Where to eat?

Now this is a really a stupid question, Beijing is the capital of a Cultural powerhouse and you'd expect to find food from across the world and china and you'd be right. The Guide books are a good starting point. I found Trip Advisor to be the best source of information.

The guide book does mention that street food is safe and great in Beijing. We didn't get a chance to sample that a lot if any at all.

Food was relatively cheap and with Google Translate you can go a long way in getting things clarified, the table attendants were universally patient, maybe perhaps we went to more Tourist friendly areas, but it was nonetheless pleasant always. I also had flash cards of all the favorite dishes be it Shrimp or Pork dumpling, or Fried Noodles or Vegetarian in my arsenal as well, in case Google Translate failed. I used the flash cards a couple of times. You can download the "Chinese" language file to ensure Translate works even if you network does not.

I'm a Vegetarian while my family is not, so I'll start with what you need if you are a Vegan or Vegetarian, don't leave without the Happy Cow App. It revealed the numerous wholly vegetarian restaurants in Beijing and the best Vegetarian options in those that are not exclusive.

We went to two standouts.

A nondescript place housing a temple and a restaurant in a an alley in Wangfujing, they had a spectacular menu and excellent food Fu Hui Ci Yuan .  Too many options and popular.

The other one was Baihe where again the food was excellent, its a little off from the Lama temple. There are quite a few more in the Lama temple area. This one is more famous.

As for other food:

Grandma's restaurant in the APM mall in Wangfujing was the only placed we visited twice, the food and surroundings at a high standard, but the price was surprisingly cheap. The food and service was good.

Din Tai Fung in the APM Mall as well, had some glowing claims, but their food was not very good and the it was the priciest lunch we had, hardly worth it.

The most satisfying took a little trouble getting to, a 15 minute walk from the nearest subway and nowhere near the Summer Palace as the Guidebooks suggest, a 20 minute drive at least from the Palace for the record, it was the Golden Peacock - Dai ethinic Flavor restaurant  in Haidan qu, Our introduction was a little challenging, it turned out to be less grand than I supposed Lonely planet would cover, and we were a little late, closer to 3pm, there was not a soul in sight on a weekday. Further when we got in, there appeared to be young people more intent on their phones than anything else and absolutely no English spoken.

The menu's were thankfully very well marked with "Vegetarian - Leaf" , "Pork", "Fish" etc.

we ordered fried fish and other things I don't eat that did get high marks from my team, I got Baby Cucumbers curry of some sort and their famous "Pineapple" rice in a "Pineapple".

The former was spectacular, and we couldn't get enough of if. The Pineapple Rice is for Pineapple lovers and its one of the more expensive dishes on the menu.

Baby Cucumbers

Last but not the least for a culinary fest in one place, go to the Food Republic inside the Malls at Oriental Plaza, this place has perhaps more than 500  stores and is almost a mile long. Most of the stores are upscale and of little interest to me. The food court is a amalgam of different types of food many parts of china, it slick, and very interesting and lively, designed for you the tourist. The following are a couple of photos.

Choose your ingredients and they will make your Hot Pot with it :)

The entrance to the Food Republic

For Breakfast we had them at several places, I sampled fruits Made in China including Blueberries, Bananas, Dragon Fruits, Mangoes etc, I found they were all less sweet than in the US, the Blueberries had a flowery after taste and good.

The best Croissants and other baked goods we had was at the Beigel Bakery , only if you are in the area though, I'm sure you'll find Maan Coffe, Cafe Bene, Starbucks, Luckin Coffee and other outlets wherever you are. Many did not open until 9am which was a bit strange to us, not sure if that is area specific.

However the best breakfast my family had was Pork Buns and Salted eggs from Streetside vendors and hole in the wall stores that got very high marks.  Yogurt was very good all around, Gelato in the Malls was good,  my family's hunt for Filet O Fish was left unsatisfied, evidently Cantonese have some version of that, but we didn't find.  Your hotels Breakfast buffet may also be satisfactory, though don't have it every day if you want to be a little adventurous.

Last but not the least, we gave the Peking Duck a miss, you may want to make sure that is one of the things you want hit in your calendar. The guidebooks give you a good intro to what's on offer.