Beijing Restaurant Review: He Cai

By Noelle Mateer

At He Cai, we eat with abandon and we eat very well. Then we hand over seven pink bills.

We do not like that last part. It’s hard, handing over bills multitudinous enough that altogether they have palpable mass. But then we thought about two things: First, this was for two people (RMB350 a head). And second, as mentioned previously, we ate with abandon and we ate very well.

Here’s how it works: He Cai is all-you-can-eat (or as a local government-sponsored tourism website calls it, AYCE). Is it also, like, ace though? You decide.

In Beijing, the all-you-can-eat phenomenon currently resides in three arenas: high-end hotels, hedonistic teppanyaki joints and Nali Patio. He Cai has most in common with that second category, in that its Japanese and there’s lots of Kirin. But the similarities stop there.

This is no raucous, chaotic teppanyaki joint. It is calm and focused – and its food is too. We have a fat platter of sashimi, a tray of varied sushi rolls, a warm eel soup, tasty udon, crunchy salads and so, so much more, perhaps too much more. The variety of the dishes does not come at the expense of their quality. Which is, frankly, rare.

The atmosphere is dark wood-paneled contemporary. Service is warm and attentive. Our glasses (of Kirin, duh) are refilled before we even finish them. So we all-we-can-eat until we all-we-can’t.

How can you put a price on said pleasures? (No seriously, tell us – the finance department of That’s Beijing would really like to know.) Perhaps there is an equation to determine accurate pricing that was discussed in Economics 101 or Business Administration 200 or some other introductory college class we never took at journalism school. Ultimately, we are writers. We are not good at math. We are, however, good at eating, and at He Cai, we eat with abandon and we eat very well.

Ultimately, we conclude that equations do not matter. Got 350 kuai to spend on dinner? This is a fun place to do it.

And in terms of Japanese AYCE restaurants, this place is ace.

Images by Holly Li

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