

Theme: Deli

Alameda [Brazilian]: Alameda [Brazilian]

Having tried several times before to get into Alameda - unsuccessfully - we decided to go early. We are always too lazy and not punctual enough to ever make a reservation.
We were there early (7pm) and still they were sniffy about taking us. We had to promise to be out by 8.30pm. It seemed a bit odd because it was largely empty. (It is usually very full)

Although a Brazilian restaurant, the menu didn't seem Brazilian at all, and most of the dishes seemed "generally international".

There is a set menu, with a choice of about ten starters and around ten main courses, for a set RMB128 per head and then a range of about ten desserts for RMB20-50 each.

The food arrived very fast...too fast really....and was rapidly followed by the main course. I've aited longer at fast-food chains than this. It all felt a little bit too rushed and we felt a little comfortable. We were finished by 8pm.

The food was very well prepared but note that this is a "cuisine" place: the portions are rather small (especially the desserts) and when we got home we raided the fridge because we were still hungry.

My personal feeling is that we would not go back. While the price is reasonable for what you get and the atmosphere is intimate and classy, if you need food when you leave it rather defeats the point of being a restaurant.

Favorite Dish: The baked banana in filo pastry was great, but it disappeared in two bites. Really it was a "small piece of baked banana in a small piece of filo pastry"

Comparison: more expensive than average

Directions: In the small alleyway (next to Jazz-ya if you know it) off the west side of Sanlitun Beilu.

Price: US$21-30

Rating: 2

Theme: Eclectic/International

Eudora Station: Eudora Station

One of the many new upmarket Western restaurants-cum-outdoor bars appearing around the Lido in the last year or two.
The Eudora Station tries hard but the menu is a bit insipid: a few good things but 90% is mind-bogglingly ordinary.

Eudora is expensive. Very expensive...for very ordinary food. RMB269 for a steak. These kinds of prices are absurd.

Favorite Dish: The deep-fried brie, and some of the quirky salads.

Address: Opposite the Starbucks (back) entrance to Lido

Comparison: most expensive

Price: US$31-40

Rating: 2

Theme: Steakhouse

Athena: Athena

I'm not a fan of Greek restaurants. I spent much of my childhood in Cyprus, and the food doesn't come much better than in restaurants there. Ever since, Greek food has been a bitter disappointment.

But Athena, in the up and coming "Far North" Sanlitun area creates a good, lasting impression. maybe it's the streetside atmosphere, reminiscent of dusty streets in Limassol and Paphos (Errrrrr. In a way!).

The pavement is crowded now the weather is warmer, and that always makes a difference at Greek restaurants. Greek food is supposed to be eaten off rickety old tables out in the street among the honking cars. Although I could miss the Tibetan hawkers.

The lunch buffet was good value at RMB 58 for as much as you can eat. There was a good salad, and a small selection of hot dishes, including some excellent roast pork.

You know winter is over in Beijing when you are sitting out on the street for lunch, and that's always a good sign.

Address: Xi Wu Jie Sanlitun

Comparison: about average

Directions: The street south of the Sanlitun Friendship Store, along from the SOS hospital.

Phone: 6464 6036

Price: less than US$10

Rating: 4

Theme: Other

Thank Goodness It's Friday's: Thank Goodness It's Friday's - NOW CLOSED

UPDATE: TGIF on the East Third Ring Road has closed. The building is being demolished.

Yo! It's American time and the best way to bribe the kids to do something is to promise dinner at TGIF. Especially as I refuse to go near Hard Rock Cafe.
TGIF is like McDonalds with cutlery, serving up standardised globalised food, but its always served well, cooked well and the decoration is all American.
TGIF is awlays full and always mainly locals out in their finery with their families. TGIF is not a bajio and shark's fin soup laoban lunchtime haunt: it's much more laid-back.
The service is invariably slow, but, as I inferred, the kids love it and when they have had a week of banqueting, mifan and deep fried mandarin fish, it's worth the change.

Favorite Dish: There's something about the Jack Daniels sauce that comes with a lot of the dishes. The margeritas are passable, but nothing special.

Address: 19 East Third Ring Road

Comparison: more expensive than average

Directions: TGIF sits all stripey and glowing on the East 3rd Ring Road, between Dongzhimen and Guanghua Lu.
Also at Asian Games Village and Zhonggancun Nandajie in Haidian

Phone: 6597 5314

Price: US$11-20

Rating: 3

Theme: American

Steak and Eggs II: Steak and Eggs II Steak and Eggs Review

Paul has opened a second Steak and Eggs on Guangshun Bei Lu, out in the Beigao suburbs in expat country.
This updated review results in a serious downgrading of the satisfaction level here. Twice now we have been disappointed by the service and now, this last weekend, came close to walking out. The food order was completely messed up and the waitress blamed it on us (we had commented at the time that she wasn't writing it down!!) and then the manageress told us that it was our fault because (and I quote) "the menu is completely wrong". Jeez!!!
With a number of shops and restaurants moving in around the ever-expanding Western Academy of Beijing campus, it is no surprise that Paul, the ever affable Canadian decided to expand to the 'burbs. Paul opened the first Beijing Steak and Eggs by accident when SARS prevented him from travelling around China on a planned holiday! (The orginal S&E is in Daytona Beach).

Favorite Dish: Typical and substantial diner fare, including all-day breakfasts, fry-ups, grits, oatmeal, big mugs of "Paul's special coffee' and pie to finish it off.

Address: Guangshun Bei Lu

Comparison: about average

Directions: Past WAB, opposite Lane Bridge Villas.

Phone: 6592 8088

Price: less than US$10

Rating: 1

Theme: Diner

Adria: Adria (@ Lai Tai) Adria Review

Little branch of a restaurant that has several branches across the city, Adria has a simple, short menu of Italian staples - nothing adventurous but everything reliable.

It is at the entrance to the appallingly named Lady Dressing Street (known locally by many as Cross Dressing Street), don not confuse the Adria as the source of the pumping loud music, as I did for a year. The noise is coming from the little market immediately behind it. The Adria is soundproofed and you can't hear or feel a single note inside.

The restaurat is good for people watching as there are full plate glass windows along the entire wall, but do remember, if you are a laowai, that people-watching is a two way process!

Coffee gets only 5 out of 10 but is the best place locally, until you get down to the Kempinski.

Favorite Dish: Nothing spectacular; all reliable. Everything will be ready in 5 minutes.

Address: Tianzhe Lu

Comparison: less expensive than average

Directions: At the entrance to Lady Dressing Street on the left, basically the first building to the north of the new US Embassy complex.

Price: less than US$10

Rating: 3

Theme: Italian

San Carlos Cafe: San Carlos Cafe

In the bowels of the Kerry Centre, is the San Carlos. While almost every sngle shop and restaurant in this small mall has changed in the last four years, the San Carlos (and the nearvy South Beauty) remain unchanged and much loved. Admtedly, this is not a hangout for China's youth or trendy, it is the unchtime snack and coffee place for the (manly foreign) business types from the Kerry Centre's huge office complex.
It's not really heavy on ambience, and the small tables make it impractical for large groups - basically more than two! - it just has the forumula right: good sandwiches, a smal selection of hot courses and ood ol' fashioned coffee in a chipped mug. If taste is what you want in your food or coffee, and you are in the Kerry Centre/Guanghua Lu area, then you could do worse than the San Carlos. The staff are attentive, friendly and a breathe of fresh air in Beijing's service-starved restaurant sector. If you are the type to sit and read a book all day, nursing a cup of coffee, then - again - San Carlos will do you fine. After four hours you look up, and the staff are still beaming at you and will get your second cup.

Favorite Dish: Deespite havig a small menu and being a bit cramped, I'd would rate this as the "nicest" place in Beijing for its simplicity, friendliness, charm and good snacks. Basically, I'd hire any one of their five staff in a flash if I was starting a restaurant.

Address: Kerry Centre, Guanghua Lu

Comparison: less expensive than average

Directions: Lower level mall

Price: less than US$10

Rating: 5

Theme: Deli