Beijing Restaurants
Thought I'd share some information about some good food I had in Beijing...if you google any of these restaurant names, you will find addresses, etc. Check these places out if you find yourself in Beijing!Hai Di Lao Hot Pot (海底捞火锅) - Thanks to Sabrina (Chong Zhang) for taking Xiong and I to this great hot pot restaurant. It's a chain, with quite a few restaurants in Beijing, and is known for its good service. The service has to be some of the best I've had in China. I'm not sure that the hot pot was remarkable, but it was good, and there is a sauce bar where you can create your own dipping sauce. They also gave us some free fruit due to either the fact that I am a foreigner or that it was Xiong's first night in Beijing. They then decided that they should give us a tour of the kitchen. We could see why they are proud of it, it was quite clean, modern, and efficient (not always words I associate with Beijing). They also have someone who knows quite an acrobatic show of making hand pulled noodles. Definitely a fun experience for my first night back in China!
Din Tai Fung (鼎泰丰) - "the" place for Xiaolongbao (Shanghai dumplings), according to my boss (whose food advice I usually heed). The restaurant actually comes from Taiwan (which I'm sure will not pass muster with Shanghainese), but has stores in Beijing, Shanghai, etc. If you don't have a chance to get to Shanghai, you should definitely check out Din Tai Fung in Beijing. It's busy, so make a reservation! The menu is not that interesting besides the Xiao Long Bao, of which there were two kinds, although I don't remember what the difference was. The skin is so thin, and there is plenty of soup inside. Xiaolongbao are really fun to eat!
Great Wall Restaurant (长城酒家) - A Chinese restaurant that brews its own beer. Definitely haven't encountered that before. The food was good as well, especially a dish of pork stir fried with tea leaves and diced quail served on lettuce, as an appetizer type dish (unfortunately, I didn't do the ordering, so I'm not sure of the Chinese names). It's definitely worth a visit, due to its uniqueness, but the price was rather high and the atmosphere nothing too special.
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