9 New Chinese Restaurants You Can't Miss

Jessica Folker | May 25, 2013 11:00 am | Add a comment | 2650 reads

We've tallied up the votes and shared your 2013 Reader Restaurant Award picks already, and now we're taking a closer look at your favorite spots. Beijing foodies are spoiled for choice, and it's not easy being the new guy in this town. This year's Best New Chinese Restaurant winners may not have been open long, but they've managed to grab your attention and please your palate in a city full of fierce competition.

Winner: Lost Heaven

After winning devotees in Shanghai, Lost Heaven brought their Yunnanese flavors north in spring 2012, charming Beijingers with their elegant take on Yunnan and Southeast Asian folk cuisine, like Burmese tea leaf salad and prawns with jizong mushrooms. Cocktail lovers also flock to Lost Heaven for their inventive cocktails from award-winning mixologist A Wei, who whips up Eastern-influenced drinks like the pu-er martini and Thai zeed cocktail.

Lost Heaven has been picking up awards all over the city:

They were named a 2013 Restaurant Week Winner by Dining City.

Time Out awarded them for Best Interior Design and gave them a Merit Award in the Best New Restaurant category of their 2013 Food Awards.


Outstanding: Southern Barbarian

Outstanding winner Southern Barbarian is the second Yunnan place to grab top votes in the Best New Chinese category. This smartly decorated spot in trendy Baochao Hutong has a lot of competition in Yunnanese-saturated Gulou, but Southern Barbarian’s impressive beer list, goat cheese dishes, and chic atmosphere keep it from getting lost in the crowd.

One of our readers likes the Southern Barbarian's sense of style:

“The decor at Southern Barbarian is really nice: good lighting, cool art on the walls, and refined aesthetics.”

Our panel of experts was also impressed, making the rank as Tom O'Malley's pick for Best Yunnan.

Outstanding: My Soup

Central Park’s My Soup also garnered an Outstanding award in this category for their Cantonese-style comfort food. Don’t let the name fool you—not everything on the menu has to be slurped with a spoon. Whether you opt for their noodle soups or a less liquid option, like the claypot rice dishes, My Soup’s meals make an impression with their wholesome, healthy ingredients.

Our reviewer had this to say about their beef brisket noodle soup:

"The soup was lined with eye-poppingly green vegetables. Unbelievably tender meat anchored the bowl, while the broth had me deliriously sipping away."

We're not the only magazine in town to take note of My Soup. Time Out gave them a Merit Award this year for Chinese Casual Dining.

The other nominees for Best New Chinese Restaurant this year were:

Do you agree? Leave your own comments below to rate the winners or add a reader review yourself. The full list of the 2013 Beijinger Reader Restaurant Awards results is available here.

Photos: Josh Ong, Sina.com