Beijing Chinese Restaurant — Restaurant in Lexington

My wife and I have been patronizing this restaurant since it opened and always enjoyed it. Had I been asked in past years to name the best Chinese restaurant in the Lexington/Concord/Bedford area. this would have been my choice.

But recently, in two visits, once myself and most recently with my wife, there has been an obvious drop in quality, accompanied by an equally obvious increase in price, a bad combination.

Our most recent visit, a little over a week ago, began with an almost undrinkable Tanqueray martini (I love martinis -- in small quanitities -- and am very familiar with Tanqueray gin; if what I was served was Tanqueray, then I am the Queen of England) and a glass of a bad Cabernet for my wife. My order of steamed vegetarian dumplings arrived lukewarm with half of them containing bits of shrimp. I could have sent it back but hate wasting food, so I picked the shrimp bits out myself. The rest of the food was really not up to the standard, by a long shot, that we have come to expect from this restaurant.

If what we experienced is now the norm, we'll go elsewhere for...

If there were half stars, I’d probably give a 3.5, but I’m rounding up to 4 because I would go back for sure.

I started with a mai tai which was just ok. They don’t have a lot of tiki cocktails on the menu but maybe they can make the basics. I’ll try something else next time.

For an appetizer we got crab Rangoon. It was minimally stuffed and not very good. It should be avoided.

Dinner was much better. The half peking duck was good. The meat was excellent and the veggies were fresh, though the pancakes were more like a tortilla than a traditional peking pancake.

The spicy sautéed cabbage was amazing. I highly recommend the cabbage, particularly with the duck.

The service was efficient even though the dining room was pretty crowded. The atmosphere is nice, above average for a traditional Chinese restaurant.

Bottom line: I’m looking for a Chinese restaurant near by to be my go to. I’m not sure this is it, but I would...

Really good. I am a first generation Chinese American with parents from Beijing and Shanghai and know this food genre. I am really picky about Chinese restaurants and found the food to be authentic and really good. In particular, this is the first restaurant to serve Moo Shi in what I remember to be authentic -- it's an egg dish with some meat and reconstituted lily buds and cloud ears plus a bit of bok choy for color. I would have liked the pancakes that came with it to be homemade, but that's too much to expect. I've been at this restaurant twice with my brother and others and everyone enjoyed it. The lobster with ginger and scallions was terrific. For those that like spice, this is probably not the restaurant for you. The Kung Pao chicken was a little bit more like the Americanized General Gao's Chicken, but tasty enough. Both times I was there, more than half the customers were Chinese....