La Rosee Brings Excellent Food for a Great Restaurant Week Deal

La Rosee, part of the Flo group of restaurants, is one of the many places taking part in Dining City’s annual Restaurant Week (actually a 25 daylong event) running until Apr 3. They have two options for diners: either a set lunch menu priced at RMB 118 per person or a set dinner menu priced at RMB 198 per person.

This was my first time going to a Restaurant Week experience and I was excited to try out a new place because, as I’m sure many of you fellow Beijingers can relate, it can be so easy to get stuck in the rut of going to the same familiar handful of places to eat all the time. 

Working full time, my friends and I don’t have the luxury of trekking across Beijing for a lengthy lunch, so we went for the dinner option. La Rosee is located in Xidan’s Joy City and I have to admit I normally have a tendency to avoid restaurants in malls as they can feel rather impersonal and lacking in atmosphere, however I was pleasantly surprised by La Rosee’s ambience.

Up on the sixth floor in a designated dining area, strategically placed plants and chic furniture gave it more of an intimate and less mall-like feel. Although we had booked ahead through the Dining City app there seemed to be a little confusion when we first arrived about being there for the set menu, however this was soon sorted out. 

For the three course set menu diners are given the choice between two options for each course. I went for the smoked salmon salad starter, steak main and cheesecake dessert. We did have to remind the waiter to ask how we wanted our steaks cooked (medium rare, or 三分熟 sānfēnshú).

After taking our order the waiter returned to tell us that the chef recommended we at least have the steak medium (五分熟 wǔfēnshú) and we had to reassure him that no we wanted it medium rare. This has happened to me almost every time I’ve ordered steak in China because of an apparent aversion to bloody meat, I’d hate to think what the reaction would be if I ordered it blue!

The smoked salmon starter arrived promptly and I was very happy to see the healthy portion size as a pet peeve of mine is the tiny portions some more upscale restaurants give you. The salad had a very good balance of flavor between sweet and savory and an ideal amount of dressing that didn’t overpower the delicious smoked salmon. 

Unfortunately, halfway through eating our salads our main courses arrived and we were forced to rush the rest of the starter so that we could begin eating our mains before they got cold. Despite the initial reluctance of the chef, the steak was cooked perfectly medium rare, rendering it juicy tender and absolutely delicious.

The accompanying potato puree and roast vegetables were equally tasty, pairing really well with the steak. The only downfall was that everything was slightly cold and I’m sure everything would have tasted even better hot.

Rather than being served our dessert halfway through the main, we were instead asked if they could now serve it and we suggested they wait until we were finished eating to bring it out.

When the cheesecake arrived I was again glad to see that it was a very generous portion. This was a Basque cheesecake, sometimes also referred to as a “burnt” Basque cheesecake because of the dark outside of the cake. 

Unlike other cheesecakes it has no crust and instead crushed biscuits were served on the side, along with raspberry sorbet and mixed berries. I am a big cheesecake fan and this one was truly the star of the show! It was rich and creamy, not overly sweet and the slight sourness of the fruit and raspberry sorbet contrasted perfectly. 

Overall, the food at La Rosee was excellent, it was just a shame that the service was a little disorganized and lacking, especially when it came to the timing of bringing meals out. However, it was clear that the servers were at least trying to do a good job of serving, our waiter was particularly attentive with refilling our wine glasses and our plates were all cleared very swiftly. 

The meal was definitely worth the RMB 198, but a word of advice if you do go it may be wise to explicitly say you want your courses served after each one is finished to avoid any mishaps or cold food! 

La Rosee 枫丹露原
6F Xidan Joy City, 131 Xidan North Street, Xicheng District
西单北大街131号西单大悦城6楼

READ: Recommendations for 2022's First Edition of Restaurant Week

Images: Katie Coy, Dianping