Restaurant areas

Beijing boasts literally thousands, if not tens of thousands, of restaurants. The best areas to wander in order to see what’s on offer are around Hou Hai and along Ghost Streetfor Chinese cuisine. For the widest choice of international restaurants, try the streets on the south side of Ri Tan Park and those on the north and west sides of the Workers’ Stadium in the diplomatic and entertainment district of Sanlitun.

Strange foods

It is possible to find the likes of dog, snake, sea slug, scorpions, and penises from a variety of animals on the menus of Beijing restaurants. However, none of these are particularly common dishes, and you are unlikely to find them on the table in front of you without specifically seeking them out.

Chinese menus

Many restaurants have menus in Chinese only. In which case, it is perfectly acceptable to look around at what people on other tables are eating and just point to what you fancy.

International cuisine

Beijing is a modern, international city and many of its international restaurants are truly world class. If you should tire of Chinese cuisine, then without too much trouble you can find restaurants here that will do a great burger or an authentic spaghetti bolognese.

Eating with chopsticks

Chinese restaurants set their tables with chopsticks, not knives and forks. If you have never eaten with chopsticks before, try to get in a little practice before your visit to Beijing. Meals are placed in the middle of the table and shared by all. Food is eaten in the order in which the dishes are served.

Decor

Many Beijing restaurants appear very basic, even scruffy, with Formica tables, cheap furnishings, and plastic tableware. Chinese tend not to care about things like the aesthetics, the ambience, and the service. Instead what they care about is the quality of the food. Little else matters.

Street food

Chinese street food is plentiful, varied, and usually delicious (see Top 10 Beijing Street Foods). The best place to try it is at one of the two street-food markets off Wangfujing Dajie (see Wangfujing Night Market). There are also lots of street-food vendors in the Hou Hai area.

Meal times

The Chinese tend to eat early. Lunch can be served as early as 11am and many restaurants will stop serving at 2pm. Dinner typically starts at around 5pm, with many restaurant kitchens closed by 9:30pm.

Late-night eating

Many of the hotel restaurants stay open late, as do a cluster of places around the west gate of the Workers’ Stadium, notably the excellent Bellagio. A lot of bars serve decent food until the early hours, including The Tree, while most of the restaurants along Ghost Street remain open 24 hours daily.

Dining with Chinese

As a guest of Chinese hosts it is polite to sample all of the dishes on the table, although you should leave some-thing on the plate at the end of the meal. A clean plate indicates you are still hungry. Drinking is an important part of Chinese entertaining, but do not pour your own drink – it shows a lack of protocol. The most common expression for toasting is “Gan bei”, meaning “dry the glass”, or “bottoms up.”