Street Eats: Guizhou-style Wawa Serves Spicy, Cheap, But Mediocre Street Food

U-Town at Chaoyangmen is more than just a shopping mall (though it's full of some of our favorite international brands, like Old Navy, Forever 21, Bershka, Zara, H&M, Muji, and Uniqlo) – it is also a place packed with restaurants, especially in the basement. After we tried the Hong Kong street-side egg puff at Mai Chi Ling last year, we headed back down to the basement for another new restaurant: Wawa.

Intrigued by pretty pictures online, we paid a visit on a weekday at lunchtime. The place looks like a trendy café, with white-tiled walls, decorated with some sage wisdom in bright blue neon: “think good thoughts, do good things, eat good food, if she’s mad feed her!” Light green chairs and wooden tables give the otherwise sterile-looking spot a warmer and more natural look. After putting in your order at the counter, find a table (if you can), scan the QR code on the table to pay, and wait for the ayi to bring your food. But what about people who don’t have WeChat wallet or Alipay? Well, how do they even live in Beijing without those?

We opted for the bestsellers: fried tofu balls (RMB 19), bitefuls of tofu with thick, deep-fried crusts and some chili sauce on the side. The balls were a bit dry, but the sauce was plenty spicy and served with fried soybeans. The fried rice (RMB 32) was not bad, with chopped chili, scallion, shredded carrot, and sliced Guizhou sausage.

The small sour soup set (RMB 39) features a bowl of vegetables and noodles in sour soup, a bowl of rice, some dry chili sauce for dipping, and a mung bean-based drink. The soup contained bean sprouts, Chinese cabbage, fried tofu and noodles in a deep red broth under a thick layer of chili oil. It was, per its name, spicy and sour, but dropped the ball by using too much lemongrass. Don’t get me wrong: I like lemongrass, but it overpowered an otherwise balanced mix of textures and flavors.

They also offer siwawa, a traditional dish consisting of shredded carrot, cucumber, radish, chili, fried beans, seaweed, paired with chili sauce, all wrapped in a pancake (think the vegetarian version of Peking duck). We like the idea of providing street food in the nice atmosphere, but they should pay more attention to the food. I guess the place is popular due to the good value and the multitude of people working nearby, but far from the best Guizhou restaurant in Beijing.

Wawa
Daily 10am-10pm. B1, U-Town Shopping Mall, 2 Sanfeng Beilu, Chaoyang District (170 0108 8955)
朝阳区三丰北里2号悠唐购物中心B1层

More stories by this author here.

Email: tracywang@thebeijinger.com
Twitter: @flyingfigure
Instagram: @flyingfigure

Photos: Tracy Wang, Dianping