2012 Sep 11 Capital Bites: New Bagel Delivery, Two Guys and a Pie and a Stall, Kerry's New Menu
First, the sad news: The folks at the oyster bar Starfish are having trouble with licensing, so they're unable to provide food items until further notice – but they're working very hard to get things sorted out. Now for the good news: There's a new bagel delivery service in town and Two Guys and a Pie are opening a little stall in Sanlitun. Also, Kerry's Kitchen updates their menu, as does Yi House, and we've got some Mexican Independence to celebrate.
Starfish informed us at the end of last week that they'll need to stop serving food for the time being. This also changes their opening hours, to Tue-Sun 4-11pm. Fans of their oysters and seafood will be happy to know some of it is available for takeaway. For a full list of what's available, email info@starfishbeijing.com. In the meantime, Alisha and her team are working hard to bring customers more value. You can enjoy 30% discount on all bottles of wine between 4-8pm, and they've got cocktail specials too.
The next time you're stumbling home after a night in Sanlitun and are craving some meat in flaky pastry, you'll be in luck. Two Guys and a Pie are opening a stall right across from Heaven Supermarket. They'll be dishing out four flavors of pie (meat, curried chicken, chili, vegetarian) at RMB 25 each. They may be open some nights this week, but the official opening date is this Friday. They're also promising more flavors and side dishes soon. If you've never tried their stuff, check out our early review of their pies.
In other good news, we've got bagels in town again! The new Tavalin Bagels are starting with orders by email: tavalinbagels@gmail.com. Delivery's available on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays but you need to give them one day's advance notice (they tell us bagels take nine hours to make). When we tried them out on Monday, we found the bagels to be sizable and both fluffy and chewy. They would have benefitted from a quick pass through a toaster, but unfortunately our limited kitchen facilities made it impossible to test that theory.
Bagel flavors (half dozen RMB 60, dozen RMB 100): plain, sesame seed, cinnamon raisin, rosemary, sun-dried tomato, salt. Our favorite was the salt, but we all agreed it might have been because all the savory bagels could have used just a touch more salt, particularly the rosemary one, which came studded with sesame seeds. They also sell schmears (RMB 25 for 250g): plain, rosemary garlic, chive, veggie, sun dried tomato, lox. The lox was delish.
We'll definitely be ordering from these guys again, even if one of our colleagues said, "They need to work on their holes. Some of these don't really have one." Bagels have a hard time making it in this town for some reason (Hegels, etc.), so we're always rooting for the next contenders.
Kerry's Kitchen is rolling out a new menu, and it revolves around sharing. If you didn't learn your lessons in nursery school, head over there for a crash course. They're serving sharing platters from each of their three kitchens. The grill platter will feature steak, lamb skewers and very delectable honey-lime-chilli chicken wings. The cold kitchen will serve up sushi, salads and soups. Finally, the Asian kitchen will offer stir-fries, hand-pulled noodles and more. And then of course there's the dessert: ice creams and chocolate mousse squares and tofu creme brulee which arrive at the table on a bed of smoking ice. It's a fun space with great food so give it a whirl sometime.
In fact, Kerry's is hosting an Argentinean Grill wine dinner this Friday. RMB 488+15% gets you five courses with wine pairings from the Dominio Del Plata Winery. Call 8565 2356 to reserve.
Yi House at Grace Beijing is also switching up their brunch menu for autumn. It continues to be one of the best brunches in town, and we know people who are already planning a visit to check out the new items. That's dedication.
Of course, Q Mex is also celebrating Mexican Independence this Saturday. Be sure to check out our Talking Pints column later this week for more details on how to get in on la fiesta.
Photos: Marilyn Mai, wings courtesy of Kerry's Kitchen
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The venue
Our first stop would have to be our local hole-in-the-wall, Hangzhou Xiaochi, across from the Sanlitun police station. I’ve become friends with the owners over the years (I eat there literally every day) and their food is cheap, standard and doesn’t make you sick. As my friend Ben puts it: “You never have to worry about the woks being clean because the turnover there is so high they’re washed with food.”
