New Japanese Noodle Diner for Loners Zheng Opens in Sanlitun

As grown-up, busy people living in a mega-city like Beijing, we are never ashamed of eating alone. Zheng, a Japanese ramen restaurant that has opened in Topwin, will facilitate this further. On top of that, it also looks like we should be adding one more venue to our 'eating alone under RMB 50' post.

A nice place to eat alone

In fact, the restaurant seems specifically designed for solo dining, which is a popular concept in Japan. This small place has 12 seats around an open kitchen, but thankfully, instead of putting stuffed animals across from you, they have separated each seat with wooden boards. While we're completely comfortable alone, we must wonder if the chefs are, as we're sure everyone just watches them prepare their food.

On each table, there are four pots with seasoning, such as salt, chili oil, preserved sliced ginger, and soy sauce. The menu offers five different types of hot ramen (Japanese noodle soup) and four cold noodles all ranging between RMB 38-40. The options are spicy, miso, regular, and vegetarian.

The regular ramen (RMB 38)

We ordered the regular ramen (RMB 38) which, shockingly, only took less than 10 minutes to arrive during the lunch peak. When they served us, they also thoughtfully reminded us that “It’s hot, be careful.”

As for the food, they claimed that the soup was cooked for several hours, which was apparent from the rich flavors. It also, thankfully, didn't have too much salt added to the mix. The noodles were chewy, not a big surprise seeing as they were buckwheat. There was also sliced seaweed, dried seaweed or nori on offer, along with sweet sliced bamboo shoots.

A couple next to me ordered cold noodles, which were served on a bamboo-style plate, and looked very nice. I should warn you first, it was neither surprisingly good nor bad, just a quick lunch on a boring Monday, so don’t expect it to be refreshing enough to reinvigorate you if you're having a bad day.

Zheng
B1-13A Topwin Center, 1 Nan Sanlitun Lu, Chaoyang District (5780 9028)
錚麵館: 朝阳区三里屯南路1号通盈中心B1-13A