Beijing Restaurant — Restaurant in Kolkata

After the Covid Pandemic many restaurant has degraded their quality and increased their prices to makeup the losses. Beijing must have done the same. Although I haven't visited Beijing before but this visit didn't satisfied me.

They're doing a great job of sanitization and covering up tables, every other staffs using masks to meet the safety criteria. We ordered their below top dishes as per Zomato.

Chicken Clear Soup @ Rs.375 (3/5) Very basic plain clear soup with lots of shredded chicken. Portion was ample for 6-8 people.

Chicken with Green Pepper Dry @ Rs.435 (3/5) A nice starter with 12 mediocre chicken pieces, crispy fried and then tossed that tasted very average.

Chicken Chilli Garlic Rice Noodles @ Rs.240 (3/5) This is one of their specialty and they completely messed it up on our table. We ordered Chilly Garlic Noodles and they served completely bland Hakka rice noodles and billed us for the Garlic one. They were taking too much time to serve hence we didn't complain.

Chicken Chilli Garlic Fried Rice @ Rs.225 (2.5/5) Again the same mistake, there was no sign of garlic in it. Just plain chicken fried rice that tasted very very average. Portion was okay for 2 people.

Thai Chilly Chicken @ Rs.435 (1/5) This was less chilly chicken more of vinegar Chicken. It was too sour because of excessive vinegar used. Chicken portion was good with lots of capsicum cooked in thick gravy but such bad sour taste wasn't expected from this place.

All these items costs us Rs.1826 including taxes but that felt bit high comparing the quality of the food. This place is okay for single visit but not suitable for second visit. At least I'm not going to...

We went on a Saturday evening around 8 pm. We got a table quickly for a party of 5. However, the place filled up quickly and people arriving after about 20 minutes had to wait. There is no separate waiting area, so the rest of the time we spent at the restaurant, people were staring daggers at us wishing we would leave. The decor is pretty dated as well. That’s why the 3 stars for atmosphere. Like the decor, the menu was also pretty dated but it was extensive. Plenty of choices in chicken, prawn/shrimp, fish and a decent selection of veggies too, in starters/appetizers and mains/entrees. The food tasted okay: there was nothing that we had to send back. On the other hand, the food did not make us ecstatic or dance with glee. It was quite edible and somewhat flavorful. A majority of our party also had alcoholic drinks/beverages: they were pretty decently priced and served fast. They were served with chips/crisps - which is nice. But we asked for peanuts as well since we had a recovering heart attack patient with us who was not allowed fried food or chips: surprisingly we could not get any peanuts even though we offered to buy them. I’d give a 3.5 here if I could - rounding up to a 4. The waiters/servers were in general pretty attentive and responsive and polite. They got our food out pretty quickly and served each dish individually to everyone in our party. However, two of the waiters got into a loud fight right in front of the customers, hence a 4. Both my family and friends as well as AI (Google AI and ChatGPT) built up my expectations for Beijing as a culinary icon of Chinese cuisine in Kolkata - and based on those expectations, I left slightly disappointed. However, those expectations are not the restaurant’s fault. If I had walked in there with no expectations, I’d have rated the restaurant a solid 3.5 -...

The first time I dined at Beijing restaurant was also the first time I tasted the Indian Chinese cuisine at Chinatown, Kolkata. It was sometime around 2012-13. I still vividly recall the joy I felt when biting into their famous chicken drumsticks. Today's experience however, was deeply disappointing. The three dishes in the pictures are Beijing special chow, chicken in oyster sauce, and fish in hot garlic sauce. Apart from these, we had also ordered Beijing special fried rice. We also ordered crispy chicken and drums of heaven in appetizers. The drums of heaven were remarkably smaller in size than the last time I remember (that was around 2023) and the batter was virtually tasteless. The only taste present was the hotness of pepper. I'd also had crispy chicken in Golden Empire and Big Boss prior to this, and they were completely different and so much better than Beijing's version of it - it was basically chicken fingers. Other places toss long and thin chicken pieces in a dark sauce and stir fry it with veggies in the pan. This was nothing like it. Now for the main course. The fried rice, the noodles and the chicken in oyster sauce were alright. But the fish was a disappointment. We asked the waiter whether the fish is vetki or not, and he reassured us that it was indeed vetki. But somehow, we could not taste the fish at all. The sauce had somehow managed to overpower the vetki's innate flavor - a remarkably hard task. This is why my overall experience was very disappointing. Beijing has definitely fallen behind it's competitors in Chinatown but I hope management pays attention to the current condition of the restaurant, and brings in positive changes to the menu or the...