A Vertical Food Tour of Guomao's China World Mall

A few years ago, my friend and fellow foodie, Preston Thomas and I embarked on a food tour of all the restaurants near WAB (Western Academy of Beijing) out on the eastside. We visited Peach, Hulu, Hatsune, Pie Squared, etc. and by the end we had the tastings of nine restaurants.

Over the recent National Day holiday, we decided to recreate our “food tour” idea but in a vertical manner. We chose China World North as it has the most (good) restaurants in a fixed location and doesn’t require any horizontal travel (we were looking at restaurant density as we wanted to hit the most amount of restaurants possible). Also, China World North is not like the typical Chinese mall with a byzantine layout, instead all of the eating establishments are centered between the 3rd and 7th floor.

Our initial goal was to at least beat our previous record of nine restaurants in an afternoon and then we opted to attempt 18. Armed with a floorplan map and list of the restaurant openings and closings, we set off. (Note: in order to accomplish this and not explode like the diner in Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life we agreed to ordering one dish to share in most places except when we would each have a single dish).

Our journey upward began with starters, or the amuse bouche if you will. This included a stop at Green Option for a salad; Michelin recommended restaurant Shanghai Tang for pork neck rolls topped with caviar; and the piece la resistance, a Wagyu beef, foie gras and caviar spring roll at Kanpai Classic, which was one of the highlights of the day and one of the best dishes I’ve tasted in Beijing.

Rounding out these starters were the multi-colored Shanghai soup dumplings – aka xiaolongbao – from Crystal Jade and, moving down to Southeast Asia, traditional chicken satay from Lotus Thai followed by shrimp rolls from Xiao Susu. The latter restaurant is one of many Susu locations to be found throughout the capital, and they serve up really great Vietnamese fare.

Things kept on a roll from there – literally and figuratively – as we munched on sushi rolls from Hana by Hatsune. Hana is considered the flagship restaurant of the chain, and it shows; these rolls were bomb.

Next came the classic guo bao rou from Red Chamber, putting us over the halfway mark and, rolling on from there, pizza rolls from Atta Bj. Amazing with every bite, it would be easy to eat too much, so we decided to save room for…

The main course! Onward and upward we went, sampling pork tacos from The Mission, which is pretty much China’s answer to American chain Chipotle. From Mexico we turned to France, grabbing the signature escargot from F Bistronmne before setting our eyes on Southeast Asia again with Nyonya Kitchen. Here, our dish of choice was Kuih Pai Tee – aka Nyonya Top Hat – a thin pastry filled with veggies, shrimp, and spices.

Things got meaty from here. We scarfed down lamb skewers at make shift butchery Meat Up followed by a fine mushroom soup at Canatto – the newest restaurant to grace China World from the fine folks at The Pizza Show. This umami trip continued with a spicy burger courtesy of Blue Frog – an absolute treat.

Going into the homestretch, it was time for a dessert of sorts. This meant a cookie each (macadamia and oatmeal raisin) from Greybox, followed by pork katsu – back to the meaty side of things again – from Gyu-Kaku. Finally, we wound up at Migas Mercado for some splendid shrimp tapas. That put us at 18!

But wait! If we could do 18, why not push to 20?

Up we went to Root85. The latest restaurant from the Flo Group is known for their set lunches and exclusive wine dinners, but today we settled for some of the freshest oysters we’d ever had in Beijing. To top everything off, it was ice cream at Kurotaki, because there’s always room for ice cream.

People ask: didn’t that afternoon cost a fortune with all of the unique dishes? The short answer: no. We each spent around RMB 750. Not bad for a food tour of 20 restaurants, all in one building!

Postscript – even though all of our travel was mostly vertical, I still got in over 10,000 steps for the afternoon. For those wishing to duplicate our adventure, I highly recommend to not eat any of the following: rice, bread or pasta.

Jim Nobles is an educator and founder of Bizarre Beijing, a company that specializes in haunted walking tours, macabre events and unusual lectures. Preston Thomas (aka The Foodie Emperor) is a fellow educator and President of Chi Fan For Charity. Both Jim and Preston are members of the exclusive food organizations Chaîne des Rôtisseurs and Disciples Escoffier.

READ: Canotto by The Pizza Show Brings Delectable Italian to Guomao

Images: Migas Mercado, Jim Nobles and Preston Thomas