Beijing Restaurant Recommendations

[adrianlondon]

Shut up!! I'm in Stuttgart and going crazy with the lack of decent Asian food here. You should all work for the Chinese tourist office (which, at the moment, presumably just teases people with ideas before someone else rejects the visa).

These places had all better still exist later in the year when I do my post Olympic trip to Beijing.

[renzhe]

I'm pretty sure that there are some decent Chinese restaurants in Stuttgart, I know several Chinese girls who worked there.

But the requirement in any Chinese restaurant in Germany (and the rest of Europe, basically) is TO GO THERE WITH A CHINESE PERSON. And to let them order. In Chinese.

If you want really good Chinese food, you need to go to a really good Chinese restaurant (hard to find), and go there with a Chinese friend. Because otherwise, you will get the crappy Euro-Chinese sweet-sour pork with industrial sauce that the locals seem to prefer to the real stuff. If you are not Chinese, they will assume that you don't like Chinese food, and you won't get it. Sad, but true. Go there with a Chinese friend, or you're doomed.

[adrianlondon]

I have no Chinese friends here. Are you volunteering any of your girl friends? ;)

[renzhe]

None of them is there anymore, sorry.

The problem in Germany is that, even if you go to the most genuine restaurant possible, you'll get Germanised food.

They have menus for Germans/English speaking people and a (usually separate) menu only in Chinese with proper dishes. You need to get your hands on the real menu (this is often hand-written) and need to make clear that you speak Chinese and want real food. Still, there is danger that you'll get some fake Germanised dish. The whole process is much easier if you have a Chinese person with you, obviously.

There was a restaurant I would always go to with my girlfriend. Each time, we got a Chinese menu, bowl and chopsticks, and the food was awesome, with typically Chinese ingredients. One day, I went alone, got the "regular" menu, a plate with a knife and fork, and got served the standard European chicken soup, just like my mother used to make.

My recommendation is to find the restaurant where only Chinese people eat, talk to them in Chinese (you can rehearse ahead of time), tell them you spent some time in China and ask for their recommendation.

[adrianlondon]

I went to a cafe type place (they seem to call them Imbiss) last night and, as I don't speak German and the Chinese staff didn't speak English, I ordered in my limited Mandarin.

While they were impressed, and the girl sat with me for a bit and asked why I was in Stuttgart (after I asked her the exact same question), the food was so-so. I noticed a couple of Chinese people in the cafe (with German friends/partners/whatever) and they were eating the same stuff as me.

I'll keep searching, although it was good to practice my Mandarin (and the girl's accent was lovely), and not so good in improving my virtually zero German language skills.

I'm back in London this weekend which will temporarily sate my desire for good Chinese food until I find the time to revisit Beijing.

[renzhe]

I went to a cafe type place (they seem to call them Imbiss)

Imbiss = fast food

They are always run by families and don't have a properly trained cook. Parents cook, children wait, that sort of thing. The food is usually ok, but rarely excellent.