Cozy, hipster atmosphere.
Near the Today Art Museum on the north side of the Pingod apartments is a small restaurant that serves DELICIOUS homestyle Chinese food. I had gone to 小小酒家 (Xiao Xiao Jiu Jia) several months ago with friends, and have been waiting patiently for it to reopen after it closed for renovation. This past week, I had dinner there with Alex and my two roommates. When we arrived at the restaurant around 7:45pm on a Monday evening, there was a small cluster of people waiting outside. The wait wasn’t too bad…around 15-20 minutes. We had hoped to sit outside, but it’s not quite warm enough for outdoor seating =T
Hong Shao Daiyu
Once inside, we asked the waitress what kind of food they served. She said, “All types of cuisines.” The last time I was here, I noticed that on every single table (I kid you not), there was a plate of hong shao daiyu (braised hairtail fish…sounds scarier than it actually is), so of course I had to try it this time around. It’s basically fish in a sweet sauce. I’d recommend trying it. Just be careful of the many bones. Apparently, according to my Chinese roommate, there is a technique to eating it. You use your teeth to gently pull apart the sides, which are boneless, and then pull the meat off the middle carefully.
Fluffy Mantou
We also ordered the beef sha guo (clay pot stew), fluffy mantous (steamed buns), toudousi (shredded potato…one of my favorite Chinese dishes), gan bian si ji dou (dry fried green beans…also another favorite of mine), and a pork/tofu/green pepper stir-fry dish. Everything was really good, but if I have to pick a favorite, I’d say it was the toudousi. Another plus was that the service was very fast. We received the first dish (the hong shao daiyu) within 10 minutes of ordering, and the others followed soon after.
I love the cozy atmosphere here. It’s a nice little place in the Shuangjing art area. Though the prices are a bit higher than most hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurants, it came out to about 46RMB each for the four of us. Not bad considering the amount of food that we ordered. And also the deliciousness of it all. We seriously demolished everything. I left happy and full. Though I detoured from my wedding bootcamp diet plan for the night, it was totally worth it =P
Xiao Xiao Jiu Jia 小小酒家
Shuangjing / Dongsihuan 双井东四环
A03 Bldg 3, Pingod (North side), 32 Baiziwan Lu, Chaoyang District
朝阳区朝阳区百字湾路32号苹果社区3号楼A座103室
Open 10am-9pm (closed in the afternoon but open for dinner again from
5pm-9pm)
Phone: 5826-3987 (no reservations taken)
Price: Around 30-50RMB per person
Our delicious meal =)
OMG. Chills just ran through my body. So after reading that one post about teaching in China, I just randomly clicked on another post. I saw Shuangjing which was my metro stop. Anyway, I saw that picture and my uncle took me to eat there. It was crazy packed the last time I went. My uncle lives in “Apple” district right behind that restaurant.
Small world! Yeah the Shuangjing area is definitely up and coming. And I love that restaurant…one of the “cleaner” hole in the wall places here.