Capital Bites: Awards, Celebrity Sushi, Dark Dining
The big news for us this week is our Tenth Annual Reader Restaurant Awards ceremony this Thursday. We'll be posting the results during the awards, so keep your eyes fixed to the site for the full scoop.
Post-awards, the excitement continues in Beijing's dining world. Chef Nobu Matsuhisa is coming to town to lead a one-day workshop this Saturday. It’s a rare opportunity to spend quality time with the renowned chef: breakfast and lunch, a full day of sushi history lessons, a cooking demonstration and a Q&A. We'll be talking with him later this week and will have his insights on everything sushi for you shortly. See here for further details.
The following weekend brings another out-of-the-ordinary, one-off event to Beijing. China World Summit Wing is hosting “Dine in the Dark” in recognition of Earth Hour on March 23. I’ve never dark-dined myself – unless midnight snacks in bed count – but the experience is being promoted as a totally different sensory experience of eating, and I’m quite curious to see if it's true. Ticket proceeds will be donated to Bethel, which supports visually impaired Chinese orphans. Tickets are RMB 1,588. Are you curious too? Call 8571 6460 as reservations are required.
Fresh starts continue past the New Year. Chef Too has been relaunched after renovations. They’re reporting a new “dining and takeaway experience” at the Chaoyang Park location in addition to opening a new location in Wangjing next to the Microsoft and Mercedes building. Further details on that as we hear more.
With openings also come closings. This week it's sad news for burger lovers. The long-rumored shuttering of Kiosk now unfortunately seems to be coming true. The closure is slated for within the next month as the landlord doesn't want to renew the lease.
Flamme Sanlitun is keeping the city stuffed. They've launched a new all-you-can eat weekday lunch menu with a choice between salmon and sea bass or beef shepherd’s pie for the mains. Soup, salad, Yorkshire pudding will run you RMB 38; for a more substantial midday meal, RMB 88 gets you a main course rather than the pudding. In the spirit of excess, I feel it only fair to mention that Flamme is continuing the excellent Wednesday all-you-can-drink cocktails through March 27.
Finally as a tip, consider starting your next week off at Agua as they’ve waived their corkage fee on Sunday and Monday for the month. Not that wine enhances everything, but it certainly helps. They’ve also rolled out a new seasonal additions to their a la carte and lunch set menus. Time for tapas, it seems.
Photo: Cat Nelson
