The “Golden Tripod Attic” (Jin Ding Xuan) is near the Lama Temple, and it‘s perfect if you‘re looking for a place to have dinner either with a couple of friends or a large group of people. You can get there by taking the subway to Lama Temple station (Yong He Gong) and then take the exit that leads to the Temple of Earth (Di Tan).
This bustling several-storey-restaurant is really atmospheric, each floor with different seating arrangements. The Golden Tripod is famous for its Cantonese cuisine, but also offers Shandong, Sichuan, and Huaiyang dishes. The menu is available in English, although the translations are sometimes perhaps a bit too unspecific. I ordered “Sautéed vegetables with cashews”. “It’s sweet,” the waiter warned me. I got crisp seaweed and cashews with sugar.
It tasted really good, just not what I had expected. There’s a menu with “dim sum” – the famous Cantonese snacks. It’s not translated into English, but it’s got pictures, so you can see what you order. If you’re having seafood, you can also avoid surprises by picking your food right from the aquarium. In any case, the Golden Tripod Attic is a great place for trying new dishes and experiencing the Cantonese cuisine in Beijing. I can really recommend it.
Steamed buns filled with vanilla custard
