Order Sad Bibimbap and Eat From a Shovel at New (North) Korean Village Beer House

Surprise surprise, we found another new restaurant in Sanlitun, and this time, it’s Korean, in fact it’s Yanji-style (the small city in Jilin province that borders on North Korea). Opened at the end of September, New Village Beer House is located on the quiet Dongdaqiao Xiejie, unfortunately just a stone's throw away from the garbage station behind Sanlitun Soho.

"Beer house" sounds cute, almost like the house made of cake and confectionary in the Grimm Brothers' Hansel and Gretel, and thus we went to try it at lunch time one weekday. Inside, it seemed to be as quiet as the street pictured above, the staff hadn't even switched on the lights in the room that housed the beer fridges until we had already been seated for half an hour.

The menu is bilingual, in Chinese and Korean, so you’d better either know some Chinese, or Korean, because not all of the dishes have pictures. When we were studying the menu, we politely told the waitress that we might need some time to decide what to order. She seemed very eager to serve us, mostly since we were the only customers there. In fact, she ignored our request and decided instead to stand there and stare at us. With the pressure and anxiety building by the second, we ordered that most classic of Korean dishes: bibimbap (RMB 25) as well as a side of seafood and fried bean sprouts (RMB 48).

Everyone likes bibimbap, which is warm rice topped with an egg, meat, vegetables, and chili pepper paste, served in a hot stone bowl. We went for mild, and it was still really spicy. We were a little disappointed, however, because everyone knows that the most joyful thing about bibimbap is the crispy crust from the rice at the bottom. However, this rendition had some oil at the bottom of the pot, and no crust at all, probably because it just wasn't cooked long enough. Alas, we'd much rather have bibimbap at one of the many chains, such as Hannashan or Zhengyiwei, both noisy and crowded. These have a thick crust at the bottom of the steaming hot stone pot, and waitresses with a DGAF attitude.

The fried bean sprout with seafood was burn-your-throat kind of spicy and far too salty. This dish was served in a shovel, a real one, filled with bean sprouts, squid, clams, and crabs. We're really not sure about this shovel touch, maybe they should save it for winter to shovel the snow in the yard?

The music here is a loud and eclectic mix of randomness: American pop songs, 80s Chinese pop songs, and Korean music, with a TV hanging up on the wall rolling the lyrics, giving the sensation that dinner can turn into KTV at any time. This was a little discerning.

Why didn't you drink the pain away, you might ask? Well, the booze offerings are three soju and a decent 25 kinds of beers, at RMB 20-35, including Vedett, Hoegaarden, Chimay, Lindemans, Panda Brewing, Delirium Tremens, 1664, and several German bottled beers. Unfortunately the Beijinger staff never drink at lunch time (ha!), but the waitress was keen for me have a fruity Lindemans Beer.

Apart from this casual sexism, we should take a step back: for a relatively new (North) Korean restaurant hidden away near Dongdaqiao, their beer selection is really not that bad, but they do call themselves a beer house and for that it's a little lacking.

New Village Beer House
5 Dongdaqiao Xiejie, Chaoyang District (159 1097 3839)
高丽新村啤酒屋: 朝阳区东大桥斜街临5号

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Email: tracywang@thebeijinger.com
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Photos: Pinterest, Tracy Wang

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The ethno-centrism of these pieces is more and more disconcerting.