We have been here several times to the Guanghua lu Branch with a bunch of friends. We have always found the service to be really good and accommodating. On the menu you can find something for just about any one's tastes, including those foreigners who want American style Chinese food. There are nice large private rooms for large groups, and if you have an extra large group, adjoining rooms can be opened up to allow everyone to be in one room.

The food is fairly standard Chinese fare, as well it offers Roast Duck. The Cashew Chicken is a good choice for those tired of Kung Pao Chicken. Many of our friends like the Lemon Chicken, however my wife and I found it too sweet - think lemon meringue pie meets chicken.

This is not a bad place to go eat, espically if there is a large group or you have friends and family coming to visit. However Xiao Wang Fu's just does not have any special distinguishing aspects about it.

Having been in Beijing for about three months, I haven't made it out to many of the restaurants listed in expat publications, preferring instead the relative convenience of eating out in the neighborhood, which is saturated with small, hole-in-wall, oily gaifan places and a couple fairly average midrange Chinese restaurants. However, I recently, having read that Xiao Wang Fu was somewhat of a fixture in the Beijing restaurant scene, decided to check it out.

It's obvious why Xiao Wang Fu's receives some of the waiguo ren accolades it does: for a Chinese restaurant it has a very extensive wine list, the atmosphere is pleasant, and the service is excellent even though there is no service surcharge. Furthermore, the prices are on par with any other mid-range Chinese restaurant, and they take foreign credit cards.

The menu has good English, pinyin, and pictures of all the dishes, but this is pretty common at nicer places, and it's completely counterbalanced by the fact that the accordion-style folding system is extremely ungainly and unintuitive.

Most importantly, the food is disappointing. We were eating with some guests who requested nothing too spicy, so we steered clear of a few favorites, but the food we got was generally fairly bland. Maybe the difference is no MSG, but the food was definitely kind of bland, and their eggplant was disappointingly lacking texture, which is usually one of the best attributes of Chinese cooking. I can see the blandness suiting foreigners well, but it doesn't really make a case for distinguishing it from the average mid-range Chinese restaurant, where the quality of food is often much better for slightly cheaper.

Xiao Wang's definitely has things going for it, and, if you're particularly timid in Chinese restaurants, you may appreciate the good service, but the food does not really distinguish it from the kuai-a-dozen offerings anywhere else in Beijing, and it comes at a marginally more expensive price than many comparable places.