guangxi provincial restaurant: an intimate obscure affair

When I think of provincial restaurants in Beijing, it conjures images of the opulent xinjiang-nese, hugely popular Sichuanese or the amazingly tropical Yunnanese (that I wrote about a while back). These restaurants stand out one way or another in terms of decoration, staff and atmosphere. The Guangxi Provincial restaurant in Beijing (广西省驻京办餐厅) kinda took a step away from that path and decided to get lost!

Tucked away in a nondescript building connected to the Guangxi provincial office off of the 3rd ring road, right before the shuanjing bridge, this little cozy place blends in its environment with a simple facade that largely goes unnoticed (at least by me)!

however, that facade is just a facade! beyond the reach of that first dining hall you’ll find a huge room ready to accommodate groups and banquets of any size! There were just two of us so we chose to stay out front and keep an eye on the bicycle outside!

One gigantic plus for the restaurant is that they have an English menu which is an achievement considering their location and the fact that they don’t get much foreigners over there. That said, they only had 1 copy in English and it only had 2 pages worth of foreigner-friendly dishes. We asked for the more substantial and all-inclusive Chinese menu instead with had about 10 times the choice of items.

We ended up ordering:

Guilin Stewed Chicken (桂林黄焖鸡 gui lín huáng mèn jī ): absolutely tasty with nice chunks of chicken, bamboo shoots, mushrooms and a few peppers. not spicy with good subtle flavors. Definitely a must have!

Tiger-Skin peppers( 虎皮尖椒 hǔ pí jiān jiāo ): I’m not a big fan of peppers but I must admit I had a few of these and they tasted good. light sauce and seasoned with a few dofu beans.

Guilin Rice noodles (桂林米粉 guì lín mǐ fěn ): a local specialty. reminded me of Sichuanese noodles I’ve had a long time ago. They lacked a bit of salt but again, delicate flavor.

We also had a deep fried beef dish that just didn’t cut the mustard!

All in all, a nice pleasantly surprising experience and an unexpected location! Polite service and clean locale.. It’s not the outlandish chuan ban but for a good meal with no pressure, definitely a keeper. The central CBD location is also a good advantage. It is one of the more obscure provincial restaurants around as even the locals don’t frequent it much judging by the number of reviews/comments on dianping. That said, I’ll go there again

Links and maps for the guanxi provincial restaurant:

广西省驻京办餐厅 Guang Xi Sheng Zhu Jing Ban Canting

朝阳区东三环中路双花园南里6号
Chaoyang Qu Dongsan Huan Zhong Lu Shuang Huayuan Nanli 6 Hao
+86 10 6776 0911 x700

at LocalNoodles | Cityweekend | dianping | MobileNative