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CITYLIFE / Eating Out
Beijing's hottest haute cuisine
By Helena Iveson (City Weekend)
Updated: 2007-08-17 11:18
Foodies, rejoice! Beijing now has a Chinese restaurant that is
emphatically "destination dining." Shanghai's Whampoa Club has long had
critics salivating and now the chef has come north, setting up shop in
one of the few siheyuans left on Financial Street. Restaurateur Jereme
Leung is intent on reinventing local cai, and while his restaurant in
Shanghai is all glitz and glam, the one in Beijing is more quietly classy.
On entering the traditional courtyard with skyscrapers towering above,
you're led through a stunning entrance filled with candle-lit birdcages.
The dining room is a large open space decked sleekly in black and white
with latticed walls and twinkling decorations. Up above, goldfish swim in
the transparent ceiling. It's obvious this place is under Shanghainese
management; the service is attentive and without any of the kinks of a
newly-opened restaurant.
Leung himself is currently manning the stoves, so expect dish after
pitch-perfect dish, from the sticky, soy-braised pomfret (RMB 88) to the
mouth-wateringly tender beef tenderloin with pistachio nuts (RMB 168).
Leung adamantly opposes the fusion label, instead insisting he wants to
"break down traditional dishes and reconstruct them," like the Dongbei
classic chicken and mushroom soup which Leung coverts into haute
cuisine."I think the chicken is too floury, and the soybean paste makes
it too salty, so I change that," Leung says. He adds two tiny but
intensely flavored truffle jiaozi and viola: a staple dish transformed
into perfection. The minced pigeon with crispy rice (RMB 68) wasn't a
must-order, perhaps because I waited too long after the consomme was
poured to tuck into it. Rare for Chinese restaurants, the dessert menu
spans several pages and features twists on favorites like caramel covered
fruit (bing tang hulu) and a cheesecake made from wan dou huang, a
pea-flavoured snack.
The prices would make Beijing's laobaixing choke, but where else can you
go for Chinese food with unfawning yet impeccable service, breathtakingly
stylish design and food which will have you surreptitiously licking your
plate? It's taken some time for a restaurant of this caliber to appear in
the capital, but make no mistake, this is local food. As Leung says, "I
don't want anyone to leave feeling they haven't been to a Chinese
restaurant."
Perfect for: breath-taking, beautiful and delish Chinese classics.
Whampoa Club
Address: Jia 23 Financial Street
Tel: 010-8808-8828
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