Beijing - restaurants/coffee

Asia
1

胡同小馆 (multiple locations) - beijing restaurant, high quality.

四世同堂 (multiple locations) - beijing restaurant, exquisite quality. possible to get an extremely good duck here, but everything they make is with high level.

松鹤楼 - hangzhou cuisine (~shanghainese), e.g. meizhou dongpo but significantly more refined in every aspect

111号打边炉 (multiple locations) - cantonese hotpot, exquisite broth, a lot of options that i haven’t seen stateside, e.g. ‘crispy fish’ filets from fish that have been fed soy bean so that the texture of the meat has a snappy ‘crispness’ akin to how cucumbers are crisp - eye-opening experience as to how far food culture can go..!

currently in 2025, dianping is the go-to food review app, and if you choose actual restaurants with super high ratings, you almost certainly won’t go wrong. i would advise to do that rather than follow any internet website recommendation list…..

COFFEE chains

grid coffee (many locations) - on par with blue bottle

metal hands (many locations) - on par with blue bottle

from limited sampling, grid and metal hands seem to be a cut above the other chains in terms of pure coffee; all the other chains do comparable coffee+milk/tea/etc. drinks

voyage coffee (many locations) - on par with blue bottle

wakeup&coffee (multiple locations) - on par with blue bottle

matter coffee (multiple locations) - slightly worse than blue bottle

kcoffee (kfc’s coffee extension) - maybe a bit better than US starbucks

COFFEE quality

wutong coffee phoenix cafe (wudaoying hutong #63) - pourovers, very high quality and care, high-end beans

there is a world class shop on wudaoying. the owner runs the shop by himself. deep knowledge and appreciation of coffee and its process. pourovers are the most compelling, but he also has a siphon setup which produces remarkable texture, and does a coffee/tea hybrid pourover that works in an absolutely perfect manner. more importantly, he’s able to run it with an effortless and comfortable atmosphere - i already felt like a regular by the end of my first visit. incredibly rare to find

beijing coffee far far far exceeded my expectations

5 Likes
2

Si Shi Tong Tang (四世同堂) I went to before many years ago and remember having a nice meal. I remember hearing it’s a classic and long lived restaurant in Beijing. It’s been a while but i heard they also do a live performance thing. The location I went to also had great aesthetic to go with the great food.

I’ll add in regards to reviews since I’ve been doing some light research for Shanghai, but the fine dining equivalent for China is apparently called Black Pearl, which is run by Meituan - Dianping’s parent company. Based on what I’ve read, they’re a Chinese home-grown version of Michelin, though I see at least one comment online preferring Michelin.

Sounds like everything I love to see in a coffee shop! Definitely will try to remember this for if/when I get back to Beijing. Does he speak Engish or was it all Chinese? (just checking since it’s Beijing)

I think I mentioned in another thread but I met some Chinese coffee professionals in Tokyo and they noted the speed and depth at which the Chinese coffee scene has grown. So both surprised and not surprised. Really excited to check out some shops while in Shanghai soon!

3 Likes
3

How you two getting on dianping without Chinese number? Alipay?

1 Like
4

good to know! i was relying entirely on locals, having done zero research or preparation beforehand. the way in which some shops also bribe for dianping ratings is … interesting! looking for dianping on alipay, i don’t seem to be able to find it as a miniapp, but the internet says you can do so with wechat? surely one of these days dianping will end up on alipay and wechat will integrate foreign banks…

by the way, the shop is not phoenix cafe but down the street - the one with the cat sitting out front. with just english the experience would be much more limited, but probably a good amount of the vibes would still translate..

2 Likes
5

@avantbored Haven’t actually used Dianping and not expecting to need to this time. There is a .com website though. Black Pearl also a .com website which I checked out.

@burritoking Thanks for the heads up! I know some basic Chinese but very far from fluent. If I ever make it there, hopefully it’s enough to enjoy the experience for what it is.

2 Likes