Beijing Restaurants

1. Dali Courtyard

This beautiful courtyard restaurant serves refined Yunnan food. What's more, the menu is fixed, so this is an excellent choice for those who don't want to misfire on the ordering.

2. Din Tai Fung

This Taiwanese restaurant specializes in beautifully crafted xiaolong bao—steamed dumplings that are filled with piping hot, aromatic soup. Crab, chicken, and duck are lovely alternatives to the standard pork dumplings, or go wild with the black-truffle option.

3. Migas

Migas is a whirlwind adventure in rustic Spanish gastronomy. The setting is glitzy, and the atmosphere is spirited, especially after 9 pm, when the bar and sprawling terrace really spring to life.

4. Sake Manzo

Beijing’s best all-round Japanese izakaya-style restaurant is the place to go for frothy mugs of Asahi draft, sublime soba noodles, and some of the best sushi and sashimi in the city for the price. The slow-cooked pork belly in miso broth with a poached egg gets rave reviews.

5. Alameda

Serving contemporary European fare with a Brazilian twist, Alameda is housed in a funky outdoor mall behind the hubbub of Sanlitun's bar street. Though most lauded for its good value weekday prix-fixe lunch (88 RMB for two courses), which often features filet mignon or codfish, on weekends the restaurant slow cooks a big batch of authentic feijoada—Brazil's national dish—a hearty black-bean stew with pork and rice. The glass walls and ceiling make it a bright, pleasant place, but they do magnify the din of the crowded room.

6. Bellagio

Like other branches in this popular chain of glitzy, see-and-be-seen restaurants, this one dishes up Taiwanese favorites to a largely young, upwardly mobile clientele. A delicious choice is the "three-cup chicken" (sanbeiji), served in a sizzling pot fragrant with ginger, garlic, and basil.

7. Bottega

You probably didn't come all the way to Beijing for pizza, but you won't regret having it at this restaurant. The Neapolitan owners ensure that everything is authentic, from the chewy but light pizza pies (cooked in an imported wood-fired oven) and perfectly prepared pasta dishes to the impressive wine list.

8. Café de la Poste

Although good, the French food at this cozy bistro seems beside the point: people come for the nighttime revelry. The bar doesn't close till the last person leaves (even if it's 5 am)!

9. Café Sambal

Inside a cozy traditional courtyard house, this mainstay of Beijing's international dining scene offers some of the city's best Malaysian and Southeast Asian dishes. Sambal refers to the house-made chili sauce that gives an authentic kick to many of the dishes. Best bets include fiery beef rendang, butter prawns, chili crab and the four-sided beans in cashew nut sauce. The antique-furnished interior is stylish and intimate, and a chilled-out vibe makes this a great place to linger over a meal.

10. Ding Ding Xiang

Hotpot restaurants are plentiful in northern China, but few do it better than Ding Ding Xiang, a self-proclaimed "hotpot paradise." Diners order a variety of meats, sliced paper thin, as well as seafood, mushrooms, tofu and vegetables to be cooked at the table in a wide selection of broths (the wild mushroom broth is a must for mycophiles), or, better yet, order a partitioned pot to accommodate multiple soup varieties. The dipping sauces, used in the final stage of eating, are thick and delicious. Despite the surly service and gaudy decor, this place is perennially crowded.

11. Ding Ding Xiang

12. Hani Geju

More familial than fancy, this cozy restaurant serves Yunnan staples such as Bai-minority goat cheese with bacon (smoked in-house), potato balls (fluffy inside, addictively crisp outside), zingy mint salads, and delicate rice noodle dishes. It's also just a stone's throw from the Bell Tower.

13. Karaiya Spice House

Hunan cuisine, or xiang cai, is famous for its extensive use of colorful chili peppers, resulting in a "dry heat" rather than the more aromatic heat of Sichuan and its famous mouth-numbing peppercorn. This contemporary Hunanese eatery puts an international spin on the region's well-known flavors, like steamed fish with fresh diced chillis, sizzling spice-roasted duck, flame-baked shrimp wrapped in tinfoil, and a giant rack of melt-in-the-mouth, spice-encrusted pork ribs. The dining room is elegant without being showy, and service is friendly and attentive.

14. La Pizza

An Italian pizza-man can often be seen working the massive brick oven at this glass-enclosed corner joint in Sanlitun, popular with Italian expats for the most authentic Napoli-style pizzas in Beijing. The classic Margherita is top-notch, with a thin crust, bubbled and charred at the edges, topped with creamy buffalo mozzarella and a perfectly tangy tomato sauce. Or you can say "when in Beijing" and try the Peking duck pizza, one of many available options. A good selection of antipasti, salads, and pastas round out the straightforward menu.

15. Lei Garden

Bright and bustling on any day of the week, Lei Garden really packs them in on Sunday afternoons for dim sum amid glamorous surroundings. The pan-fried turnip cake is juicy and topped with generous amounts of grated veggies, and the shrimp dumplings are bursting with sweet plump shrimp and crunchy bamboo shoots. A platter of roast pork, with bite-size pieces laced with buttery fat and capped with crisp, crunchy skin, hits the spot. Private dining rooms offer sanctuary from the crowd.

16. Madam Zhu's Kitchen

This sprawling basement venue offers a whirlwind culinary tour of Chinese regional styles in a brightly lit space decked out with sofas, green plants, and stylish photographs of the owner and her friends. Madam Zhu is in fact the founder of the popular Sichuan chain Yuxiang Renjia. Here she's branched out with confident updates of classic Chinese dishes, including delicate "lion's head" meatballs (a Huaiyang dish from Yangzhou) served with crab roe and freshwater bass, crispy duck, tender black-pepper tenderloin, and poached egg whites filled with crabmeat. A great place to discover a contemporary take on Chinese food unconstrained by tradition or convention.

17. Makye Ame

Fluttering prayer flags lead up to the second floor entrance of this Tibetan restaurant, where a pile of mani (prayer) stones and a large prayer wheel greet you. Elegant Tibetan Buddhist trumpets, lanterns, and handicrafts adorn the walls, and the kitchen serves a range of hearty dishes that run well beyond the region's staples of tsampa (roasted barley flour) and yak-butter tea.

18. Middle 8th

In the heart of Sanlitun's shopping and dining district, this trendy Yunnan restaurant, known as a celebrity haunt, is a great place to wrap up a day's exploring. Deep earth tones, soaring ceilings, and traditional handicrafts are a relaxing setting to enjoy sticky-sweet pineapple rice, sizzling platters of Yunnan beef with fried potatoes, "crossing the bridge" rice noodles, and the restaurant's signature paijiu mushrooms. Don't miss the delicious staple of sweet potato rice with mushrooms and chives. The libation of choice here is a tall bamboo pitcher of mijiu, a cloudy, low-alcohol rice wine with a sweet, fragrant taste.

19. Nola

This is the only place in Beijing—perhaps all of China—to get genuine New Orleans grits, jambalaya (peppered with dark sausage), traditional gumbo, and other Cajun and Creole fare. For a quick snack, grab a po'boy served in a crusty roll with a side of fries; the pork tenderloin with bacon-wrapped plums will do for bigger appetites. A lovely rooftop terrace makes for romantic alfresco dining overlooking leafy embassy gardens and nearby Ritan Park. Finish with warm apple cobbler and a melting scoop of nutmeg ice cream.

20. Peking Duck, Private Kitchen

Instead of the banquet-style scene found in Beijing's more traditional roast duckeries, the setting here is more laid-back, with diners lounging on comfortable sofas in a moderately sized, warmly lit dining room. The succulent signature dish is still made to exacting standards, and other popular dishes such as kung pao shrimp and green beans in sesame sauce are done well, too.