Spacious Shijie Food Research Institute at Hujialou Piqued Our Interest and Tested Our Patience

I don't know if it's my curious nature or years of work as a food editor, but these days "safe" or "normal" food can't satisfy me. Whenever I see something new, interesting, exotic, or weird, I have to try it even it seems sure to lead to my own demise. This time, while walking around Hujialou station, I noticed a new canteen-like restaurant/food court on the first floor of Jinglong Mansion, calling itself the Shijie Food Research Institute. Come on, a food research institute? There was no way I could just walk by without trying it.

Arriving on a weekday during peak lunch hours, we noticed that the Japanese restaurant Matsuko on the second floor seemed quite busy, as office workers from the building dashed in and out with deliveries. Why was Shijie empty bar for one customer? Why were the workers heading out into the cold world to stuff their bellies instead of opting to stay warm and toasty by dining in the same building?

Ignoring these factors as best as possible, we walked in bravely. Upon entry, you are given an iPad to see the menu, which includes snacks, soup with rice (RMB 28-38), eggs, desserts, and drinks. One good thing is that the menu is bilingual, but a bad thing is that each dish basically takes up a whole page. You have to stand there for five minutes in order to see every dish, and by the time you're at the end you've forgotten half the items.

Looking through the menu, we didn’t find any “staple” foods, and so instead ordered the next best thing: vegetables and boiled eggs with cranberry millet cakes (RMB 42). It took a solid 30 minutes to arrive; so long that we almost forgot why we were sitting there. The small egg-sized cakes were made of millet, cranberry, and pearl barley and came in a portion that was as small as a starter at any other posh restaurant. The side salad was seasoned with a dash of balsamic, but it dropped the ball with the sesame sauce, which was earthy and sweet.

With our bellies roaring, we had to go for the baguette with lemon yogurt (RMB 24), a baguette that would be stuffed with ingredients and ready to fill us up, no? It took us another quarter of an hour to spot the plate by the kitchen, waiting to be served, but the waiters chatted away and weren't as concerned. Our hunger overcame any shyness, and we walked up to them to ask them to fetch the food for us. When the canapés were served, there was no apology, no excuse, not even a smile. However, the canapé tasted good, with a slice of avocado and cold lemon sauce on top of a black slice of bread, but why did it take them so long to serve this cold dish? To round the meal off, we had rum cheesecake (RMB 38), which was served in a small plastic box in liquid, and looked neither like cheesecake or rum.

The food? It's salubrious and of good quality, meaning it's probably not the right place to leave full but to be fair, having an afternoon tea set here would be more reasonable, given that it's empty, quiet, and bright. Second, the set is decently priced at RMB 39.9 and comes with a coffee and tapas (a choice between canapés, roast potato wedges, or a mini burger); or RMB 69.9 for a luxury set, with canapés with a hand-drip coffee.

Looking around, we saw that half of the huge, empty space was occupied with induction cookers and large marble counters. Your food is not actually cooked here, but delivered from a small hole in the distant back wall from the real kitchen. Maybe reforming it as a cooking school will utilize the space more efficiently?

We are not prematurely declaring doom for this new "institute" since it just opened, but we don’t feel their chances of survival are great; the concept is strange, and the service was slow and indifferent. It's not a food research institute, not a food court, not a bakery, nor a cooking school. During our two-hour visit, we couldn’t figure out what it wants to be, and we probably won’t be back anytime soon to discover the answer. The first thing we need to focus on is finding a second lunch.

Shijie
Daily 10am-10pm. 1/F. Jinglong Dasha, 225 Chaoyang Beilu, Chaoyang District (6509 7766)
食介空间·开放式食物研究所：朝阳区朝阳北路225号京龙大厦1层

More stories by this author here.

Email: tracywang@thebeijinger.com
Twitter: @flyingfigure
Instagram: @flyingfigure

Photos: Tracy Wang