老北京家常菜 (Old Beijing Home-style Cuisine) @ Andingmen, Beijing

Located at No. 130 Andingmen Inner Street, Dongcheng, Beijing. Chinese version: 东城区安定门内大街130号.

We were going to visit the night market at Nan Luo Gu Xiang when we chanced upon this eatery. Looked like a reasonable place to have our dinner (we didn't do any research so didn't know what to expect around this area) as it looked sizeable and there are local diners in it. Moreover, we're in Beijing... so should try some local cuisines, right?

big signboard, inside looked bright and there are local diners equals good signs, yes?

our table and menu

There were diners smoking in the restaurant even though there's a 'No Smoking' sign. Faints.

looks retro

local soft-drink (polar bear brand) - taste like Redoxon

local beer for the drinker

chrysanthemum tea for the rest of us

As usual, we left the ordering task to our senior manager and without fail, he'd order alot because he always asks the waitress whether we have enough dishes and everytime, the waitress would reply, "No, not enough." Hahhaa.

guess what we're eating

Frankly speaking, it was like an adventure eating here. Finally we found a dish that tasted good but we had no idea of what we were eating. Probably tofu. I hope it was tofu...

sweet and sour pork or chicken?

pork dish that looked innocent enough till still reddish meat (that looked raw) was discovered underneath...

best tasting but no idea what it was!

The sweet and sour dish was appetising and tasted most familiar. And its meat tasted pretty lean. It was like a snack that one could continously pop inside the mouth. The pork dish looked too raw for my liking. Didn't dare to eat. The tofu dish had a name that none of us could reproduce. Must be authentic local old Beijing dish (I guessed). Very flavourful, and its texture was like a cross between yam and tofu. Goes super well with steamed rice! The beancurd just melts in your mouth. Awesome.

stir fried mushrooms and green pepper

The green pepper lent a spicy edge to the mushroom dish. Nice! Was excited to try the zha jiang mian (炸酱面) here. Imagine the disappointment when it was served. The sauce was meatless! *Sobs* I guess, the restaurant's own recipe was to make it vegetarian styled.

zha jiang mian

pork dumplings

For pork dumplings, I'd prefer the way we eat it in Singapore. With vinegar and ginger. Always. It's a must for me. No these condiments, no shioks.

roasted duck

not crispy skin

The roasted duck here, well, let's just say that it was normal at best. It's definitely not the expected Peking duck standard. It's more like the hawker roasted duck kind of taste, but even so, it didn't taste as good as that. Perhaps, just not quite used to this retro taste. For good Peking duck, go for those that are freshly roasted upon order. Try 鸭王.

Having said that, the pancake skin here was nice. Had a hint of sweetness.

nice crepe skin

The remaining duck bones, we opted for it to be deep fried with salt and pepper. Similar to what we had at another restaurant but perhaps our expectation was too high... But it did taste like home-styled cuisine.

looked more like stir-fried with ginger and spring onions

All in all, we did finish the food. At least we tried Old Beijing home-styled cuisine.

the aftermath

印巷小馆 @ Lucky Street (好运街), Beijing

Located at Lucky Street, Chaoyang Gongyuan Road. Its address: 朝阳区朝阳公园路好运街1-8号(近三元桥). Pretty far from the hotel and we transferred a couple of MRT lines and walked quite a bit before even reaching this area.

Lucky Street is a stretch of road that has plenty of restaurants. Many cuisines such as Japanese, Western, Italian, Chinese etc can be found here.

restaurant's facade

Senior manager suggested this restaurant as he has been here before. Our group of 7 pax waited for about 5 mins before being shown to a tiny room at second floor. Many diners there that night, almost full house.

up to the private dining rooms

inside the room

paintings on the wall

 menu

Manager did all the ordering while we sat back and relaxed. As usual, jugs of plum juice to start off the meal. Almost all restaurants will tweak the recipe and it'll taste different from place to place.

homemade plum juice (suan mei tang 酸梅汤) - light brown coloured

pork with kelp

stewed beef

stir-fried lotus roots with gingko

Usual order consist of pork, beef and lotus roots. This time round, we're having fish.

deep fried fish, served with herbed salt

with bones

The herbed salt that came with fish tasted the same as those use to flavour the Xinjiang mutton skewers. Let's just say that pork, beef and chicken remained as safer bets (in terms of likeability) as compared to fish.

rice (米饭)

In Beijing, rice is served with a more than generous serving. The spicy tofu dish goes well with the white rice. Well, the beef and the pork too. As usual, we asked for reduced salt and oil kind of cooking.

sweet and spicy tofu

Ordered the shop specialty to try. A huge square of bread with its insides carved out to contain curry chicken. Took one bite of the curry and it was a no-go for me thereafter. The rest didn't seem to mind and commented that the bread was nice. Personally, the biggest turn-off was the very sweet tasting curry. It was just weird. Really.

curry chicken bread

The service staff carries a device that they can key in the ordered items and it gets sent to the kitchen immediately upon confirmation of the order. Hence, we got our food like within 10 minutes after we're done ordering.Wow.

But the bad thing about being seated in a private dining room, was that one gotta holler real loud to get the attention of the service staff. The term to use when addressing the service staff is '服务员' (fu wu yuan).

鸭王 (Duck King / King Roast Duck) @ Minzuyuan Road, Beijing

Here is its address in Chinese: 朝阳区民族园路1号 which translates to 1 Minzuyuan Road, Chaoyang District.

Apparently ranked #399 out of 3901 restaurants in Beijing by Tripadvisor, and it made into Top Ten (#4) Peking Duck restaurants in Beijing based on a 2011 article.

restaurant's facade

cute chopstick holder

As usual, our choice of drink would be sour plum juice (酸梅汤) but this time, we had beer as well. And why not? Local beer is very very wallet friendly in Beijing! Beer brand like Yanjing have very light taste but it's refreshing on a warm night.

local beer

beer in a wine glass?

Happy to say that all the dishes that were on our table, tasted good. Just remember to state, "少盐少油" (shao yan, shao you) which means less salt and less oil, before the service staff sends out the order to the kitchen.

pig trotters

beef hotplate

pork ribs with corn

My senior manager adores the pork dishes (plus lotus roots) while I'd go for the beef. Vegetables was good too. Just the corn that's not agreeable. Don't quite like Beijing corn, because I think its texture is all wrong.

But of course, the highlight would be the Peking Duck, which was served last and rightly so. The portion of it wasn't that big to be shared for our table of 8 pax. If I remember correctly, the price of the Peking Duck was around ¥198 per bird (about SGD40), and it was roasted upon order.

Peking Duck

盐酥骨架 (deep fried bones with pepper and salt)

The duck skin was crackling and has enough oil. But the finale was its bone carcass which we requested for deep fried with salt and pepper (extra charge). Just the right snack for the cold beer.

If not wrong, the entire meal that night (with a couple more dishes that I didn't photograph and included vege, and lotus roots) costs less than ¥800 which was about SGD22 per pax for our group.

康师傅私房厨牛肉面 (Master Kong Chef's Table) @ Minzuyuan Road, Beijing

Located at No. 2 Minzuyuan Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing. According to wiki, 康師傅 (Kang shi-fu or Master Kong) is a brand owned by Tingyi Holding Corp, from Taiwan.

The place is pretty close to the hotel that we're staying at.

shopfront

menu

Specializing in beef noodles, it also has rice option.

original sauce beef rice

half beef half tendon

 

yums

flat noodles

gold medal beef noodles soup

tender beef slices

The small dish of preserved vege helped to give the soup a little lift.

preserved vege

The soup was flavourful but not quite strong. There's vinegar on the table for that added oomph.

black fungus - side dish

dessert

red bean cake

For desserts, we ordered the coconut red bean white cake. It's like a pudding but a little more solid than pudding. Not overly sweet.

The main dish price ranged from ¥26 to ¥36. This place also has set meals and has options to top up for dessert/side-dish and a drink.

There's also a discount card that entitles the user a 12% discount. This card can be bought for ¥10, and comes with two luggage tag.

discount card with luggage tags