China
From a
dining perspective you could compare Beijing
and Shanghai to
Washington
and New York. Shanghia has a lot
more expats, is really the business centre and is
striving for international elegance. In Beijing places are mostly catering for locals and
government types, and foreigners seem something of a rarity, which is rather
surprising given it is the capital: we were stared at
openly almost everywhere we went in Beijing, but
not at all in Shanghai,
which is trying for more sophistication.
While in Beijing
you should see the magnificent wall, but try and avoid the Badaling
section, which is rather tacky. There
are five sections in all open to the public near Beijing, and Mutianyu
is only a little further and has far less tourists. Try and find a clear day if you can (sadly a
rare thing in Beijing). The Summer Palace
is also well worth the trip, on a beautiful lake. The Forbidden City
is the other must-see while in Beijing. If you have limited time, you could perhaps
skip the Temple
of Heaven and visit a Hutong, one of the old walled areas of Beijing; you can get rickshaw tours and get
at least a hint of what life was like before most of the city was bulldozed and
made over with concrete.
See my
hotels section for where to stay: in summary, the Grand Hyatt in Beijing was superb, and
the Four Season Shanghai excellent. Avoid the highly rated Peninsula Palace
in Beijing due
to the unbelievably hard beds.
I am
indebted to the following web site:
http://bubbler.net/lin/Beijing_Restaurant_Reviews/
for
recommending many of the places that I visited; I’d highly recommend it as the
places it picked out were just as in his excellent reviews. First a little on the
different style of Chinese cooking.
Beijing: varied, but generally involving quite rich
sauces and featuring meat more than some styles.
Cantonese: fresh ingredients, quick stir-frying and
steaming are used to preserve the flavours of ingredients.
Dongbei: thick sauces and stews
characterise cooking from this area
Guizhou: flavours that are spicy and
somewhat tart; tends not to use much onion or ginger
Hakka: emphasises the natural taste of fresh
ingredients (central China)
Huaiyang: unusually, elaborate presentation
is a feature
Hunan: known for freshwater fish, thick soups and
pungent flavours; pepper, shallots and chilli feature heavily
Mongolian: get used to lamb and mutton
Shandong: emphasis on fragrance, light dishes using a
lot of garlic and shallots; lots of seafood dishes
Shanghai: delicate flavours sometimes with a sweet
taste
Shanxi: stews feature heavily, as do noodles rather
than rice
Sichuan: very spicy, with heavy use of chillis, pepper, garlic and ginger.
Taiwan: lots of seafood, a light style using lots of
ginger and basil
Tanjia:
elaborate dishes and presentation
Tibetan: mutton and yak meat
Xinjiang: skewered lamb and flat bread; no pork as this
is a Muslim area
Yunnan light use of spices and emphasis on
fresh ingredients
Zhejiang: light dishes emphasising fragrance
Beijing
Courtyard
Address: 95 Donghuamen
Ave, (east gate of the Forbidden City), Beijing, 100027 China
Telephone: +86 (0)10 6526 8883
Literally
just outside the outer wall of the Forbidden City,
this place refutes the notion that eating in Beijing is unsophisticated. The décor could easily be from somewhere in London and New York, while the
cooking is genuine fusion rather than traditional Chinese. Peking duck spring rolls
were excellent (4/10) but a soup with a tamarind broth and water chestnuts
tasted of neither (0/10), Better was salmon with broccoli mash and
peppers, and a pork dish with tempura had delicate tempura and a tasty slab of
pork. Overall 3/10. They have an extensive wine list with some very
serious wines from around the world, and a knowledgeable sommelier.
Made in China
Address: 95 Grand Hyatt Hotel
Telephone: +86 (0)10 6526 8883
Easily the best restaurant we encountered in China. It is tucked away on the ground floor of the
excellent Grand Hyatt hotel, and is famed for its Beijing Duck. The décor is
very smart, with a long thin layout.
When booking ask for a table opposite the open kitchen, so that you can
see what is going on. You walk past a
cabinet of attractively displayed vegetable produce, past wood-fired ovens and
through into an open kitchen area. We
started with a very simple dish of braised cabbage in soy sauce, and as soon as
I tasted this I knew that we were in a serious restaurant: the cabbage was
remarkably fresh, cooked perfectly to retain crispness, and the soy dressing
was very well balanced; this kind of treatment of vegetables is something you
rarely encounter outside of top French restaurants in France (7/10). Hot and sour soup was also in a different
league to what one associated with this dish: no oiliness, just crisp, clean
flavours balancing the heat of the chilli with the sourness of the vinegar,
excellent pieces of seafood in the soup and a garnish of fresh herbs
(6/10). Spicy prawns were also very fine
indeed, the prawns large and fresh, marinated and cooked through very well,
coated in a delicious spicy sauce (6/10).
However pride of place goes to the Beijing Duck. The duck arrives at the table glistening, and
is carved in front of you into a selection of the skin, the breast meat and the
legs, which are served with the traditional pancakes. The duck skin was truly amazing, succulent,
crispy yet full of flavour. The breast
meat, quite light in colour, could have come from a 3 star Michelin restaurant;
it was magnificent. The pancakes were
wafer thin and the traditional sauce was also far more interesting than the
usual. I do not think this could be
improved upon, and so I have to give this 10/10. Overall I would rate this restaurant 8/10,
easily the best Chinese food I have ever eaten.
We were so impressed that we cancelled another reservation and came back
on our last night and it was no fluke: I had the duck again and it was also
perfect. If you only go to one
restaurant in Beijing,
go to this one. Go there early in you
trip, as you may just want to never go anywhere else.
P.S. Just opposite
the restaurant, still in the hotel, is the delightful Red Moon bar, with live
jazz.
Nam Nam
Address: 7, Sanlitun Bei Lu, Chaoyang District
Telephone: +86 (0)10 6468 6053
In Sanlitun Bei Jie, near Capital Mansions is a lovely
Vietnamese restaurant, situated on a shopping street but from the inside it is
decked out in the style of an old
French colonial mansion. Try and find a
taxi who knows where this is, as our driver got utterly lost (though to be
fair, he asked around and eventually delivered us). The tables are generous and widely spread,
and there are plenty of tropical plants.
We had excellent Vietnamese spring rolls, light and crispy but they
avoided the hardness of the pastry which so often afflicts this dish. Prawns were delicate and carefully cooked,
while a Vietnamese fish special was well cooked and had vibrant spicing. Excellent and cheap. Service was pleasant and friendly, and the
dishes arrived at an almost scary pace, so perhaps not the place for a relaxed
evening. Easily 2/10.
Shanghai
Three on the Bund
Address: 3 Zhong Shang Dong Yi Road, Shanghai
Telephone: +86 21 6223 3355
This is one
of the glorious 1920s colonial buildings, which in 2004 was restored and
converted into an art gallery and designer shopping emporium, with four
restaurants. The 7th floor
roof terrace has a fabulous view over the river and Pudong, and is perfect for
a relaxing drink. The restaurants are
Laris, New Heights, the Whampoa Club, and Jean
Georges (outpost of the New York
chef Jeans Georges Vongvichteren). On the top of the building is a little
cupola, which has been cleverly converted into two private dining rooms, each
with just one table. The upper cupula
has a table for two, the lower one a table for up to eight. In these you can eat a menu prepared by any
of the restaurants, or indeed even mix and match courses if you wish. We ate from Jean Georges:
Egg Caviar
Sea Scallops with Caper-Raisin
Emulsion, Caramelized Cauliflower
Young Garlic Soup with Thyme, Sautéed
Frog Legs
Turbot, Château
Chalon Sauce, Tomato and Zucchini
Lobster Tartine, Lemongrass, Fenugreek
Broth, Pea Shoots
Broiled Squab, Onion Compote, Sautéed
Foie Gras, Corn Pancake
Dessert Tasting
Which as
you can see gives you a chance to sample several dishes. Jean Georges is known for its use of spices
with more classical dishes, and indeed this was on show tonight e.g. the
lobster with lemongrass had very distinct spices. The ingredients were very good and the
technical execution generally capable, though the scallops were rather
overcooked. Desserts were an excellent mix of chocolate dishes, including a
fine chocolate fondant. Overall 5/10 for
the food, but the great thing here is the setting. You of course are entirely on your own except
for your waiter, and you look out over the river. Be aware that this is an original old cupola,
so the view is actually rather restricted through the windows, though of course
you only have to step outside for a breather between courses and you have the
rooftop bar area. The waiter informed us
that Tom Cruise ate here three times while shooting Mission Impossible 3, and
Michael Schumacher also came here. You
have the sense from this that it is a bit of an unusual novelty rather than a
pure dining destination, but it is a seriously romantic setting.
See:
http://www.threeonthebund.com/
T8
Address: No. 8 Xintiandi North Part, Lane 181 Tai Cang Road Shanghai,
200021
Telephone: +86 (0)21 6355 8999
Tucked away in the charming
pedestrianised French quarter (Xintiandi), this is perhaps the smartest place
that Shanghai
has to offer, along with 3 on the Bund (above).
The décor is as smart as anything in London, and the menu tries for sophisticated
fusion, with an Australian chef. Chairs
are comfortable, the service is exemplary, and the prices also match London. This was full of expats living in Shanghai. The food itself was very good, with some
delicate scallops, top class prawns in Szechuan
style with carefully controlled spices, and good fish. However there seemed to me just a hint of
style over substance here. The cooking
was around 3/10 in my usual marking system, which is OK but quite a lot of
money.
Si Ji Xuan
Address: Four Seasons Hotel, 500 Weihai Road, Shanghai 200041 Shanghai
Telephone: +86 (21) 6256-8888
One of six restaurants in the Four Seasons
hotel, this does Shanghai
cuisine as well as Cantonese dishes, from a very large menu. The cooking is fine and the décor and service
excellent, but this is really no better than the cooking in plenty of places in
Chinatown in London.
Beijing Duck was just the one you would expect, not in the same world as
the magnificent one at the Made in China in Beijing. Overall, a pleasant enough place if
you are staying at the Four Seasons and you want a rest from dealing with Shanghai taxi drivers,
but not worth making a special journey (1/10).
Dim sum was quite good, perhaps 2/10.