All the excellent things we'd heard about this place made the actual experience just that much more disappointing and surprising. We went to the new Guomao location and got four dishes: lemongrass chicken, kongpao mushroom, mushroom and potherb appetizer, and the lemon duck. The appetizer was AMAZING, and we figured the rest would be too...and then it was possibly the worst food we've had in China. The mushrooms, which are supposed to be their specialty, were totally undercooked and the sauce wasn't even as good as any random hole-in-the-wall's kongpao chicken sauce. The duck dish was basically an assault on the palate and nearly inedible. The chicken was just so-so. They were rude when we didn't have a reservation, and the whole time the wait staff were loud and rude and disorganized. Luckily the bill was only like 150 kuai (waaaay too expensive for the quality of food and experience, but not ruinous) or I'd have given it only one star. Definitely not going to give this place a second chance.

This was the second time we visited this place. Our ordered items came at regular intervals so all could not eat at the same time and enjoy.The fish was not cooked well. The tofu dish this time was more oily and lacked the spicy flavour as it should have.
By the time the rice came, the food dishes were getting cold.
All in all it was a so so experience this time.
At the price expect better food.

I've been to this restaurant a couple of time over the last few years, and found the food to be of a consistently high quality. They offer a modern take on Yunnan cuisine incorporating some non-traditional elements, which leads some people to complain it's not "authentic" Yunnan food. Sure, it's probably not what they serve up at the average village banquet, but it's still very tasty light southern fare.

The rice wine also goes down a treat.

Service is generally very good and the staff are always friendly - a pleasant change from the indifference or surliness you encounter at a lot of Beijing restaurants.

I didn't go much yunnan restaurant,but Middle 8th Restaurant is great, I like the food and environment.When my friends come to Beijing, I would treat them try there.Good place!!

The quality of this restaurant is definitely not as good as it used to be.
But maybe I'm just another jaded expat harking back to South Bar St etc.

The latest item to disappoint was the rice wine served in the tall bamboo vase.
I've enjoyed it previously but this time it tasted like watered down cordial with baijiu added.

Watered down cordial and baijiu? Reminds of South Bar St. Better times, better times...

I went to both two branch Zhongbalou in Beijing Chaoyang district. One is Sanlitun, another in the Place, both two were impressed me a lot, not only their delicate food, but also the unique decor.

So I highly recommend you to have a try....

Thanks

I finally went to mid 8 with my family. Good menu, but food was a little bit disappointing, it was too spicy even though we asked for just a little bit spicy.

The butter tea (yak butter tea) is not an ideally drink if you can't handle it.

But i will go back there and try some more dishes hopefully it will be better next time.

A good place to eat. Always busy. Offers delicious yunnan food at great price. Service is not great but reasonable. I love it.

Decided to try Middle 8th after reading all the rave reviews--and certainly when we saw the line of people out the door on a Wednesday night, it confirmed how popular this place is.

Decor is nice and the staff were very friendly, and though everything was good none of our six dishes really blew us away--we tried at least two that the forum had recommended. I felt that I had had better meals at other Yunnan restaurants. But the tipping point proved to be the desserts: "coconut milk with fresh fruit" turned out to be a bowl of plain yogurt (the type you can get in any supermarket) with perhaps ten slivers of lemon peel. Nice and refreshing, but it wasn't made of either coconut milk or fresh fruit. Pricing was reasonable though, as the total for six dishes, four desserts, and a bottle of Chilean wine came to 450RMB.

All in all a nice dinner out, and perhaps I went on a mediocre day--but not sure I would necessarily prefer this over Dali or No Name.

This restaurant will make you fall in love with Yunnan cuisine. Joined a friend there for dinner last night and we enjoyed a Shrimp and Mushroom dish, chicken and potato dish, grilled beef (with terrific spicy chutney-like sauce on the side) and delicious meatball dish (served with cheese on top, meatballs were quite tasty. They sat atop a bed of finely diced tomato, eggplant and pineapple. Surprising and delicious flavors. We could find nothing to complain about with the dishes we ordered and would have happily enjoyed more were we not so full. Service was excellent, friendly and the nonsmoking dining room (in a building adjacent to the Yoyo hotel and not connected to the "main" restaurant") was clean, well appointed and very comfortable. Great place - menu is very well done, extraordinary in scope and, so far, all delicious.