Eat the World: Your Guide to French Cuisine in the Capital
Beijing ain't all Peking Duck, as you know! It's a rich and diverse landscape of culinary culture from around the globe – so diverse that it can be hard to keep track of! So we're helping out with our new Eat the World column
Fancy a souffle, quiche, duck confit, foie gras, or even a spot of caviar? This week, we're rounding up French restaurants around town so you'll know where to go when you're craving cuisine française.
Casual and mid-range
Highlights: Compared with the slow-cooked Parisian cuisine of your typical bistro, this Embassy-district diner focuses on the heavier home-style cooking of Lyon.
Must-try dishes:
- French-style braised escargot (pictured)
- Quenelles au Sauce Nantua – creamed fish, seasoned and smothered in a crayfish sauce
Price Range: RMB 280+ per person
Highlights: One of the latest additions to the French family in Beijing, Panorama has made a splash in Sanlitun with it's quiche and crepe brunches and all before it's even begun to open for dinner.
Must-try dish: Salmon crepe.
Price Range: RMB 90+ per person
Highlights: The flagship restaurant of Groupe Flo in Beijing, Maison Flo is popular both for it’s indoor fine dining and more affordable terrace menu.
Must-try dish: French Oysters
Price Range: RMB 250-750+ per person
Highlights: A recently opened Flo restaurant, Roti focuses on the grill. For the good-weather months, they've got beautiful outdoor seating to boot.
Must-try dishes: Grilled mushrooms, roast chicken with foie gras stuffing
Price Range: RMB 400 per person
Highlights: Another one of the Flo family, F Bistronome offers homestyle cooking crafted by their team of "French Mamans." They've also got a great view of the Guomao area.
Must-try dishes: Orange souffle, "Rougie" duck leg confit
Price Range: RMB 400+ per person
Highlights: More on the casual side but with plenty of french classics to choose from, Bistro 108 has garnered its share of regulars over the years.
Must-try dishes: Confit dumplings, bucket of mussels
Price Range: RMB 200+ per person
Highlights: Bistrot B likes to add creative twists to traditional Parisian dining while also serving up pastries by morning and crepes by night.
Must-Try Dish: Foie Gras Burger
Price Range: RMB 300+ per person
Highlights: A restaurant and bar that's become a favorite of Sanlitun winos and lovers of affordable French cuisine.
Must-try dish: Fondue Bourguignonne
Price Range: RMB 200 per person
Highlights: Focusing on the meatier side of French food, O'Steak offers steak, burgers, and skewers in addition to more familiar french dishes.
Must-try dish: Argentinian beef tartar.
Price Range: RMB 280+
Highlights: It may be more known as a bar than a diner, but the management has been slowly rolling out French-style dishes onto the menu.
Must-try dish: Básque Chicken
Price Range: RMB 80+ per person.
Fancy and fine
Highlights: Is this the best restaurant in the world? That’s what Trip Advisor users said in 2019 when they voted it their hutong location to the top of their global list. Founded by Ignace Leclair, TRB offers fine-dining style French cuisine with typical “indulgences” and seasonal menus in a contemporary architectural setting.
Must-try dish: Pickled Salmon
Price Range: RMB 1000+ per person
Highlights: Another fine dining option, Les Morilles is Black Pearl award-winning restaurant.
Must-try dish: Langoustine
Price Range: RMB 1000+ per person
Highights: An art gallery turned fine dining establishment, Fudao's French-Italian menu is crafted by famed chef Jean-Christophe Ansanay-Alex.
Must-try dish: Foie Gras
Price Range: RMB 500+ per person
READ: New in the Neighborhood: Chicken Tenders, HK Hot Pot, and Waffles
Images: courtesy of the venues, Joey Knotts, Dianping
Comments
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BauLuo
Submitted by Guest on Sun, 07/04/2021 - 20:50 Permalink
Re: Eat the World: Your Guide to French Cuisine in the Capital
Well, not both, just one. And only in the tickly spots. Not between the toes, where some fungal plasma may yet be residing.I believe my toenail fungus was legitimately aquired, in Canada, sloping throu the crick, looking to aquire bloodsuckers, which I could salt and cook up on my Sterno stove. Inadvertently, i may have aquired, also an unexpected toenail fungal infection which I have come to love and adore. Howso, I wish to expand the world's populace's appreciation of cuisine, especially tribal and disenfranchised groups in the upper reaches of the Amazon, hence my magnanimous offer of toenail donation. You gots a problem wit that buddy?I think I may have toenail fungus. I have heard that in certain tribes in South America, toenail fungus is considered a delicassy. I would gladly contribute my toenail fungus to help your research into this topic. Do you know of any restaurants in Beijing specialising in toenail fungus soup?
You're Canadian, no? Isn't that cultural appropriation---Ulster Scotch offscouring transplants of the timbered wastes hijacking the broth once sipped by the god-kings of Paititi? Though, yeah, that might amount to a certain je ne sais quois...a certain borrowed elegance. And fungus soup IS "plant-based"
Let me guess. In order to show I have no problem with this, I have to lick your bare feet? Better that than eat 4th Grade school lunch again, I allow.
BauLuo
Submitted by Guest on Sun, 07/04/2021 - 02:23 Permalink
Re: Eat the World: Your Guide to French Cuisine in the Capital
I believe my toenail fungus was legitimately aquired, in Canada, sloping throu the crick, looking to aquire bloodsuckers, which I could salt and cook up on my Sterno stove. Inadvertently, i may have aquired, also an unexpected toenail fungal infection which I have come to love and adore. Howso, I wish to expand the world's populace's appreciation of cuisine, especially tribal and disenfranchised groups in the upper reaches of the Amazon, hence my magnanimous offer of toenail donation. You gots a problem wit that buddy?I think I may have toenail fungus. I have heard that in certain tribes in South America, toenail fungus is considered a delicassy. I would gladly contribute my toenail fungus to help your research into this topic. Do you know of any restaurants in Beijing specialising in toenail fungus soup?
You're Canadian, no? Isn't that cultural appropriation---Ulster Scotch offscouring transplants of the timbered wastes hijacking the broth once sipped by the god-kings of Paititi? Though, yeah, that might amount to a certain je ne sais quois...a certain borrowed elegance. And fungus soup IS "plant-based"
BauLuo
Submitted by Guest on Sun, 07/04/2021 - 02:10 Permalink
Re: Eat the World: Your Guide to French Cuisine in the Capital
NoNoNo. it is simply acceptence and appreciation of our collective toenail diversity. Aintcha been schooled yet?I think I may have toenail fungus. I have heard that in certain tribes in South America, toenail fungus is considered a delicassy. I would gladly contribute my toenail fungus to help your research into this topic. Do you know of any restaurants in Beijing specialising in toenail fungus soup?
You're Canadian, no? Isn't that cultural appropriation---Ulster Scotch offscouring transplants of the timbered wastes hijacking the broth once sipped by the god-kings of Paititi? Though, yeah, that might amount to a certain je ne sais quois...a certain borrowed elegance. And fungus soup IS "plant-based"
BauLuo
Submitted by Guest on Sat, 07/03/2021 - 16:56 Permalink
Re: Eat the World: Your Guide to French Cuisine in the Capital
I think I may have toenail fungus. I have heard that in certain tribes in South America, toenail fungus is considered a delicassy. I would gladly contribute my toenail fungus to help your research into this topic. Do you know of any restaurants in Beijing specialising in toenail fungus soup?
BauLuo
Submitted by Guest on Sat, 07/03/2021 - 01:09 Permalink
Re: Eat the World: Your Guide to French Cuisine in the Capital
"It's a rich and diverse landscape of culinary culture from around the globe "(unquote)
Whatever happened to words like "different, mixed, various, assorted, miscellaneous, sundry, motley, manifold, heterogeneous, assorted"? They all mean something on the order of "diverse." Which lattermost term is in a dead heat with "innovative" to die from overuse. Odd, innit? The biggest diversity pimps are boy-toys in bondage to a deadingly monochrome verbiage. One has to plumb Soviet-era state organs to find a correspondingly constipated style of expression.
Well, we don't speak, or think, for that matter, in words, but collections of words, i.e. phrases, chunks of words. Of course many phrases are overworn, because the writters don't have the chops to think or write outside of well-worn cliches. But heck, this ain't highbrow shit, whatcha expect? It's not like ya can just pull out your Roget's Thesaurus and plug one word in place of another. Of your list of proposed alternatives, the only one that would work in that phrase would be `assorted', (which for some reason you listed twice, perhaps unconsciously [or consciously] knowing that that is the only word that would work).
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