Five of the best

"Around 70 percent of Zhouzhuang people share the surname, Xiao - and so do all our chefs."

As well as providing classic Henan dishes, The Five also serves up authentic Henan street snacks. Mudanyancai (radish soup with vegetables and Chinese ham) is a dish that has to be preordered because of its preparation time. It's one of the most important dishes served at the Luoyang Water Banquet (Luoyang Shuixi), a local custom that dates back more than a thousand years that is made up of 24 different soup dishes.

This sliced radish broth has a taste similar to bird's nest soup, and its rich flavor permeates the slices of carrot, ham, mushrooms and many other ingredients contained in the dish.

Mudanyancai is listed as one of the top 10 dishes from Henan. The Five also offers two other dishes from this list - stir-fried spicy and sour fish tripe and braised sea bass with crispy noodles.

Steamed vegetable cake is another dish that can only be found in Henan eateries. Made from sliced potato, carrot and crown daisies, they are covered in flour before being steamed.

Distinctive regional snacks like fried noodle pancakes, tripe skewers, stir-fried bean jelly, fried pork buns and steamed meat dumplings can also be found at The Five.

Lamb rock broth noodles is another signature dish. Made with goat's brains and bones and pork ribs, the soup is cooked for over four hours using more than 20 traditional Chinese herbs.

Traditional desserts like almond soup, osmanthus jelly and tofu pudding are a great finish to a meal at the restaurant, together with Maojian green tea from Henan's Xinyang.

Only one kind of baijiu (white liquor) is available at The Five, Du Kang, of which Cao Cao once poetically wrote: "What can unravel these sorrows of mine? Only by drowning in Du Kang wine."

If you go

11:00 am-9:30 pm, Monday to Friday; 10:30 am-10 pm, Saturday and Sunday. 401B WF Central, No 269 Wangfujing Dajie, Dongcheng district, Beijing. 010-8620-2401.