Mediterranean Liangma: Ben Hassen of Mana

Fifteen years ago, Tunisia native Ben Hassen came to Beijing with little more than love for China. His restaurant Mana is his way of paying the city back.

What brought you to China?
I have always been fascinated with China. I can remember wondering about this giant country with an ancient history back when I was learning geography in high school. So I decided to study tourism and Chinese in university. I read a lot of books about China and the more I read, the more fascinated I became. I had a job lined up for me back home after university, but when the time to came to go home after a year of studying in China, I couldn’t leave. In the last 15 years in China, I have visited a lot of places; have made great Chinese friends and international friends as well. I have seen it all. My kids were born here, they speak Chinese and they go to school here. I think China is a great place to raise kids and raise them well.

How did you get into the restaurant business?
I have always worked in the hospitality industry. I really like the idea of helping people and making them happy, and I think that sincere smiles on people’s faces are invaluable. Another reason is that I love food, and have always been passionate about it. Not only is it part of our lives, it’s also something that can be a daily experience.

Is Mana your first project in Beijing? Why did you wait so long to start?
Yes it’s the first project in Beijing and it’s actually my first restaurant, period. I have known my business partner Mariana for years – we used to work together. We decided to join forces in this venture because we both love food very much and we trusted each other completely. When we came to the beautiful, quiet bank of Liangma River we knew it needed a good Mediterranean restaurant. That’s when we began to study the market, the restaurant business, looking for the perfect spot, and decorating it. We were very lucky to find our beautiful chef Maria who is brilliant. It took a long time to get everything in the right place, and we probably couldn’t have made it without all the help from our friends.

What’s the meaning of Mana?
Mana is a Latin word. In the Bible, Mana is the delicious food God sent to the people who were suffering in dessert. In Portuguese, it’s a loving name for a sister, which implies the beauty of the feminine and sense of family. We think of ourselves as a family friendly restaurant, and cater to families. Plus, we think it works really well because Mana is a simple name that is easy to pronounce and remember, for both expats and Chinese.

So you specialize in Mediterranean cuisine?
We serve cuisine from all Mediterranean countries – France, Italy, Greece, Spain and recently we started to cook food from northern Africa. We always have a couple of options from each region on the menu. It’s interesting that all these countries use the same ingredients to cook but the resulting dishes are very different. I myself am from Tunisia and am a very big fan of couscous. We also have a Tunisian starter and desert. The starter is called Brik, a fried pastry with tuna, egg and caper inside. It’s a very common snack in northern Africa. We eat it everywhere. The desert is Bouza cream with almond cigars, which is seasoned with orange flower essence.

Do you do lunch specials and other type of services?
We have a set lunch and dinner menu that we change all the time. We also cater for parties and hold special events. Besides that, we have a monthly happy hour on the last Friday of each month from 6 pm to 8 pm where we serve many different kinds of Brazilian snacks and finger foods, and people can enjoy buy one get one free drinks.

Mana. Daily 11:30am-10:30pm. 2 Sanlitun Beixiaojie (next to Liangma He), Chaoyang District, Chaoyang District
朝阳区朝阳区三里屯北小街2号