China is famed world wide for its cuisine and there must be few countries where it has not become part of the established catering scene. However, not all of the many varieties of Chinese food are available overseas. As the capital of China, Beijing has become the focus for all manner of gourmet foods that you would expect to find in the Chinese provinces. Traditional Beijing cuisine such as roast duck, imperial cuisine and hotpot are still the main items on the menu for most locals. However, as more and more people arrived from the provinces to settle in the capital, other genres of cuisine such as Canton, Sichuan have become a part of what is on offer from Beijing's many caterers. So, now it is possible to find the widest possible range of excellent food ranging from simple dishes to quite exotic ones. In addition, there are many excellent restaurants that serve foreign cuisine. All in all, Beijing is a gourmet's paradise and there are establishments to suit all tastes and all pockets.

It is said that there are two things that you must do when you come to Beijing. One is to enjoy the roast duck and the other is to take a stroll on the Great Wall. There is no set order in which to do these two things but a walk on the Wall is sure to give you a good appetite for the duck! It may be said that this adage is a little exaggerated but it does emphasize just how delicious the duck can be. There are literally dozens of restaurants that serve the Beijing Duck Dinners but perhaps the best known and most famous are the Quanjude and Bianyifang. They each adopt a different method of preparing their duck but each produce a delicious result. The prices charged at the Quanjude tend to be rather higher that those at the Bianyifang.

Hotpot and imperial cuisine are also typical flavors of Beijing, Other specialist restaurants offer a choice of the eight famous cuisines of China, as well as American, French, Italian, Indian, Korean, Vegetarian restaurants are all easily found. Most restaurants in Beijing generally do not charge service fee. But some high-standard restaurants will charge ten or fifteen percent extra fees for service in the bill.

Taking hygiene and quality into consideration, we have carefully chosen the following for reference, see Beijing restaurants list: