White Tiger Village: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Chuan'r

One of the undeniably great things about the hutongs is their ability to incubate unique and interesting businesses within their winding depths. So it is with White Tiger Village, a beautiful, design-led space – all angular colored stools, scrubbed wood surfaces, and Plastered 8 murals – serving gussied up chuan’r alongside Jing-A beers (RMB 40) and a very accessibly priced wine list.   

It was early days when we tried the food, and while the chuan’r itself could use some tweaking – we loved the skewers of charred okra, but were less impressed with the slightly-sweet chicken wings –the brief menu contains some definite highlights. The Jinzhou dry tofu salad (RMB 20), the tofu sourced in the owner’s home town of Jinzhou in Liaoning (the only place that makes it properly, we’re told), veritably dances across the taste buds, a celebration of cumin and coriander. Pair it with a glass of their house wine, the light and eminently drinkable Domaine de Montplo Cuvee Montplo Blanc 2013 (RMB 30/glass, RMB 138/bottle) and enjoy it on their small-but-perfectly-formed terrace before the warm weather retreats, at which point you might want to switch to the daily stew (RMB 40), a rib-sticking mix of beef, carrot, and radish.

These attempts to pull street food in off the pavement and polish it up ready for dinner have to be thoughtfully executed to succeed and although it is still early days, so far White Tiger Village is pulling it off. Take a date or a bunch of friends and revel in your hipster smugness.

White Tiger Village
Tue-Sun 11am-11pm. 84 Xiang’er Hutong, Dongcheng District (5719 2684)
白老虎屯：东城区香饵胡同84号

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Photos courtesy of White Tiger Village