Lin's Dining Lounge Specializes Fancy Vegetarian Western and Chinese Fare

Tucked away on the second floor of the New Grand Dynasty Hotel on Maizidian Jie, Lin's Dining Lounge is a fashionable vegetarian restaurant incorporating both elements of Chinese and Western dining at reasonable prices. The decor is modern, with neutral-colored furniture and a low-hanging lights spread out across the sizable dining room.

The restaurant may be vegetarian but is vegetarian in that very Chinese way of still serving meaty and fishy classics, such as shepherd's pie, a vegetarian of rendition of shuǐzhǔyú (Sichuan boiled fish), and Kungpao chicken. Textures, colors, and shapes would have you deceived, but really, you're not hurting a single animal. The mock whelks, pictured above, could pass for the real deal but are made using yams instead and served with a vinegar and sesame seed dressing. 

One other dish that we really enjoyed was the shepherd's pie (RMB 66), which, although a little on the sweet side for Western tastes, had a thick and stringy cheesy top layer to satisfy the most ardent of turophile. The 'meat' of the pie was a rich tomato-ey vegetable mixture with chunks of sweet potatoes and mushrooms.

On the Chinese side, the shuǐzhǔyú, a Sichuan dish usually comprised of fish cooked in a chili broth, saw the fish replaced with spongy tofu, and cooked alongside other veggies such as beansprouts, lotus root, and potato, and provided just the right amount of burn (read: you'll break a sweat). Unfortunately the whole concoction was a little on the oily side, although when not eating hot pot, that's a complaint that we generally have with Sichuanese restaurants around town anyway.

All in all, given the oft-repeated "China is not a vegetarian-friendly country" the addition of Lin's is one more viable option to prove the naysayers wrong. It also makes for an especially good meal out for visiting vegetarians, giving them a place to sample some real Chinese cuisine, meat-free.

Lin's Dining Lounge
Daily 10am-11pm. 2/F, New Grand Dynasty Hotel, 58 Maizidian Jie, Chaoyang District (6500 6766)
朝阳区麦子店街58号北京新大宗饭店2层

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Photos: Margaux Schreurs