Hot Tables: A faked death, modern dim sum and a hot new café
The latest on Beijing's restaurants and bars
Hot Tables is our round-up of the city's latest (and greatest) food and drink news in bite-sized chunks, covering new openings, new menus, new dishes – hell, new reasons to live and breathe. Sometimes a sprinkling of closures, too, because this is Beijing. Anyhow, here's what's on our radar this week – look for full reviews in the coming weeks.
Da Xiao
Arguably Beijing's best coffee shop, and almost certainly its best value cup of joe, Da Xiao officially opened its third branch last weekend in the (for now) rather eerily barren neighbourhood east of Qianmen – and we're into it. Their team look to be continuing to do what has made their other spots so good: excellently made, well-priced coffees (a latte for 25RMB, a 20RMB americano and a flat white for 22RMB), served up in some slick surrounds.
From their former spot in Xiang'er Hutong (RIP), to their current outlets near Jingshan Park and in the CBD, the team have always shown an eye for design, and this new joint is perhaps the slickest yet, with an almost entirely glass roof providing a healthy dose of natural light, a concrete-heavy interior and some playful mechanical decorations out front.
The big twist here is that, come 8pm, the shutters on the space's back wall roll up to reveal a thoroughly well-stocked bar, with the space turning into a craft gin bar run by hutong gin-slingers Mona.
Furongji
With hutong dining options seemingly scarcer than ever – come back, Pangmei – the arrival of a new dim sum restaurant in Baochao Hutong is serious cause for celebration, particularly when it's by the pros behind boutique hotel The Orchid. Having hosted a series of tastings over the last couple weeks – we've already heard a slew of positive rumblings – sleek new joint Furongji is officially out of soft opening, with its full menu now available to order.
Furongji classes itself as a 'modern' dim sum restaurant, but has an ethos that eschews common trends of dim sum du jour by looking to reinvent the bite-size morsels beyond simply 'changing the colour of dumpling skins or adding truffles'. This thoughtful approach extends to its menu, which is also refreshingly restrained.
Divided into dim sum types (steamed/boiled, soups/congee, rice rolls, fried/roasted etc), diners can expect to find classics such as crystal shrimp dumplings and pork shaomai, along with fusion dishes such as eggplant samosas and yuenyeung (a coffee-tea drink popular in Hong Kong) affogatos. Keep your eyes peeled for a full review soon.
Wagas
After a valiant fight, Beijing's hipster hotbed of Gulou looks like it could yet fall to mall culture, with a brand spanking new development recently opening up and parking itself just beyond the buffer of the Second Ring Road, at Andingmen. But the arrival of glitzy Cofco Plaza has brought with it a few new outlets, including a Starbucks (sigh), a Croissant Village – where we all want to live, really – and the newest branch of reliable coffee and lunch spot Wagas. Expect the same trusty range of slightly average coffee, but decent cakes, sandwiches and salads – an all-round decent addition to the area.
Q Mex Taqueria
Purveyors of all things Mexican and South American, Q Mex Taqueria has just launched a new winter menu, adding to its already remarkably extensive menu. New additions include burros (a large burrito served in tomato chipotle sauce and green tomatillo sauce), hearty Taqueria bowls made with kale, beans, avocado, seasonal vegetables and choice of meat or seafood, and beef tongue tacos. For those of you missing out on serious lamb (not mutton – lamb), make sure you try the grilled lamb chops, rubbed in a spicy chilli blend and served alongside grilled corn and red beans.
Root Pop
Despite the sad announcement of the closure of their Shuangjing café (due to a series of new government regulations), the busy folks at Root Pop have been hard at work striking deals to get their plant-based bites into Bruno Caffe stores around the city. Currently stocked at four Bruno Caffe branches, check out the listing below to figure out which one's closest to you.
De Refter
In an F&B scene where unexpected closures are a depressingly frequent occurrence, we can probably count on one hand the number of times a restaurant has seemingly faked its own demise (spoiler alert: the tally's currently sitting at one). We've written our fair share of restaurant obituaries and sadly become all too accustomed to saying farewell to locations we've dearly loved, then lost.
In the past year alone, Beijing has waved goodbye to the likes of 8-Bit, Ron Mexico, Palms LA (Gulou), Hatchery, Great Leap #12, Karaiya, Napa, The Bridge Café, Fang Bar (they’ve since merged with The Other Place), Stuff’d, Arrow Factory Taproom, Queenie's (Yonghegong), Pho La La and Root Pop, among many others. We've borne witness to the sheer amount of guts and hustle it takes to simply stay afloat in a city where government intervention or landlord disputes happen on a dime, usually ending for the worse. Put simply, we salute you, Beijing restaurateurs, for fighting the good fight.
Now that that's all out of the way – good news, everyone! It turns out De Refter isn't actually closing after all.
After announcing their impending closure on WeChat last Monday, and hosting a closing party on Thursday night, it turns out De Refter's engaged in a bit of good ol' fashioned #fakenews as part of a publicity stunt to drum up excitement about some new changes. In other words, they're not closing! And they've got, like, a totally rad new wall mural. AND possibly new menu items as well. (Disclaimer: this news comes from the same official source as last time, so try to contain your excitement over that spiffy new mural in case we're being had again).
For those who kindly bought tickets to their closing party in support, your generosity has now been rewarded with De Refter 2.0. Or is it 3.0? We seem to have lost track.
For more dining inspiration in Beijing, hit 'Read more'.
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