I like this place a lot, but there's something that holds me back from really loving it. I think it's the fact that the bread is never quite as soft as I'd like it to be, never quite as fresh as it could be. Or maybe it's that the yoghurt is slightly sweetened when it should be more sour - the BLCU Muslim restaurant still has better bread and the best yoghurt of any Xinjiang restaurant in Beijing. It might just be that it feels like some of the edge has been taken off the flavors, as if it's slightly over-sanitised.

That said, Crescent Moon is easier for me to get to than BLCU, the food is good and the chuan'r are nice and big, likewise the majority of the dishes. They have Xinjiang beers, including a rich, rounded dark lager - though the beer is pretty expensive for what it is. The restaurant is massively popular with foreigners - you're about 10 times more likely to run into a bunch of expats here than in any other restaurant in this area. So they must be doing something that makes sense to us laowais.

As a previous reviewer mentioned, the staff are pretty unfriendly. But hey, that's life.

Oh - final point - Crescent Moon is mercilessly free of the ridiculously loud music that kind of ruins its rival, Red Rose, which is otherwise a decent restaurant. Thumbs up for relative silence.