Catfished! An RMB 3,980 Meal That Wasn't Worth It

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Living downtown, I don't make it out to Shunyi much. So when the opportunity arose and my family was in the neighborhood for an event, we decided to make the most of the trip and check out a Shunyi-only restaurant. 

The name M.E.A.T By Ernest popped up, courtesy of TripAdvisor's Best Steak Places list, where it is incredibly ranked 13 (Spoiler alert: I don't believe it). I verified the place on Dianping, where it has a 4.6 rating and rather rave reviews from locals, so off we went.

A two-hour car ride and RMB 3,980 later, I wish I had never heard of the place.

Heads up: We knew heading into the restaurant that it was going to cost more than your average meal – we were celebrating a little – and we were prepared for five-star prices (RMB 68 for fresh-squeezed juice, RMB 188 for Caesar salad, RMB 1,888 for a 1kg USDA porterhouse...) as long as the food was five-star as well. Sadly, it was far from it.

The small-ish restaurant is located to the side of Tongli Market. The interior mimics most steakhouses – with white tablecloths and low light, an open kitchen concept, and a dry age room that displays the meats.

The atmosphere was nice enough, though a big turn-off about the restaurant is that it has no washrooms of its own and requires customers to walk through the building to get to a public toilet.

Service at M.E.A.T was ... inconsistent. One server stood out for being extremely prompt and helpful – rushing out into the cold to help us when he saw us dismounting from the car hauling our bicycle. However, the rest of the service staff needed a lot of prompting to even fill our glasses and clear our plates, while the maître d' for that evening was rather aloof and never once smiled or said a friendly word. 

Even after all this, we would have been fine with the place if the food made it all worth it. But as you already know, it wasn't. For starters, we tried the Brussels sprouts served with apple slices (RMB 138), which was a fun pairing, though the thoroughly blackened Brussel sprouts had too much vinaigrette for my and my child's taste, and were a tad bitter due to being overcooked. The Canadian scallops with Beluga caviar (RMB 888) were decent, but the slightly fishy scallops would have been so much better if they were chilled and not served at room temperature.

My child had his heart set on a nice juicy burger (RMB 258) but had to settle for the fish and chips (RMB 898) because the burger was only available Mondays through Thursdays. To our disappointment, the fries were overcooked, managing to be dry and oily at the same time. The Atlantic cod was tender and tasty, but at RMB 898 a plate, it wasn't worth it. 

My husband and I decided to share a 400g Wagyu Ribeye steak (RMB 1,388), cooked medium rare (level 5 in Chinese). It was more done than we had requested, and far chewier than it should have been. 

Dessert-wise, the homemade vanilla ice cream with house-made marmalade (RMB 58), which was recommended by the maître d', was, excuse the pun, vanilla... My child enjoyed the crème brûlée (RMB 98). The baked Brie was inedibly salty, and when we talked to the maître d' about it he tried to justify that "cheese is salty" (though he did replace it with a different dessert).

What we did enjoy quite a lot was the dulce de leche with Parmigiano Reggiano chips (RMB 98) – that classic sweet and salty mix worked really well.

At the end of the day, the food at M.E.A.T by Ernest isn't horrible – if you were paying about a quarter of the price. But you're not.. For about the same price, you could enjoy an absolutely amazing dinner at TRB Forbidden City, Iberico, or Morton's Steakhouse instead.

We got catfished into an expensive and disappointing meal by hyped up reviews online. But you don't have to be! Follow our Dianping account on WeChat to check out family-friendly reviews from our team that you can trust. 

We review parks, restaurants, kids' playgrounds, and more to rate their family-friendliness! Follow jingkids International on the app by scanning the QR code below. 

And be sure to join the FamFriendlyEats group on WeChat to get real recommendations for foodie families all over Beijing. To join, add TBJButler on WeChat.

Images: Vivienne Tseng-Rush

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Q: When the waiter asks "How's the food" at a restaurant and it's bad, would you be honest and tell them? 

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