The best cafés, museums, restaurants and more in Xicheng

Head westside for off-the-beaten-path gems

The oft-neglected Wild West of Beijing's mean streets is a trove of quirky cafés, standout museums and commendable restaurants.

Cafés

Coffee Tags

Discreetly tucked onto a corner of the bustling Huguosi snack street, Coffee Tags is a café lifted straight from the pages of one of the achingly cool magazines (Time Out Beijing notwithstanding) that are available for perusal within. The vibe here is minimalism to the max: there are four low tables, a sparse menu and a couple of weak cake options that it needn't have bothered with. Because sad cakes aside, Coffee Tags pulls off the pretentious attitude of its interior with truly excellent coffee. The South African filter we try (45RMB, others go up to 65RMB per cup) is wonderful – smooth, thick, chocolatey and bitter with a strength and complexity of flavour we've yet to find anywhere else in Beijing (and we’ve tried a lot). It’s also flippin' expensive, small, and prepared by one waiter and approximately six bits of equipment.

85 Huguosi Jie, Xicheng district

Bear Brew

Bear Brew is the café of hutong dreams, the likes of which are now rarely found in the expat heartland of Gulou. Tucked into a ribbon of alleyways just underneath the White Cloud Pagoda, Bear Brew is – gulp – chic yet cosy. The small space fits the bill of a bright and airy, hip spot, but is made a touch homelier by the impressive display of succulents and the not-so-cool plastic patio doors. There's also a small garden and a dreamy rooftop, with one of the city’s best views, onto the aforementioned pagoda.

26 Baitasi Dong Jiadao, Xicheng district

Coffee Craft

Xizhimen: The Final Frontier? The transport hub hasn't traditionally been a cradle for F&B outlets, but as the city looks continually outwards, there's now nothing stopping good Xizhimen and Xizhiwomen from glugging a third-wave cup o' joe. Nestled just west of the station, Coffee Craft does what it says on the tin, with a firm focus on crafting brews, including very good espresso drinks (20-35RMB) and V60 drips (from 45RMB), with beans-to-go and assorted coffee paraphernalia also on sale.

108, Building 2, Changhe Wan Residential Compound, 59 Gaoliangqiao Xiejie, Xicheng district

Restaurants

Deyuan Roast Duck

Unpretentious, cheap and delicious Beijing cuisine. The restaurant is always guaranteed to be full of local characters, making it a good spot for people-watching while you enjoy your kaoya. Serves up some of Beijing's best cheap eats.

57 Dashilar Xi Dajie, Xicheng district

The Southern Fish

Hunan cuisine is one of the heavier hitters in the world of Chinese cooking, delivering both a spicy punch and often an oily drop-kick for good measure. Perhaps it's the minimalist monochrome of The Southern Fish's interior design or the cool, brushed crockery, but a meal here certainly doesn't feel like a greasy affair, despite the fact that the food is hardly light. Far from it, if we're being completely honest. What the food is, however, is an authentic Hunanese offering that's spicy enough to get those revolutionary endorphins circulating. Click here for our full review.

49 Gongmenkou Toutiao, Xicheng district

Suzuki Kitchen

With decent curries, hefty rice dishes, and much more besides, Suzuki Kitchen is a reliable place to fill up on some affordable Japanese nosh. The cool interior is quintessentially Japanese, apart from the frankly disturbing obsession with rabbits – we have no idea where that came from. From the logo to the ornaments, bunnies are all over the shop – it's almost hallucinatory.

Dashilar, 10-14 Yangmeizhu Xiejie, Xicheng district

Museums

Beijing Stone Carvings Art Museum

The pleasant canal walk to reach this place is a fitting start to what's inside – a peaceful oasis, filled with all manner of stone works, including calligraphy tablets, impressive steles, statues and grand tombstones that date back as far as the Western Jin dynasty (265-420). There are also exhibitions explaining the history of the artform and its techniques, though perhaps most impressive is the dilapidated stone work of the fifteenth-century Zhenjue Temple that the museum is built around.

24 Wutasicun (near Beijing Zoo north gate), Haidian district

Paleozoological Museum of China

One of the most notable paleontological museums in Asia, this place is packed to the rafters with dozens of dinosaur fossils – mostly from the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. Some of the larger creatures’ skeletons are reproductions but many are the real deal – including several complete skeletons on the upper floors. But the partial fossils are also incredible; the delicate skeletal structure of the flying, pterodactyl-like dsungaripterus weii – only found in China – is breathtaking.

142 Xizhimenwai Dajie, Xicheng district

Beijing Planetarium

The abundant light pollution and smog-thick air may prevent any actual stargazing in Beijing, and indeed at this planetarium, too, but there are plenty of attractions here to entice wannabe astronomers. The majority of the action is to be found in the more modern Building B, which houses interactive space-age toys to excite the imagination. Enter a large, dark dome and press buttons to see different star constellations, or poke your head inside the crust of a scaled-down version of Mars – who needs space travel? The regular 3D films showing in the Zeiss Cosmos Theatre (45RMB) are worth the trip alone – the wonders of space are projected on the ceiling of the main building's massive dome. It's an impressive sight for us, but for kids it's awe-inspiring.

138 Xizhimenwai Dajie, Xicheng district

Things to do

East Shore Live Jazz Café

Opened in 2006, East Shore is the culmination of co-owner Liu Yuan's experience, combined with a long-term aspiration to provide the city with a jazz venue. In the cigar-tinged air, one can almost imagine being seated at the bar in decades-ago New Orleans, among '30s bare-bulb lamps, dark-stained timber and art deco chandeliers. East Shore's trump card, however, might well be the open rooftop. Although only a small space, the view stretches – on a clear day – to the mountain range, far on the smoky horizon.

2 Qianhai Nanyan (just west of the post office), Xicheng district

Guanghua Temple

Venture further down Ya'er Hutong, past a tree-lined stretch dotted with cafes, and you'll stumble upon an unexpected respite: Guanghua Temple. A picturesque Buddhist temple that was built during the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), Guanghua Temple is now home to the Beijing Buddhist Association. Pass by the rose garden and fortune tellers sitting outside and enter the temple’s peaceful pavilion, where pious old women sweep the stone ground and devotees burn incense at an altar. In the back is a structure that houses a golden Buddha. Try stopping by in the early morning to get the full meditative experience.

31 Ya'er Hutong, Xicheng district

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