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Beijing food

All local Beijingers would know about the famous 'Peking barbecue' restaurant, Kaorouji. It first started in 1848 in the Qing dynasty and was rebuilt in 1995. This 'Chinese old name' restaurant serves authentic Chinese Ismalic cuisine, with the famous dishes like slices of barbecue meat Kaorou and Baked Sesame Seed Cake Shaobing. It is situated along the north bank of Qianhai in the Houhai area, opposite the Silver Ingot Bridge Yinding Qiao.

This restaurant has a very small branch along Yan Dai Xie Jie Slanting Pipe Street, also really close to the Silver Ingot Bridge Yinding Qiao. This place is a real find; a lady stands at the small entrance and calls upstairs to the waiter (who I think is her husband) to get you a seat, as they only have seats upstairs; she does it with a real Beijing accent! You go up a narrow flight of stairs to the small restaurant full of proper old Beijingers like rickshaw drivers and the like. The waiter is an old Beijinger as well and has a traditional politeness about him. The view from the upstairs window is great and you can witness the hussle bussle of the Yan Dai Xie Jie Slanting Pipe Street down below. The food is very traditional and delicious - needless to say the slices of barbecue meat Kaorou and Baked Sesame Seed Cake Shaobing. They also make great meat pancakes Roubing and the BEST Sour plum juice Suanmei Tang, which is a sweet and slightly sour drink that is very cool and refreshing in the summer (this place makes it with real rock sugar, not normal sugar like you get in the bottled ones in the supermarket). If you want something that you can't get anywhere else in China - try Fermented Mung Bean Juice Douzhi - but it's not for the faint-hearted because it stinks!
The only downside is that I don't think they have English menus and the waiter probably can't speak English.