Beijing’s Soup Nazi – Herbal Café

“No soup for you” seems to be the running theme at Herbal Cafe.

I can’t count the number of times I’ve gone to try their herbal, medicinal brewing soups and they are consistently “sold out,” every single time. But it’s not just the soups, at my most recent visit, they were out of half their menu.  And I’m not exaggerating.

I’m starting to think they don’t even make the soups anymore or that it’s all one big conspiracy against LumDimSum.

Ok, seriously, here’s my Review of Herbal Cafe:  Located across from Hatsune and Union Bar & Grill on the 3rd floor of Sanlitun Village. Address: S6-33, 3/F, The Village at Sanlitun, 19 Sanlitun Lu, 朝阳区三里屯路19号三里屯Village3层s6-33  Tel: 6416-0618

Best Part:

• Their menu offers a wide range of herbal teas and soups (so good, they are sold out permanently)
• Range of Cantonese staple dishes and dim sum
• Comfortable booth seating and casual atmosphere makes for a nice, quick meal
• Despite their lack of availability, the restaurant remains consistently full of customers
• Cantonese cuisine is meant to be healthier & MSG free, but seems pretty standard to me

Comments:

• Beijing’s Soup Nazis. The few times I have gone, I am told each and every time that they are literally sold out of every soup. I wouldn’t care so much if I didn’t want their soup as bad as I do.  I guess you always want what you can’t have.
• One time they also said they were sold out of egg tarts, but when I went to pay the bill, they had 3 more egg tarts sitting under a heat lamp next to the cashier.  True fact. And yes, I called them out on it.
• DimSum isn’t the best, but it’s better than Chao Dian (located just behind Herbal Cafe). See review of Chao Dian here.
• For good, healthy soups to cure your winter blues, I recommend Oden & All-Star’s Southwest Tortilla Soup (just added to their new winter menu).

Chains with Confusing Consistency

If you choose to franchise your business, whether you own a grocery chain, laundry chain or a restaurant chain, its safe to say that a certain level of consistency should be expected – consistency in the product sold, service, quality, quantity and selection.

Example of Consistent Chain:

When the second Hatsune opened in Sanlitun Village in April 2009 as a new location with a new design and makeover with the menu, Alan Wong was meticulous in ensuring that the service and product would equal that of the original Guanghua Lu branch that opened in 2001.  Customers like the option of a second location, but they still want to satisfy their sushi samurai cravings – they still expect the usual Moto-Roll-Ah among other favorite rolls.

Example of a Confused Chain:

I remember the first time I moved apartments and went to the neighboring Fornet Dry Cleaning Store to find that my Fornet card with pre-paid credit did not apply to this new Fornet or the gazillion other Fornets in Beijing.  What is that about?

New Example:

After hearing about my terribly disappointing experience at Chao Dian this past week, my good friend Dan Goodman FINALLY took me to the 24-hour dimsum spot near my apartment in the Tuanjiehu hood.  People always tell me about this mysteriously good dimsum spot near me, and I never knew what they were talking about…until today.

Surprise to me, this ‘mysterious dim sum restaurant’ turned out to be none other than the very well-known restaurant chain – Jin Ding Xuan金鼎轩. I have been to the branch next to Tango at least half a dozen times, whether for dinner or late-night grub and always took it as it is – a relatively cheap and massively ginormous Chinese restaurant with quick service, awful entertainment and half-decent food. I never even thought of it necessarily as a dimsum restaurant since their menu also features a lot of Sichuan dishes and standard “Chinese restaurant” dishes.

So naturally, I quite expected my brunch experience today to be similar to my previous experiences and was pleasantly surprised to find a winner!  Again, massive restaurant with 4 levels, it was packed (and luckily no wait upon arrival), quick service, big menu with lots of pictures, and a very satisfying dimsum brunch!

As it was a great experience, I’ll be a returning customer for certain, but knowing the way “chain venues” go in China, I think I’ll still be avoiding the branch by Yonghegong.

Review of Jin Ding Xuan 金鼎轩: 15 Tuanjiehu Nanlu, Chaoyang Park 团结湖南路15号 Tel: 8596-8881

Best Part:

• A good selection of dimsum staples – overall good taste and good prices (ordered about 8 dishes and total bill was RMB 86 (bill at Chao Dian for same amount of food was RMB 174)
• The place was packed, lively atmosphere
• Open 24 hours
• It’s in MY hood!

Comments:

• Normally in the “Best Part” section, I would highlight the fact that there are 4 branches of Jin Ding Xuan (Yonghegong, Tuanjiehu, Olympic Area, and Fengtai), but I would say my experience eating dimsum today was much better than my previously dimsum meals at the Yonghegong branch (which I thought was not fresh and very mediocre).

Highlights were BBQ Pork Buns, Shaomai, and LuoBuoGao, with other dishes being satisfactory.  Everything was good overall but nothing exemplary or mind-blowing in terms of taste and quantity. But for the price, it’s great value.

I’m just waiting for the day when someone opens a Hatsune equivalent to DimSum in Beijing (casual, fun vibe, smart design, high quality raw materials, great service, all for a fair price).

Where oh Where is there Good DimSum?

In case you didn’t notice, I’m all about DimSum.  I love it and not just because it rhymes with my last name.

And yet, I have not been fully satisfied with any DimSum restaurant in Beijing.  Either too pricey, too small in portions, insufficient quality, or all of the above.

So I was pretty stoked to hear that the new addition to Sanlitun Village, Chao Dian, serves up Hong Kong style dim sum, located just behind Hatsune and Herbal Cafe, across from Union Bar & Grill.

Menu at Chao Dian

It’s newly opened, so be warned: they do not take cards and they do not issue fa piaos at this stage.

Presented with a super long, two-sided fold out paper menu with mouth-watering photos and English/Chinese descriptions, I was ready to check all the little boxes.

Everything on the menu looked great – especially the Cha Show Bao (Steamed BBQ Pork Buns), Shao Mai, and shrimp dumplings, so I was happy to see that you could order a combo House Dim Sum Platter inclusive of 4 various pairs of dumplings in one set (RMB 48) -shao mai, ha gao (shrimp dumplings), xiao long bao (Shanghai soup dumplings), and vegetable dumpling. Each item was over-cooked, hard (all dumplings were tough on the outside and the xiao long bao had NO soup, which defeats the entire purple of a xiao long bao).

Eager to try a nice variety, we also ordered a ton of other dishes.

Here’s a breakdown:

• Steamed Veggies – standard
• Pan-Fried Rice Roll with XO Sauce – better than expected
• Steamed Cow Stomach – bright orange in color (NOT normal) and just awful
• Fried White Turnip Cake – pretty good
• Steamed Rice Roll with Shrimp – bland and dry
• Steamed BBQ Pork Buns – standard
• Da Tas (Egg Custard Tarts) for dessert – Best part, served in heart shape and big portioned

Total Bill for Two People: RMB 174

Overall Verdict: Mama-huhu.

Some items were satisfactory/decent, but overall disappointing.  All of the dumplings (which are the essential staples of dim sum) were dry, bland, and tough to chew.  The products did not seem very fresh or high in quality.  But in their defense, I went in with high expectations.

I think the two top dim sum restaurants in Beijing are still Lei Garden & Zen5es (RMB 88 all-you-can-eat-dim-sum lunch special during the week). See here for previous dim sum review.

Review of Chao Dian: 3rd floor of Sanlitun Village (behind Hatsune & Herbal Cafe, across from Union Bar & Grill), No. 19 Sanlitun Road, S6-32, Tower S6  Tel: 010-6413 2998 (M-F 10am-3am, Weekends 9am-3am)

Best Part:

• They offer a pretty extensive menu of dim sum staples (RMB 6, 8, 10, 12, 16, 18 each), congee (RMB 19-22), noodles/rice dishes (RMB 18-38 each), Hong Kong style dishes (RMB 28-48 each), and desserts (RMB 10-12 each)
• I like their menu’s little check boxes to mark your order
• They serve organic soybean milk
• Conveniently located in Sanlitun Village & easy to find.
• Good BBQ Pork Steamed Buns & Dan Tas (Baked Egg Custard Tarts)

Comments:

• All dumplings were bland, dry, over-cooked and just not up to par with what HK dim sum should be. Their Xiao Long Bao had NO soup inside, none, nada, zip.
• Staff did not speak English and quite slow
• Not cheap.  I’d rather hit up Zen5es’ all-you-can-eat dimsum lunch special for RMB 88 per person.
• Be warned: they do not yet take credit cards and they do not issue fa piaos at this stage
• I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt as they are newly opened, but I won’t be going back until someone tells me they’ve experienced better there.

*Note: I have just been notified that there is an awesome 24-hour DimSum spot in Tuanjiehu.  I’m hitting it up this Sunday and will keep you LumDimSum readers posted.  Fingers crossed it’ll be half-way decent dimsum!