Huajieyiyuan
The restaurant is one of the oldest and most famous on the street. It sits in a private courtyard and has a grand traditional Chinese archway at its gate, painted in red and gold. But it's more expensive than others on the same street.
It won fame with hot and spicy crayfish but then developed other dishes in its own style. For instance, it offers roast duck but serves it with slices of honeydew, pineapple, cucumber and hawthorn fruit as well as sweet soy sauce and wasabi. That's quite different from conventional roasted ducks. The plum juice here is strongly recommended.
It also offers evening performances of traditional Chinese music and drama.
Address: No. 235 Dongzhimennei Street, Dongcheng District
Telephone: 8610-8407-8288
Open from 10:30 a.m. to 3 a.m. next day
Accepts credit cards and has an English menu.
Cost per person: 60 to 100 yuan (8.7 to 15 U.S. dollars)
Xiaoshancheng Hot Pot
Spicy, very spicy. That's the common impression of hot pots here. But you can choose less spicy versions, as it offers seven kinds of hot pot soup base. You can pick two or three kinds of soup base and the restaurant will put them into one pot in separate compartments. They have special pots that have two compartments, which look like the Taichi symbol from above. The one with three compartments looks like a Mercedes-Benz symbol from above and it is named Benz hot pot.
What to "rinse" in the hot pot (a term commonly used by Chinese about boiling raw foods in a soup base) varies widely. It includes fish, beef, mutton, vegetables, toufu, mushrooms and frogs. Frogs, raised specially for eating, are strongly recommended by frequent customers here.
Many red lanterns are hung in front of the restaurant under its huge golden symbol. It is very noisy inside during prime time.
Address: No. 251 Dongzhimennei Street, Dongcheng District
Telephone: 8610-8402-0856
Open 24 hours.
Accepts credit cards and has an English menu.
Cost per person: 50 to 70 yuan
Yingxiong Shanzhuang, or Hero's Castle
This "theme" restaurant portrays itself as a scene from China's martial arts tales. Remember in almost every martial arts movie, there is a fight at a restaurant or inn? You will feel as if you are a Kung Fu master when stepping into Hero's Castle.
The waiter will greet you with "Come in please, master" and guide you to a table named after a famous martial arts school, such as Wudang or Shaolin. The wall is decorated with traditional paintings on martial arts topics, windows have bamboo grids and wooden tables and chairs are made in old style.
Chopsticks are called Nanchaku and dishes are also named after martial arts terms or dishes discussed in famous martial arts works of fiction. There is no menu -- the owner, or "Lord of Hero's Castle", will arrange the meal for you.
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