Secret Gardens in Bustling Beijing

Bustling Beijing no doubt offers much convenience for consumers. For example, you can savour authentic international cuisines every day in the city’s restaurants, though they are sometimes crowded with international diners. Beijing This Month (BTM) will introduce three restaurants offering not only delicious food but also a tranquil ambience. These restaurants are in busiest areas: La Papaya in Chaoyangmen, Cool Roast in the Asian Games Village and the Garden of Delights in Wangfujing, but they impressed BTM, because, like secret gardens, they are places where diners can get great food and enjoy a tranquil and refreshing moment.

La Papaya

The Kuntai International Mansion is a catering hub in the Chaoyangmen area. Industry giants like McDonald's operate outlets here, and boutique independent restaurants are also gathered here. La Papaya is an outstanding one among them.

The restaurant is decorated in bright and pure colours, such as purple, green, red and yellow. Its tables and chairs are black. Colours work harmoniously, so the ambience is perfect for either formal dinners or casual get-togethers. The restaurant is not a large one, but you can find two private rooms on the second floor, separated from other spaces by glass and gauze.

The menu offers typical Thai food, such as Tom yam Kung or spicy shrimp soup (28 yuan per diner) and the restaurant's own creation like black sticky rice and sweet papaya in coconut milk (18 yuan per diner). Its chef has worked for star hotels for nearly two decades; so you can trust that your taste buds will get an excellent treat.

Neighbouring more than ten other office buildings, La Papaya presents business set lunch starting from 20 yuan, including a meat dish, a vegetable dish, a salad, a soup, rice and free lemon water.

Tel: +86 10 5879 0504, 1380 106 7444 (English service)

Address: No. 14, ground floor, Kuntai International Mansion

 

Cool Roast Food

The appropriately named Cool Roast Food is a cool fusion-style barbecue restaurant. It features a wide range of meat and vegetable shashliks, plus a large collection of Chinese and overseas wines. Skewered mushroom are a favourite dish, particularly among professional women diners, which preserves not only the fresh fragrance but also the moisture and nutrition beneficial for beauty care. Diners can find common items on the wine list such as beer and rare spirits like vodka.

The restaurant also features a variant of the Chinese hotpot, in which skewered vegetables are boiled at the table by diners themselves. There are also live-band performances on the restaurant's second floor at night.

The restaurant is delicately decorated in a fusion style, without the smoky atmosphere of most barbecue restaurants. Tableware is printed with the restaurant’s logo and hieroglyph.

 

Garden of Delights

The Garden of Delights is located on the west end of Beijing's popular Donghuamen snack street. Compared with this noisy on "Eat Street," it is a true "Garden of Delights."

Famous architect Antonio Ochoa-Piccardo was invited to create an Eden for lovers of Latin American recipes. The architect was inspired by the "Garden of Earthly Delights," Hieronymus Bosch's 15th century masterpiece painting and designed the restaurant with warm lightening, flowing tender waterfalls, wood floors and brick-like walls in a spacious high-ceilinged garden setting. At one end of the restaurant are two huge beer buckets. Try to find what they are for yourself!

Renowned Venezuelan chef Edgar Leal, now based in Miami, presents a contemporary interpretation of traditional Latin American cuisines. The appetizer and main course menus feature Latin ingredients such as black beans, mango, passion fruit and even chocolate. Diners cannot afford to miss the wine list, which has a wide range of offerings, from red and white wines to champagne and sparkling wine, sherry, gin, rum, tequila and whiskies.

It is also an ideal destination for seafood lovers, where they can find superb food, perfect service and a ceviche bar, sea delicacies marinated in citrus juices and various spices.

Tel: +86 10 5138 5688

Address: 53 Donganmen Dajie, Dongcheng District