Probably the best meal I've had in Beijing

My dinner at Okra might have very easily been the best meal I've had in Beijing, so five stars there. We went for the RMB650 omakase set menu, in which you don't know what are you getting exactly, leaving everything to the chef. It blew our minds: the menu comprised 9 dishes plus 8 or 9 nigiri sushi pieces. Almost everything was stellar: inventive without being gimmicky, fresh and extremely taste. If anything, we found the soup after the sushi somewhat bland, not bad but nor on par with the rest of the dishes. Anyway, no big deal. As I said, the food was superb and, although expensive, both my gf and I considered it good value for what we got. Would definitely be back for a special occasion, and I strongly recommend going for the omakase.

I'm sincerely rooting for this restaurant to succeed, but I have my doubts. On a Tuesday night, the restaurant was totally empty and we were the only patrons, so the ambience was glacial. This has an obvious upside, which is having all the chefs and waiters for us, and hence enjoying a very good service, but to be honest, when I'm dining out I prefer something in between: neither packed nor desert. Obviously this is not Okra's fault. However, a minor criticism: since the waiters had nothing to do except serving us, pretty often during the meal they would stand beside us, staring at us while we ate, which felt a little awkward. Again, I'm not trying to slam the team at Okra (the waiters and our chef were professional and very nice to us) but I think this is something that should be corrected.