Good food, good value

Greentea Restaurant has the potential to become the next dining phenomenon in Beijing.

Open for not more than a month, the restaurant has already won acclaim among my friends who've dined there. Good food, good value, was their verdict.

A recent visit proved the eatery to be a delightful hangout suitable for anybody with a white-collar income. The restaurant has a delicate South China feel, with its wooden frames and screens, wooden furniture, and a beautiful porcelain table top with white and blue pattern made in China's porcelain capital Jingdezhen. All of that produce a strong feeling of "not in Beijing".

The food is nice, and the price is likely to make you smile and want to come back. The presentation is average, but it matches the price.

The first Greentea Restaurant was established six years ago along Hangzhou's West Lake, and for starters there is yellow rice wine marinated dried fish, Hangzhou-style marinated duck, and black fungus.

Green tea roast beef slices offer an interesting taste sensation - crisp at the sides, with a tender center. Not sure if it is flavored with green tea, but it is not greasy. Boiled chicken with fresh Sichuan pepper has fresh spring onion and chili on top. The chicken is tender, with mouth-watering fresh pepper fragrance.

The boiled sea bass with whole crab is tender, and has a tasty milk-white soup. The spicy roast lamb ribs and steamed fish head with green chili are both worth a try. While the crab marinated with yellow rice wine is a must-try winner. Finally, "bread temptation" is a funny mixture of hot, crisp bread cubes accompanied by vanilla icecream.

The restaurant offers freshly squeezed fruit juices - orange, waxberry, cucumber, and many others, at an amazing 15 yuan ($2.2) a bottle, and there is fresh green tea from Hangzhou. A meal at the eatery will set you back an average 50 yuan per person.

(China Daily 06/12/2010 page12)