Showing some love to Yunteng Shifu

I have been having many conversation lately about the better places to eat this kind of food or the better places to eat that kind of food in Beijing and Yunnan cuisine gets brought up quite a bit. That said, almost inevitably, people are surprised when they hear that Middle 8, Silk Road and Dali Courtyard are not the only options in town and that there is one extremely genuine dining place which is Yunteng Shifu, the Yunnan Provincial Restaurant (云腾宾馆食府). (map)
In Conversations about Sichuan cuisine, Chuan Ban cannot be sidestepped but bring up any of the other cuisines and folks just don’t know most of the time.

Now that's a shangrila worthy feast

Well, for yours truly, a recent visit (my 5th or 6th over the past year and a half) reminded me of why I like Yunteng Shifu and why it’s deserving of more love/attention– not that they need it as the place is always pleasantly busy but not to the point where it is overcrowded.

For once, we actually made it to the restaurant before 8:00 p.m. and that actually resulted is huge difference of attitude (positive) as far as the wait-staff goes. It also made a difference in the number of “Meiyou” we had to deal with: for the first time ever, every dish we requested was available.

We managed to get the Qi guo ji 气锅鸡 ( clay pot chicken) for the first time in a while and i must say it’s pretty darn good. The combination of wild herbs is ever so discrete and tasty. The Boluo fan 菠萝饭 (Pineapple rice) is always a lovely complement to some of the spicier offerings, not to mention Rubing 乳并 (fried goat’s milk cheese) and Guoqiao mixian 过桥米线 (‘Crossing the bridge’ Noodles).

spicy pig ears

classic spicy mint w/ vinegar salad

Roasted Spicy Chicken

I was surprised to discover that they had two types of mijiu on this particular occasion as i was never offered a choice before. We stuck with the one we had before ( yellow version) and I’m sure i’ll be back to try the other one sooner than later.

that's where how the mijiu comes to the table

who said there was no cheese in china?

Overall, this time was probably the best one out of the 1/2 dozen times i had gone there before and not that the previous times were bad. For 10 people, we spent about 600 RMB including alcohol

yummy riblets.... so juicy and tender

empty plates, full tummies, smile on my face

云腾宾馆餐厅（yún téng bīn guǎn cān tīng）(map)
Yunnan Provincial Government Office,
7 Donghuashi Beili Dongqu, Chongwen District
崇文区东花市北里东区7号

reviews and map at: TheBeijinger | CityWeekend | dianping