King's Joy — Restaurant in Beijing

It's is a stunning vegetarian restaurant tucked away in the ancient Chinese quarter of Wudaoying Hutong, just across from the Lama Temple. This was the first restaurant I ate at when I first arrived in Beijing and also the first 3-Michelin star restaurant I ate at in China. For me, this is the best vegetarian meal I have ever had, simply amazing – far surpassing all the Michelin starred vegetarian restaurants in Japan and Europe.

Located across from the iconic Yonghe Temple, the restaurant’s entrance is shrouded in mist and harp music emanates from the center of the dining room. It may be a bit odd, but it fits perfectly with the excellent design, elaborate menu and beautiful atmosphere of the place, which turned out to be one of the most outstanding meals (including non-vegetarian dishes) I've ever had in China.

The restaurant has 5 types of menus: Seasonal Tasting (¥999), Imperial Grand (¥1399), Comprehensive Set (¥1999), Indulgence Set (¥2588) and Luxuriant Set (¥3999). I chose the latter set, which has a total of 18 steps from appetizer to dessert, all using seasonal vegetarian products.

The dishes showcase a variety of cooking techniques, from pan-frying, steaming, stir-frying, braising and even slow cooking. From the strong flavour of the Sichuan mushroom jerky, to the complex texture of the Malay vegetable curry served with rice crackers, my sister and I nodded to each other in silent appreciation for every dish on the menu. Not only did the chefs use excellent ingredients with rich flavours, but they also enhanced the dishes with their professional marinating and fermentation skills.

The space was beautiful, the food was delicious, yet unfortunately the service was lacking. The only downside to this lunch was probably the poor staff training. It was basically non-existent. However, I was reminded by my friends that this is quite common in Beijing, even in high-end places. The main job of the waiters is simply to bring food from the kitchen and bring back empty plates. As a result, the staff had little to no knowledge of the ingredients, or the order of the dishes, so my order was messed up – one of the main dishes ended up right before dessert, while a cold appetizer was served alongside the main course. When I told the senior manager that they really needed to pay more attention to the order of the dishes, her response was: “All the dishes were served at the end, isn’t that the most important thing?” She wasn’t rude at all, just really clueless about how the menu worked.

However, both my sister and I agreed that, in the context of such great food, the frustration with the service team was a minor issue. I will definitely come back here whenever I am in Beijing, as it is hard to imagine anywhere else in the world that can create such a delicious meal without using meat.

¥3999 / 1 person ~ 14 million...

Excellent service, beautiful food presentation, boring flavors.

We thought that the dishes felt a little too safe, we usually prefer fine dining to be a little more experimental in terms of flavor profile. We really enjoyed the presentation of some dishes, for example, they use liquid nitrogen to create a mist around the food. Though we wished that they removed the liquid nitrogen dispenser after it had completed its job, because once it was expired, it continued to make rather unsettling " bathroom noises".

There was a wonderful harpist during our meal. We enjoyed that very much. Also, there was a small bamboo garden to the left of the restaurant which we almost missed. It was nice to explore there a little bit as we waited for our ride after the meal.

There was an unexpected 15% service charge. I wish this was included in the menu, perhaps it was and I overlooked it. As I understand it, this is very uncommon within China.

We found this restaurant through the Michelin guide. They are very proud of their three stars, incorporating it widely into their branding. The menu, the handkerchief, even the front entrance has the big three Michelin stars all over it. It's a little tacky and a bit loud. An entire page of the menu is filled with awards, that's just silly. Let me enjoy the food and I can decide if I like it. I don't think a feature film would have the audacity to include it's rotten tomato ranking at the beginning, middle and end of the film. Just put it in the trailer and move on.

As an American: I would have appreciated a menu with American conversion pricing, particularly for the wine. I found the table to be of a strange height. I'm not a tall American, only 5'7 but I felt like I had to stoop over the table to reach the food because it was so oddly positioned from me. The chair was positioned very far from the table for my liking, and the arms of the chair prevented me from positioning myself closer. I wish that either the chair could get closer to the table, or the table could be of raised height. My Chinese wife had no issue with this.

The bathroom was a little too high-tech for me. The stalls did not have a lock for me to latch. I would have preferred one.

The meal was accompanied by a few gifts, something to eat and something to take away. Much appreciated.

Overall, we were very pleased with the service level but found the food a little boring so we would recommend you check it out but we probably...

I feel like this place should be called “Mushroom’s joy”instead of “King’s joy”. It’s fine dining so of course overall the food tastes good, the service was excellent, and it was overpriced. This place was my first 3 Michelin stars restaurant and I walked in without a reservation. It was a unique experience for sure, but I don’t think I would necessarily recommend this restaurant, unless you’re really into mushrooms or really want to try the first 3 Michelin stars vegetarian restaurant of the world… The place is located right next to the Lama temple and the setting is quite exceptional. There was an artist playing harp and it was extremely beautiful. Even though all of this atmosphere was amazing, the food was NOT it. It lacked texture, it lacked flavour, and the portions were ridiculously tiny. The dishes (including the “mains”) could have all been mignardises. I know that in Michelin restaurants the portions are never huge, but I have never seen such small portions before. It’s clearly because of this restaurant that people laugh at fine dining saying that when you leave you’re still hungry. I disagreed, till this day. Thankfully, before serving the deserts, the waitress asked me if I was full or not, and if you’re not you can ask for more rice or noodles (MUSHROOM soup noodle of course). What disappointed me the most is that not a single dish amazed my taste buds, I never once thought “omg this is genius”, and that’s what I expected for my first experience in such a restaurant… All of the dishes kinda tasted the same, they had the same flavour profile (heavy in mushroom) and the textures were not really developed. It was all kinda soft. This place would definitely suitable to bring your grandparents who lost all of their teeth. The deserts critically lacked originality. I was served a rice pudding (A RICE PUDDING IN A 3 MICHELIN STAR RESTAURANT), a moon cake and a rice cake. Sure everything tasted good but where is the surprise?? So even though overall the experience was pleasant and I’m really glad and feeling super lucky that I got to experience such a special restaurant, the food left so much to be desired. And maybe they used expensive special mushrooms or whatever, but there are definitely better restaurants out there to...