Archive for the ‘Beijing’ CategoryV Rating: VVVVV Xu Xiang Zhai Vegetarian Restaurant is a great place for vegetarians to enjoy an all you can eat chinese buffet. An extensive range of foods are provided from soups, stir fries, casseroles, hot pots and sushi. Many of these incorporate faux-meat substitutes. The buffet also includes asian desserts, soft drink, ice tea, and coffee. It is best to arrive early, as we arrived around 7.30pm and found the selection to be a little luke warm and much picked over by the many chinese diners filling the restaurant. The restaurant itself is nicely set out, with small alcoves lining the side of the room and the buffet presented at the front. Individual dishes can be ordered, in particular cook-it-yourself vegetarian hot pots seemed to be very popular with the other customers. Downstairs from the restaurant, in the cafe, a small selection of vegetarian and organic ingredients are on sale. - Anth from Temporary Dwellings.
V Rating: Super V Still Thoughts is tucked away in a hutong down a hutong but is well worth the search. Run by Buddhists this restaurant serves excellent dishes with no meat, onion and garlic. A range of faux-meat dishes are on offer, and it is an excellent way for vegetarians to get a taste of traditional Chinese dishes without actually eating the meat versions. Our favourite dishes include entree serves of “pork” sausages (complete with fake fatty bits), which were described by my carnivorous dining partner as the meatiest non meat food he had ever eaten, and muslim style lamb shashliks deep fried and covered in cumin. For the mains we had a wonderful eggplant dish served on a sizzling plate stuffed with “mince meat” and “pork” bits and a dish of “beef” coated in cumin and sesame seeds deep fried and served on a cow shaped hot plate with fresh coriander. Still Thoughts is a newcomer to the Beijing Buddhist vegetarian scene and rated as one of my favourites. The staff were very helpful and the menu had both photos and english descriptions. A range of herbal teas are available very cheaply at 8 yuan a teapot. - Anth from Temporary Dwellings.
V Rating: Super V We only just found Baihe Vegetarian Restaurant. Like many good Beijing restaurants it is hidden down a hutong (alleyway). After our search on bicycles through the busy streets we were happily met by an oasis of calm, soothing background music and Buddhist literature. We walked through a sunny courtyard and dining room before settling in a comfortable corner in a room at the back of the restaurant. We perused the menu to find a range of beautifully presented Chinese dishes with faux-meat substitutes. The menu is all in mandarin but photos are provided. We weren’t always exactly sure what we were ordering but it was unfailingly tasty each time!
On our first trip to this restaurant we had a light lunch of fresh salad with cucumber, capsicum and mint with a sesame oil dressing and tasty smoked firm tofu served with a chilli and sesame sauce and brown rice noodles with a chilli oil dressing. The tofu dish was a little oily, but still a refreshing change from the usual heavy, oil ladened chinese food I had eaten so far. On subsequent visits we had more substantial meals with dishes such as faux-deep fried pork ribs (complete with pretend bone made of some soy product!) with a mushroom and pineapple sweet and sour sauce and stir fried pork sausage with fresh beans. One clear stand-out dish was the somewhat mysterious, but utterly delicious, dish of mushroom chunks with a sweet apple and chilli sauce presented on a hot plate with roasted peanuts, dried chillis and spicy peppercorns. The flavours were strong and contrasted excellently with the burnt taste of the chilli, the sweet sauce and the peppercorns. I am not sure what type of mushroom was used as our mandarin phrasebook stopped short at simply “mushroom”. However, it was a firm textured mushroom that gave the dish a real meaty feel. Baihe restaurant also serves freshly ground coffee and a large range of organic teas however these are relatively expensive from 20 yuan a cup. - Anth of Temporary Dwellings |
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