WorldTraveler1024

We will be in Beijing in May and are looking forward to eating at local restaurants. Though I am a bit concerned that I will not be able to walk into a local restaurant and order frequented by locals and just go ahead and order. I do not speak their language nor do they likely know mine.

Or am I mistaken. Can i go into a typical mid priced local Beijing restaurant where food is about $20 a meal and expect to see a menu in English and get good food and responsible service. I am not talking about fast food or restaurants that are in hotels designed for tourists. But instead places where middle class Chinese eat in.

What has been your experience with local Chinese sit down middle class restaurants?

rkkwan

The bigger and more famous restaurants will have English menus, but definitely not the small local eateries "around the corner", and food stalls which don't even have menus. But it doesn't mean you can't eat there. You can always use hand signals, and/or point to what others are eating, etc.

kiwi_rob

We went to one such "around the corner" restaurant in Beijing a couple of years ago. We chose it because it appeared to be popular with the locals. There was no English menu, but we were taken around the restaurant and encouraged to point at anything on the other tables that took our fancy. This was all greeted with tolerance and good humour by the other diners.

The food chosen was excellent.

Kathie

Yup, the pointing routine works well all over the world.

NoFlyZone

And even some of the lower end restaurants will have photo menus so you are not limited to just what other tables are having. Sometimes the walls are covered with pictures, too.

One caveat: some things on those menus look great but will not necessarily be all that good to everyone in your party. So plan on getting multiple dishes and enjoy the meal family style. Usually the two of us will get 4 to 6 items plus rice with at least 3 being "safe" and the others various levels of adventure.

The locals always seem to be very appreciative of tourists who come to their local places. Sometimes one with a little bit of English will even try to help. They all seem to watch your first tastings and if you look up, smile and give a thumbs up everyone will all but cheer you! Tons of fun.

thursdaysd

The "point at other tables' dishes" routine is always good, although sometimes the results, while looking like what you expected, don't taste like what you expected! In smaller places away from the east coast I've also used the "go into kitchen and point at ingredients" technique - this has produced some awesome stir fries.

You could also see if your local Chinese restaurant has a Chinese-English menu, which would get you the characters for things like chicken and pork, if your guidebook doesn't have them.

mike_L

Well, around-the-corner type of restaurants unually do not have bilingual menu. However, locals are for sure willing to help you. Try places with colleage students, you will have a better chance getting help from English-speaking eaters.

"Point at other tables" will definitely help.

WorldTraveler1024

How is the food quality and hygiene of the restaurant in Beijing in the eating establishments for the locals where few western tourists will visit?

Hanuman

Hire a guide for the day and the guide will become your translator as well. $30 - 50 for a guide but your holiday will be more fun.

thursdaysd

I ate street food and at hole-in-the-wall places in Beijing and other places in China with no ill effects.

PeterN_H

Where do you eat out when in China?

Absolutely anywhere. There's no great mystery here. You have money and restaurants want your business so everyone is happily working to the same end.

Any half-decent guide book will provide you with a large range of recommendations, as well as with characters for key dishes in different regional cuisines to help you when you walk in to somewhere not listed. If yours doesn't, then you need to buy a new one, or pick up a copy of specialist title 'Beijing Eats' by Eileen Wen Mooney when in Beijing. Your key issue is avoiding trying to obtain Cantonese dishes in Sichuan restaurant or roast duck in a jiaozi ('dumpling') restaurant, or meat in a vegetarian place. But at the price range mentioned (rather higher than mid-price, in fact) picture menus are common.

The last thing you need is to multiply your costs (visible and invisible) by hiring a guide, either at the very high price quoted or something lower and more reasonable, unless you want to find your ears filled with inaccuracies, and that the restaurants you enter to have to pay the guide a kick-back even when not those she's chosen for precisely that purpose.

Peter N-H

Hanuman

Wow chill N-H. I said use the guide as a translator I did not say let the guide choose or even recommend where you eat. Big diff there but you seem so righteous with that statement - bravo!

PeterN_H

Let's avoid the ad hominem and stick to the facts of China travel and actually read what the posting says.

There was a blanket recommendation to take a guide. Amongst the very many reasons why this is not a good idea (even at a more reasonable price than those quoted) are that the guide will tend to steer you to restaurants that know her and discreetly hand out kick-backs (possibly with a higher priced menu to give you, too, so that the kick-back is absorbed). Readers need to be aware of this, especially as it is very likely to happen and yet wasn't pointed out in the original recommendation. If to 'chill' is not to warn them, I'll stay toasty.

However, and as the posting goes on to point out, guides will also expect kick-backs (and indeed will sometimes be openly offered them in front of you on the expectation that you do not speak Mandarin) from restaurants they do NOT themselves choose. So quibbling about whether it was originally recommended that the guide should choose (and nobody said it was, nor is that relevant) is not to the point.

It's a natural result of taking a guide that they should 'guide' you to a restaurant and so readers need to be warned, and indeed the same issues apply when a guide either takes you shopping, or is merely present when you shop. For these, and several other reasons, guides do not make a holiday 'more fun' at all.

Hanuman

I think we are from different worlds as when I travel to a foreign country I make use of a guide when possible. Their principal duties is to guide me to sites and I normally choose where to eat, especially in places like China or Japan. Expensive for some yes, cheaper guides can be found yes but like all things the better they are the more expensive their fees but to tell you the truth I don't think $30 - 50 a day is that expensive for a guide. The guide(or more like a translator or assistance) and driver that I like to use in Beijing work on and off for a friend's company there and have very good taste in food but there again we probably have different taste or appreciation about Chinese food.

For the OP what's wrong with hiring a guide in a foreign country? Most well traveled people are not so gullible as to let a guide just take you to strange places and con you at every opportunity. Yes you will probably meet a guide like that if you were to just go out and look for one on the street but if you have people who can recommend them to you prior to your trip then IMO that's a great bonus. You'll save time and have someone to translate and guide you to where ever you want to go.

Hanuman

About pointing at pictures of the food or at other people's food. Unless you are used to eating everything, like innards, fresh water turtles etc. Sometime it's very difficult to tell what the dish is so be prepare to be adventurous.

PeterN_H

The arguments on guides in China (other countries are entirely irrelevant) have been gone over under a good many threads, but here they are again:

You don't need one. If you usually travel independently there's no reason not to do so in China.

Guides in China do not know their history or culture, and indeed have been trained to tell you falsehoods galore (some of which they do not realise are falsehoods, of course). You need to bring more reliable information from home.

They overcharge you (and simply claiming to believe that US$50 or whatever is a fair price, when it is do drastically out of scale with the local economy, doesn't constitute an argument).

At every point there is a commercial transaction, with the sole exception of tickets for the biggest sights, the guide takes a kick-back. Your restaurant and shopping choices are driven by the kick-backs on offer, not by what is best for you.

In short a guide will typically and unmercifully take you for every penny while apparently being tooth-acheingly sweet at the same time, and while providing you with an entirely ersatz view of your destination.

> Most well traveled people are not so gullible as to let a guide just take you to strange places and con you at every opportunity.

This is entirely contrary to fact and experience. Most people discussing guides here do in fact expect them to 'guide', and many who would go no where near a guide in other countries feel they might have to take one in China simply because of the cultural differences. They hire a guide precisely because they fear not being able to do anything for themselves (read street signs, understand what anyone is saying, avoid eating dog, etc.) and do not expect that they guide will do anything except ensure they are well taken care of, give them special local experiences they couldn't find for themselves, and protect them from cheats. But in fact the whole system is a cheat, and the special local experience is one of having their pockets thoroughly picked. To keep yourself at a distance from real food, real prices, and real experiences in general, the best way is to take a guide, and most people recommending guides here have absolutely no clue just how much they have been taken for a ride in two senses.

To return to the food question, the book mentioned, 'Beijing Eats' will, for a tiny fraction of the sums guides will take you for, introduce a fabulous range of regional cuisines and local snacks almost entirely unknown outside China, provide you with the characters for key dishes in each cuisine in case you find restaurants for yourself, and the characters for individual dishes at specific recommended restaurants, which includes myriad locations entirely unknown to guides, including back-street jiaozi places and restaurants in private houses as well as comfortable picture-menu mid-range and top-end places, and without a kick-back in sight. Jump in a cab, show the characters for the restaurant's name and address to the driver, and you're off. A guide would only be an unnecessary hindrance and expense.

Peter N-H

thursdaysd

Although it looks like you can't buy "Beijing Eats" in the US, the author does have a website, with photos - see http://eileeneats.com/wordpress/

kja

Once in Beijing, where will I be most likely to be able to buy 'Beijing Eats"?

thursdaysd

For places to buy "Beijing Eats" see http://www.immersionguides.com/order/21/Beijing-Eats

kja

Thanks!