Food and Drink

What a treat lies in store for food connoisseurs, there's so much to choose from. Listed here are some of the many cuisines available in the city.

 

1. Peking Duck

Essential to your Beijing dining experience is a brief tour of the many establishments offering Peking Duck: a delicious, lightly-smoked, rich meal complimented by pancakes, dipping sauce, vegetable filling and irresistible slivers of juicy meat, fat and crispy skin. Said to originate from Inner Mongolia, Peking Duck was first served in a Peking (Beijing) restaurant in 1855. The original recipe includes a description of how to build and fire an oven for smoking the bird!

The Quanjude Roast Duck Restaurant leads the popular duck front, and you'll find many of them in Beijing. Bianyifang Restaurant features another way of roasting duck also delicious.

A taste of Peking Duck is every bit as important as a visit to Tian'anmen Square.

2. Royal Cuisine (Gong Ting Cai)

As the name suggests, Royal Cuisine is composed of the recipes and dishes of the imperial kitchens, dating from the time of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

Originating from the regional cooking of the Manchu and Han people the cuisine pays as much attention to the quality of its ingredients as to its design. Dishes that have survived retain much of the culinary art of the royal kitchens and the best known are Tanjia and Honglou dishes, both lightly-flavored and exquisite.

The Man-Han Quan Xi, a feast of complete Manchu-Han courses, was originally designed as a court banquet for the Manchu and Han people. It included at least 108 dishes that had to be eaten over three days.

3. Imperial Cuisine (Guan Fu)

Old Beijing had many high-ranking officials demanding regional homemade cooking be served in the imperial courts. The result the flavours of China's regions came to the capital, much of which has survived. The cuisine favours natural ingredients, exquisite condiments, long cooking times and intricate cooking utensils.

Tanjia Restaurant is the best example of Beijing's Imperial Cuisine and provides a combination of Cantonese and Beijing cuisine featuring seafood. After the founding of the Republic, Premier Zhou Enlai asked that the restaurant move to the Beijing Hotel, the best hotel in China at that time. Imperial Cuisine is still available there today on the seventh floor of Building C of the hotel.

4. Hotpot

When autumn hits Beijing and the weather cools, hotpot is a firm favourite.

With essentially two kinds of hotpot restaurant in Beijing, Mongolian and Sichuan styles dominate, the staple of both being mutton.

Spicy Sichuan hotpot divides into half-spicy, half-not while the Mongolian hotpot is not spicy, and usually consists of vegetables and seafood. The pot itself is made of brass, with a wide outer rim where charcoal burns to heat the stock liquid. Once boiling, the stock is used to quickly cook a range of ingredients. After a few seconds the meat and vegetables are ready to eat and dipped in a smooth sesame butter sauce that is delicious and incredibly filling! Sichuan hotpot can be very spicy but also always delicious.

5. Snacks

All over China, snack food from the street-side is tasty and filling. Some caution may be required for the uninitiated but in general, eating where everyone else is eating is a good rule of thumb. You can have steamed bread with bean filling; flour pancakes cooked with egg, coriander, chilli, and black onion seeds; pancakes stuffed with pork, egg and vegetables. These gems can be bought from little glass cabinet's on the back of three-wheeled bicycles or from stands on street corners, hidden down leafy hutongs.

6. Regional Cuisines

Beijing is a culinary mirror held up to the four main geographic divisions that divide Chinese cuisine: South China's Canton, North China's Peking and Shanghai to the East and Sichuan to the West.

Rich in natural resources and neighbouring the sea, Cantonese cuisine is dominated by the pleasures of seafood and the produce of a semi-tropical climate. Shanghai cuisine has much of the extremes experienced in the sharp contrasts of the weather and local flavour, rich and diverse, is found in crab soup, knuckle of pork and red-cooked lamb. Szechuan cuisine is very popular in China and has been so since the Ming Dynasty. Composed of regional variations from Chengdu, Chongqing and Zigong, it is known for having over 50 different cooking methods. Temple vegetarian dishes are also a feature.

7. World Cuisine

Visitors to Beijing wanting Western food will be able to find it, even if the quality is not always what's hoped for. Mediterranean food is plentiful, as is food from the rest of Europe and the US. Immediately to mind come Steak n Eggs (US), Grandmas (US), Annie's (Italy) and Nuage (France/Vietnam), all established names on the city's World Cuisine circuit.

Dining in the luxury and traditional Chinese courtyards is a trendy thing for both locals and visitors.

Courtyard restaurants

Royal Palace皇城食府

Inside Changpuhe Park, east of the Forbidden City, Dongcheng District

东城区菖蒲河公园内

Tel: +86 10 8511 5372

 

Tianqu Garden 天趣园

Inside Changpuhe Park, Dongcheng District

东城区菖蒲河公园

Tel: +86 10 8511 5142

 

Tian and Di Restaurant 天地一家食府

140 Nanchizi Dajie, Dongcheng District

东城区南池子大街140号

Tel: +86 10 8511 5557

 

La Cité French Restaurant 紫禁阁西餐厅

115 Nanchizi Dajie, Dongcheng District

东城区南池子大街115号

Tel: +86 10 8511 5142

 

Lu Ying Fang Ting Club绿荫芳庭会所

Inside Changpuhe Park, Dongcheng District

东城区菖蒲河公园

Tel: +86 10 8511 5372

 

Gegefu Restaurant砚逸善斋（格格府）餐馆

9 Daqudeng Hutong, Dongcheng District

东城区大取灯胡同9号

Tel: +86 10 6407 8001

 

Cuihualou Restaurant萃华楼饭庄

6 Lianzi Hutong, Dongcheng District

东城区帘子胡同6号

Tel: +86 10 8404 3851

 

Guigongfu  桂公府

11 Fanjiayuan Hutong, east from Chaoyangmen Nanxiaojie, Dongcheng District

东城区方家胡同11号

Tel: +86 10 6512 7667

 

Baguobuyi  巴国布衣风味酒楼

89-3 Di’anmen Dong Dajie, Dongcheng District

东城区地安门东大街89-3号

Tel: +86 10 6400 8888

 

Han Zhen Yuan涵珍园

20 Qinlao Hutong, Dongcheng District

东城区秦老胡同20号

Tel: +86 10 8402 2324

 

Hua Jia Yi Yuan花家怡园

235 Dongzhimen Nei Dajie, Dongcheng District

东直门内大街235号

Tel: +86 10 6405 1908

 

Yuefu Restaurant乐府酒楼

218 Dongzhimen Nei Dajie, Dongcheng District

东直门内大街218号

Tel: +86 10 8403 9067

 

Qian Hou Yuan乾厚苑

2 Nanwanzi Hutong, Nanheyan Dajie, Dongcheng District

东城区南河沿大街南湾子胡同2号

Tel: +86 10 6514 0901

 

Zi Jing Shi Kuo紫京食阔餐厅

118 Yanyue Hutong, Dongcheng District

东城区演乐胡同118号

Tel: +86 10 6512 3258

 

Noble Club北京乙十六号商务会所

B 16, Hepingli Zhongjie, Dongcheng District

东城区和平里中街乙16号

Tel: +86 10 6428 1188

 

Red Capital Club 北京新红资

66 Dongsi Jiutiao, Dongcheng District

东城区东四九条66号

Tel: +86 10 6402 7150/1/2

 

Lijia Cuisine 厉家菜

11 Yangfang Hutong, Deshengmen Dajie, Xicheng District

西城区德胜门大街羊坊胡同11号

Tel: +86 10 6618 0107

 

Tanyuan Imperial Cuisine 谭园官家宴

10 Huguosi, Xicheng District

西城区护国寺10号院

Tel: +86 10 6617 7098

 

Meijia Cuisine 梅府家宴

24 Daxiangfeng Hutong, Xicheng District

西城区大翔凤胡同24号

Tel: + 86 10 6612 6845