35 Best Restaurants in Beijing, China

Your mood brightens the minute you walk up the sunny spiral staircase to the rooftop patio, which includes glassed-in and open-air sections and overlooks the wide, tree-lined streets of the surrounding embassy district. It's a fine setting in which to enjoy a few glasses of wine accompanied by parma ham or one of the pastas on offer. Check out the reasonable prix-fixe business lunches for around Y100.

This cheerful, homey joint offers dozens of creative dumpling fillings alongside classics such as pork and cabbage. The colorful purple, green, or orange dumpling wrappers, made by adding vegetable juice to the dough, are equally delightful.

Located upstairs in a dive behind Sanlitun's bar street, this bright and spacious kosher falafel joint is a breath of fresh air. Biteapitta has been filling Beijing tummies for over a decade with quick and tasty Mediterranean fare such as baba ghanoush, roasted chicken, and pita sandwiches brimming with yogurt, tahini, cucumbers, and tomatoes. The cheerful room encourages diners to linger over a lemonade or mint tea, with plenty of power outlets to help them catch up on emails.

Teutonic timbers frame the facade of this two-story restaurant and bakery that serves specialties and all-day brunch fare from southern Germany. Downstairs, find excellent breads, pastries, prepared sandwiches, and an authentic Sacher torte, for take away or eating at one of the café's tables. For more filling fare, head upstairs, where a hearty menu of sausages, schnitzels, and dumplings awaits, along with a selection of imported beers.

Part of a small chain of contemporary French-managed patisseries, this is Beijing's go-to spot for Gallic confections. Goodies here include flaky croissants, sandwiches in crunchy house-made baguettes, and savory croquettes and quiches.

Heaping platters of grilled-lamb skewers, house-made flatbreads, and other hearty fare feature greatly on the menu here. It's also less flashy than some of Beijing's other Xinjiang establishments.

Just because this restaurant offers excellent value for the money, doesn't mean you'll have to forego the celebratory experience of having your Peking duck carved tableside. The service is a bit brusque, but that's all part of its authentic Beijing charm.

Founded in 1903, this classic Beijing Hui (Chinese Muslim) restaurant now has branches all over the city. Their specialty is mutton hotpot famous for three attributes: high-quality meat, sliced paper-thin, and served with delicious sesame sauce. Dining here is by dunk and dip, cooking the meat slices (shuan rou) and other accompaniments in a cauldron of bubbling soup at the table. The best part is near the end, when the broth reaches a tongue-tingling climax. Zhima shaobing (small baked sesame bread) is the perfect accompaniment.

Be warned: Sichuan spices can be addictive. This restaurant's signature dish is shuizhuyu, sliced fish cooked in an oily broth brimming with scarlet chili peppers and piquant peppercorns. The impossibly delicate fish melts in the mouth like butter, while the chilies and peppercorns tingle the lips. It's a sensory experience that heat-seekers will want to repeat over and over. Red-faced diners test the limits of their spice tolerance over dandan noodles and koushuiji ("mouthwatering") chicken, a salad dish of tender meat tossed with cilantro in spicy oil. The service is unfriendly but efficient.

"Haiwan" means "a bowl as deep as the sea," a fitting name for an eatery that specializes in big bowls of hand-pulled noodles. A xiao er (a "young brother" in a mandarin-collar shirt) greets you with a shout, echoed in thundering chorus by the rest of the staff. The hustle and bustle and rustic decor re-creates the atmosphere of an old teahouse. There are two types of noodles: guoshui, noodles that have been rinsed and cooled; and guotiao, meaning "straight out of the pot," ideal for winter days. Vegetables, including diced celery, radish, green beans, bean sprouts, cucumber, and scallions, are placed on individual small dishes to be mixed in by hand. Hand-pulled noodles are deliciously doughy and chewy, a texture that can only be achieved by strong hands repeatedly stretching the dough.

Snacks and various forms of entertainment make the long waits to get into this hotpot restaurant almost enjoyable. Once inside, expect bubbling pots of broth and more sauces and things for dipping than you can count.

Ground zero for authentic American barbecue in Beijing, this busy joint grills, smokes, and slow-roasts mouthwateringly tender pulled pork, chopped brisket, and sticky ribs alongside wings, fried pickles, corn bread, slaw, chili cheese fries, and a solid cheeseburger. The huge, hipster-friendly Sanlitun location packs in a mixed party crowd, fueled by a wide range of imported American beers and bourbons (they’ve got A&W Root Beer too). If you’ve any appetite remaining after your meal, grab a slice of pecan or cherry pie or carrot cake.

On a tree-lined street in the heart of Beijing's embassy district, this large, Yunnan restaurant, adorned with decorative crafts and paintings from China's southwest, serves as an excellent introduction to the light, fresh, and spicy flavors of the province. Staff in traditional dress dish up crispy potato pancakes, eggs stir-fried with fragrant jasmine flowers, or tilapia folded over lemongrass and lightly grilled.

A gloriously gaudy atmosphere is the main draw of this 24-hour dim sum restaurant. It serves all the classics as well as a "pollution menu" featuring dishes that supposedly counteract the effects of Beijing's smog.

"House of Beijing Flavors" makes up for its rather isolated location by having one of the widest selections of traditional Beijing fare in town. Dishes range from the austere, such as ma doufu (mung-bean pulp cooked in lamb fat), and zha guanchang (fried starch chips meant to imitate sausage), to more cultivated offerings, including Peking duck or slow-cooked lamb. The Beijing dessert platter is a tasty introduction to the city's long tradition of sweet snacks. The huge, open-plan dining room is bustling and fun, but can get rather smoky.

Locals and foreigners alike pack this pleasant restaurant for affordable roast duck and tasty, varied Chinese fare with a Beijing slant. The roadside patio, garlanded by small, twinkling lights, is a lovely spot for warm weather dining.

Reliable, standard Shanxi fare is the order of the day at this slightly out-of-the-way restaurant—dishes might include the region's famous aromatic crispy duck, and "cat-ear" noodles (referring to their ovoid shape), stir-fried with meat and vegetables. End your meal with a "sweet happiness" pastry. Jinyang Fangzhuang is attached to the ancient courtyard home of Ji Xiaolan, a Qing Dynasty scholar, the chief compiler of the Complete Library of the Four Branches of Literature. You can visit the old residence without an admission fee and see Ji Xiaolan's study, where he wrote his famous essays. The crab-apple trees and wisteria planted during his lifetime still bloom in the courtyard.

You can readily sample your way through culinary history at some of Beijing's oldest and most famous eateries, all grouped under the one roof of a house with a traditional courtyard. Soft bean curd topped, perhaps, with braised lamb and mushrooms, pot stickers shaped like traditional little satchels, or tripe served with a dipping sauce that's an old family secret are just some of what might be on offer.

A convenient pit stop when visitng Nanluoguxiang, this modest little eatery really offers only one option: a set meal of tasty Taiwanese-style lurou fan—rice with an aromatic ground pork topping complemented by a flavorful boiled egg, mixed pickled vegetables, and a simple clear soup, for less than $4. A vegetarian stew and rice set is also available. The home-brewed teas and chilled custard desserts are worth a try, too.

A peaceful hutong is the setting for this welcoming Hunan restaurant, whose signature dish is Chairman Mao's favorite: hong shao rou (braised pork belly). The food is almost unrelentingly spicy; if you can handle the heat, though, it's worth it.

With a dozen seats surrounding an open kitchen, this petite dining room next to Duck de Chine lives large when it comes to flavor. The brief menu lists little more than beef brisket, tendon, and tripe, which are stewed to tender perfection and added to delicious noodles, hand-pulled while you wait.

Watch the dough masters work in a flurry while you slurp your noodles at this bright and ritzy restaurant. A seat at the bar lets you observe chefs snipping, shaving, and pulling dough into various styles of noodles amid clouds of steam. The black-and-white decor plays backdrop to a trendy crowd; do as they do and order Shanxi-style "cat's ears" (mao er duo), so named for the way the nips of dough are curled around the chef's thumb into an ear shape. They are then stir-fried with pork, eggs, cabbage, and wood-ear mushrooms.

A lively, old-time atmosphere and hand-pulled noodles are the hallmarks of this chain. Try the classic zhajiang noodle, served in a ground-meat sauce with accompaniments of celery, bean sprouts, green beans, soybeans, slivers of cucumber, and red radish.

"Farm to table" is the creed at this peaceful Guizhou-style restaurant west of Houhai Lake. Dishes like braised pork ribs and sticky rice wrapped in bamboo, stir-fried "country-style" vegetables rich with the sour-sharp tang of fermented bamboo, and even the house-made ice cream all use ingredients from the owner's own farms and small holdings on the outskirts of the city. Beyond an admirable commitment to sourcing, it's the little touches that make this eatery shine, such as complimentary tastings of homemade rice-wine tasters infused with rose petals and organic honey.

Pull up a tiny stool for stick-to-your-ribs goodness at this rustic haven for Shaanxi fare. Hearty wheat-based specialities include roujia mo (unleavened bread stuffed with tender braised pork, aka "Chinese hamburger"), and chewy hand-pulled noodles flavored with chili oil and dark vinegar. Lending a bit of charm are the framed paper cuts (a form of Chinese folk art in which red paper is cut into animal, flower, or human shapes), traditional handicrafts, and large woven baskets (you can use them to store your purse or bags while you eat).

This eatery—a favorite of Thais living in Beijing—serves all the traditional Thai dishes. Try the duck salad, pomelo salad, green curry, or one of the plentiful hot-and-spicy soups.

This excellent restaurant, part of a local chain, says "yes" to seasonality and no to "MSG." Folks line up for over an hour to get a taste of its famous Peking duck.

Though there's no meat on the menu, carnivores can still sate their hunger on mock Peking "duck," "fish" (made of tofu sheets with scales carved into it), and tasty "lamb" skewers that you'd be hard pressed to claim contain no meat at all. In fact, we'd suggest plumping for the straight-up vegetable dishes here, like stir-fried okra with mushrooms, steamed eggplant with sesame paste or the stone-pot-braised taro, which eschew novelty for sheer deliciousness. The restaurant is a little hard to find: it's inside the alley just east of the large Wahaha Hotel.