Dinner in Beijing and Shanghai

J

Jeff Grossman

Jeff Grossman
This is on my budget, not work's.

My partner and I are visiting China later this month. We decided to go with the Smithsonian's package so we're not really in charge of the schedule, the hotels, or much of anything... but I suspect they'll do a nice job of it. If nothing else, the tour leader has some credibility.

However, we do have two evenings free in each of Beijing and Shanghai. What to do, what to do? (The tour includes a Beijing Duck dinner, but I don't know where. Maybe I should call.)

I've been reading TimeOut Beijing/Shanghai, which seem very frequently updated but kinda amateurish. Eileen Mooney seems professional enough but who can tell? The foodie tour itinerary doesn't give enough details. Lots of other sites (in English) don't seem up to date.

I recall that a few folks hereabouts know something about these towns so I would appreciate any guidance you may offer. Thank you.
 
I had amazing food at both restaurants at the Fairmont Hotel in Beijing. Wonderfun Chinese food in the basement, and The Cut steakhouse was awesome. If your travels take you through HK there are tons of one, two and three star restaurants. I thought Amber was incredible with its two stars, better than Lung King Heen with its three.
 
originally posted by Charlie Carnes:
I had amazing food at both restaurants at the Fairmont Hotel in Beijing.
Click to expand...
Thanks, Charlie. The Fairmont site says The Cut is still going strong although they've "re-branded" the Chinese resto downstairs.
 
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
HiatusStarts tomorrow. See you back here in a few weeks.
Click to expand...

I've been dealing with the end-of-semester, but I guess I need to post this now:

One of the more interesting places we ate while in Beijing two years ago was Guo Yao Xiao Ju, a small place that serves some sort of imperial cuisine. They served an amazing fish belly soup and an excellent home-made dried sausage. The rest of the meal was very good, too.

Also in Beijing, we went to the Din Tai Fung restaurant at 87 Jianguo Road, Chaoyang, located in an expensive mall on the 1 subway line. Din Tai Fung is an upscale Taiwanese dumpling restaurant chain with multiple Beijing locations, one of many such fancy chains that are popular in Chinese cities. The food was good, but it was also interesting to walk around the mall and to see the evidence of growing Chinese wealth.

In Shanghai, we had an excellent, distinctive meal at the Bund location of Lost Heaven, which had been written up in the New York Times. They specialize in the food of ethnic groups from the southwestern part of Yunnan. We ate in the fairly sedate first-floor dining room. If you do go, take a look at the upstairs dining room and the roof lounge, which in contrast is a loud, hip international scene.

It's also fun to wander around and try street food or drop in to small restaurants. We liked to buy breads for breakfast from a guy in Shanghai who had a little hole-in-the-wall place along either Beijing East Road or the next street south, between the Bund and Sichuan Middle Road - he had a vertical oven on the street, and you could get flat, oval-shaped breads fresh out of the oven for maybe a yuan apiece. We had a delicious dish of fried pork belly with onions, cumin, and coriander leaf in a Beijing hutong restaurant. I don't know if hipster retro-Mao Hunanese restaurants with servers dressed as Red Guards are still popular, but I ate at a very good one in Nanjing with a couple of my students, and at a decent one in Shanghai on Sichuan Middle Road.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top