• CLOSED: Still Thoughts- Dongcheng

  • (16)
    3

    Closed

  • White Vegetarian
Vegan-friendly
Chinese

Jingsi (Still Thoughts) Vegetarian restaurant is a small, quiet place. Menu in English, with great pictures. Features mockmeat dishes like eels made of shitake mushroom and veggieham. Note: maybe difficult to find... On Hutong at street corner about 60 meter, and restaurant is on your right with a sign that says "vegetarian". Go about 1km North from the Chinese Art Gallery Museum along Meshuguan East Street, when this street turns to left continue north along the laneway (Dafosi East Street), turn down the second lane on the right (Yuqun Lane), restaurant is 20m ahead on the left. Chinese Name: 静思素食坊 Chinese Address: 东城区美术馆北大佛寺东街甲18号. REPORTED SHUT DOWN IN SEPT 2012.


Venue map for Still Thoughts- Dongcheng
© OpenStreetMap contributors

16 Reviews

First Review by Amanda

Pougie

Points +13

Vegetarian
13 Sep 2012

Closed

Just went today, unfortunately the restaurant is closed down, there was some note in the window in Chinese which I didn't understand, but it pretty much looked it's not for temporary, as the place looked clearly abandoned...too bad, it was one of the best vegan eateries around:(

jasminetea

05 Oct 2012

Aw, that's so sad! Really enjoyed eating there when I was in Beijing.

veganinseattle

Points +163

Vegan
17 Jul 2012

As Good As Advertised

We stayed at a nearby hotel and walked to the restaurant in this charming Hutong neighborhood. We visited with a number of other families and were able to order a wide assortment of dishes. Since this is a picture menu with English title, we had to take a best guess at what the ingredients were in each dish. We loved the food and came back a few days later for lunch. The directions to find the restaurant is accurate in the restaurant description. If you are in Beijing, it's definetely worth the effort to dine here. The dish I liked the best was the eggplant battered with shredded sweet potato. As noted by other reviewers, little English is spoken but staff is helpful and friendly.

Pros: Great Food, Excellent Value, Extensive Menu

Cons: Tricky to Find

nipakolow

Points +93

Vegetarian
26 May 2012

Delicious, cheap, very friendly staff

The restaurant deserves the credit for having so many good comments. My family had dinners there for 12 consecutive days from May 13 to May 24. The foods are delicious and cheap and the staff are extremely polite.Don't miss this restaurant when you are in Beijing.Take a public bus 104 or 108 to Dafosi Stand.It's about 300 meters from the bus stop. Look up at google map before you go.It's not difficult to locate though it's hidden in the hutong.

Pros: Excellent foods, Very friendly staff, good value

mumpsimus

Points +60

Vegetarian
12 Jul 2011

Favourite vegetarian restaurant in Beijing

The food is very affordable and tastes great. It is a good place to take your non-vegetarian friends as well, as a lot of food tastes as good as the original, if not better. Typically for most vegetarian restaurants here, they have a lot of mock meat dishes. They don't have any outstanding dishes, but can't really go wrong with anything either.

Pros: cheap, great test overall

Cons: sometimes crowded, hard to find

rhod

Points +68

Vegan
07 Dec 2010

Nice food- pleasant location

The location here is a little hard to find, it's down a few backstreets but is a very pleasant spot when you get there. Restaurant is small but nice. The menu is quite large- lots of things to choose from. Theres a special 'wild' menu which i think might mean organic or maybe actually means wild as in not cultivated. Either way the food is very good and lots of variety.

I had lots of stuff that i can hardly remember- yam in sweet sauce in stone bowl (very nice), battered leaves of some kind (tempura style- very tasty but quite oily), peking duck with the pancakes etc (i've had better duck but the taste was still nice), some mushroom dishes (v good) and some soup (not bad) and some amazing dumplings where they come stuck together with a sheet of batter from the bottom of the pan. Very tasty. All in all a good place. I've been to their other branch up north a bit, nearish to beijing north railway station and didnt enjoy it as much- maybe i just ordered badly plus that place is v cold in winter.

Pros: Lots of choice, Nice food, clear menu-pix

Cons: Some dishes v strongly flavoured

MDR

Points +110

Vegan
06 Oct 2010

Don't miss this one!

Delightful little restaurant. Very good food, inexpensive prices, peaceful and nicely decorated.

Pros: good food, good prices, nice atmosphere

wsh79

Points +143

Vegetarian
18 Sep 2010

2nd time here after 2 yrs

Everything is still as good as 2 yrs back. Food is cheap as well. I had their soup, the pumpkin soup is nice, worth a try. DO not order too much as their food comes in quite big portion. Can drop by if you are near to Wangfujing.

m@earthville

Points +9240

Vegan
30 May 2010

One of the best casual veggie spots in Beijing

Set down a hutong just off Dafosi Dongjie (to the east of the main hutong), Still Thoughts (aka Jingsi Vegetarian - "Jingsi" is Mandarin for "Still Thoughts") is a low-key, low-budget, high-quality restaurant. The menu is mostly vegan, and everything we had was tasty.

Some previous reviews compared it to Pure Lotus. Personally, i don't think that's a one-to-one comparison, as they're totally different creatures. Having tried the "Peking Duck" at both restaurants, we'd say Pure Lotus wins hands down. But Still Thoughts holds its own with other dishes, and it's a much more relaxed, casual environment - not to mention about a quarter of the price of Pure Lotus. So, if you're looking to splurge on the very best of gourmet Chinese vegetarian cuisine, we'd tend to steer you toward Pure Lotus, but if what you want is good food at great prices, Still Thoughts is easy to recommend (except for their "Peking Duck").

The pancake with sweet bean filling was a treat. :-)

Pros: Mostly vegan, Tasty, Relaxed vibe

Cons: Can be crowded

shirogoma

Points +56

Vegan
29 Mar 2010

This great place restored my faith in Chinese food

This place is WONDERFUL!
Simple, relaxed atmosphere and an extensive menu of healthy, delicious dishes at very good prices.

I have found the veggie dishes in many Chinese Restaurants TOO OILY, and some times they even serve it with minced pork mixed through the dish!!
I had almost given up on finding some Chinese food that I could actually enjoy until I found this place.

A lovely stroll from my university, I come here once or twice a week when I don't feel like cooking.
The portion sizes are large, just like most Chinese restaurants, so I often eat half there, and get the rest take out to enjoy for lunch the next day.
Pleasant staff, little English spoken, but easy to understand picture menu with English explanations.

A gem that you defiantly don't want to miss if you live or are staying in the Dongcheng area.

I recommend it!

Enjoy!

GET THERE: The 104 or 108 bus, get off at DAFOSU.
You can get the 104 from Wangfujing, near the Wangfujing Subway stop.

Pros: great food, good value, relaxed environment

Cons: may be a little difficult to find

BeijingCat

Points +44

Vegan
08 Nov 2009

How it should be

This is a simple pleasant, clean small restaurant with a good variety of good quality meals and friendly service

Pros: good food, clean, Friendly Staff

Cons: Sometimes full

Pea

Points +88

Vegetarian
18 May 2009

Nice little place if nearby

This was a nice little restaurant, it happened to be near where we were staying. The food was ok, the peking 'duck' not as amazing as we had hoped. The dumplings were great value 12 yuen for 20! Our meal was good, not amazing and I wouldnt want to travel a long way for this restaurant but if its near by its a good option.

Pros: reasonable price, english menu, nice tea

Cons: not amazing

Egg But No Bacon

Points +58

Vegetarian
19 Feb 2009

Potential favourite restaurant?

I visited this restaurant a couple of weeks ago and I have to say I was very impressed! I'm not usually a huge fan of mock meat, but the things they do here are incredibly tasty and different to the normal lumps of tofu "chicken". The "eel" is highly recommended. The place had a good atmosphere and very friendly staff who try their best to help you out.

One thing, it can be difficult to find, especially as the name "Still Thoughts" does not appear anywhere on or in the restaurant in English. There is a map to find it here:

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=105111868088501128799.000461d814e5d6646b7ab&ll=39.938435,116.389418&spn=0.029746,0.084629&z=14&iwloc=0004633ea757e28d30cf8

Also we found it useful to get our hostel to ring and ask for directions. They wrote the address and directions in Mandarin for us which we then managed to find it by.

Look for the big green illuminated sign down an alley.

Pros: unusual dishes, very tasty food, friendly staff

Cons: difficult to find, a little expensive

jasminetea

Points +106

Vegetarian
27 Dec 2008

Authentic Chinese - with the veggie twist

This restaurant, a little out of the way in a hutong (but still within walking distance of the hotel), was patronised by a mixture of Chinese and Western eaters. You'll receive a large photo album with English food names next to the photos if you don't understand Chinese. As with all the Asian restaurants don't be put off by the names - only fake gluten or soy-based chunks are used even though it will say 'chicken' this or 'beef' that (or monkey, or hedgehog). Among other things, I ordered a delicious braised tofu and shiitake mushroom dish, a sizzling eggplant stir-fry, plus a crunchy, peppery chilli 'hedgehog' dish with deep fried rice noodles on the side. Meals are thoughtfully presented and reasonably priced. A meal for two with three mains, rice and drinks will cost about US$9.

Pros: Fresh and tasty, Easy to order, Reasonably prices

Cons: Out of the way

LotteKarrotte

Points +29

Vegetarian
20 Aug 2008

Amazing vegetarian in Beijing

after a while looking for this restaurant we found it hidden in a hutong and the food was incredible!
Me and my girlfriend were very happy to eat here, very recommendable, also to non vegetarians just to see how many different meatdishes you can do with tofu and other ingredients!

Pros: Quality, Variety, Price

Cons: difficult to find

Petesternz

Points +1429

Vegan
28 Apr 2008

Amazing food!

Without question, the culinary highlight of my trip to Beijing. The food was outstanding - absolutely blew away Pure Lotus. It's a cute little place, with a huge selection. Favorites included: the Black Pepper beef and the Spicy Fish. I usually don't like mock meat fish, but this one hit the spot. Oh, and don't miss the Fried Pumpkin slices, essentially Pumpkin French Fries with salt. We devoured them. If there's one negative to this place, it's the lack of vegetable dishes. Almost every dish has mock meat, which makes it hard to balance out. Would have been nice to get a bit of green in the meal! Really reasonable. We had six dishes between four of us, and paid the equivalent of $8 U.S. each.

Pros: Food was amazing, Good selection, Cute, inimate decor

Cons: Lack of veggies

Amanda

Points +72

Vegan
01 Apr 2008

Great little place

This is a small restaurant tucked into a little alley - the food is great and is amazingly good value. The Beijing Vegan Social Club now meets here every Thursday night. Their home made ham is really tasty, but my absolute favourite are the eels made out of mushrooms.

Pros: Tasty food, very good value, Central location

Cons: A bit hard to find




This page has been viewed 1779 times.