Bejing vegetarian restaurant 百合素食 located at 东直门内北小街草园胡同甲23号, is affiliated with Restaurant "Lily" (Jimenqiao branch and Summer Palace branch). Food is vegetarian and mostly vegan. Subway to Dongzhimen or Beixinqiao. Location is in a small alley, inside an old house, and you pass the courtyard of ancient doorway to get inside. Open Mon-Sun 11:00am-10:00pm.
Categories: Vegan-friendly, Lacto, Chinese
23 Reviews
First Review by Donkey Do
Contributions +216
nice spicy mock eel - Edit
Hearty and tasty Chinese fair.
Stand out dish was the mock spicy eel made of deep fried mushrooms.
The dumplings were a bit lacklustre and the worst thing on the menu and best to be avoided.
Pros: spicy eel, nice atmosphere
Cons: dumplings, little pricey for what it was
Contributions +195
nice place - I shall come back - Edit
Nice and quiet room, a place where you like to eat. Had some fungus, fried bamboo, dumpling 水饺 and noddles - probably too munch for one person as the dishes are quite big. Total 128yuan. No cheap but still ok given the portions. Menu is on iPad as it is getting incredibly popular now in China. So you have pictures and some translation. Food was good. I probably should go again to try other dishes. Looking around me though, I would not advise the western dishes (burger, pizza) which did not look very appealing.
Contributions +60
Best meal we've had since we've been here in China (3 weeks)! - Edit
Artful presentation, tasty dishes, lovely atmosphere. Spent $35USD for 3 people which is a little high in China but about what we would have paid in the U.S. for vastly inferior food and ambiance. English menu!
Cons: It's in Lonely Planet so if you're a tourist expec
Contributions +54
good food and atmosphere. - Edit
Great food- we had some noodles and cashew mock meat dish. Both were delicious. Staff were initially helpful, been then really hard to find when we needed or check and to pay. One staff spoke limited English so a lot of friendly creative communication was had. Picture menu. The environment is like a beautiful garden bookstore off a hutong. You have to walk through the bookstore to get to the restaurant.
Contributions +156
Fantastic vegan food! - Edit
This is one of my favorite restaurants in Beijing (where there are lots of really good restaurants). The "fish" and other fake meats are super tasty. The vegetable dishes are also really well made. Everything is presented very nicely. The menus have photos, so you know what you're getting when you order. You can get a tea menu with lots of really good Chinese teas. The atmosphere is very comfortable, with nice subdued-enough lighting, and not at all loud, and with books and some objects around to make it feel like you're reading in an old temple. There's an outdoor courtyard for when the weather is good. Friendly and attentive staff. All around a wonderful place.
Pros: Large variety of excellent vegan food. Very comfo
Cons: None!
Contributions +28
My favourite restaurant - Edit
It's a place where you can get authentic vegetarian buddhist food in a very nice environment. It's not even that pricey for that quality of food.
Contributions +29
Great authentic vegetarian restaurant - Edit
This restaurant is one of the best in Beijing, but you really need to know what to order.
My suggestion would be to stay away from the fake pork and chicken, the fake beef however is a very good choice.
I really recommend this place for tourists as well as a place you would bring a date to, however the staff speaks no english so be warned that you will need to use sign language.
Pros: Quality, Setting, Vegan
Contributions +16
show and shine - Edit
The restaurant is located in a traditional chinese house and therefore has a beautiful interior. It is more a fancy place. There is an english menu, which is incredibly long. The staff doesn't understand english, but try hard. The dishes look delicious, but nothing to it. The duck tasted like pork and the pork tasted like sth you don't wanna eat. Also the dishes were served way too fast. They were surely heated up. The prices were high even compared to european standards. We don't recommend this place and won't go there again.
Pros: atmosphere, the way the dishes look, -
Cons: expensive, tasteless and unfresh, descriptions of dishes don't match it
Contributions +11
overpriced and bad service - Edit
The food was pretty good, by why on earth do think they can charge double regular restaurant prices just because it's a veg restaurant?
Then you can't just order a bowl of steamed rice, you need to pay ¥38 for rice with fake meat in it. I've already got fake meat in my main dish! Why do i need some in my rice?!
Service was OK but bare minimum.
Contributions +11
A confused vegetarian restaurant - Edit
I don't understand why this restaurant serves vegetarian food. Either it is vegetarian or it is not.
I don't understand why all the items in it's menu are look like or tastes like meat?
I went to this restaurant believing that I could order something vegetarian that tastes like and look like vegetarian food. If I want to eat meat, I would go to such restaurant. Why would I go to a vegetarian restaurant to eat food that tastes like meat?
Another big problem was that nobody spoke English there. I didn't think of it as a problem until I found out that I did not know the gesture to order a glass of water. I had to get up from my table, point at a glass on another table to get a glass. The staff did not get an idea to fill the glass. Then I had to point at a partially filled glass on another table to order water. They served hot water. I could not know how to order cold water and then I had to get up and point at a bottle of water upon which one of the staff member brought a bottle of mineral water.
I had ordered a dish made of green beans and tofu. The tofu was over burnt and was not edible. My dinner wasted. They don't have any provision to print a receipt. They gave me a handwritten receipt in chinese. Evening wasted. Had to go to another restaurant for better dinner.
Pros: No one speaks English, All items look like or tastes like meat, Poor location
1 Response
Lanky 17 Dec 2016 - In how many restaurants in India would you find staff who speak Mandarin?
These types of incidents are part of the joy of travelling, and if you look at it in another way, your attempts at getting a glass of cold water are actually quite amusing.
In China, people drink warm water. Its the standard thing. Cold water, if its straight from the tap might be unsafe, so they boil it. If you dont want hot water, you buy mineral water. It does kind of make sense.
Chinese vegetarian restaurants around the world usually serve imitation meat dishes. Some people love it, some people hate it. Again, its pretty standard. Complaining about it is kind of like western vegans complaining about the ghee and curd that comes in almost every single Indian dish.
Contributions +94
Signs of decline - but still a good option - Edit
I went several times here since autumn 2012 and I was always satisfied tdue to the nice atmosphere, the wide range of dishes and their quality. Especially the mock Beijing duck was really a treat. My last visit, together with my family, was quite disappointing, though. Their new menu does not longer list the mock Beijing Duck (only topped by the one served at Pure Lotus), and half a dozen other items were not available. The staff was totally listless while communicating this and was not really helpful with finding alternatives. There is one dish to recommend from the new menu, though: the mock Chicken curry. Very mildly spiced and in a richly-textured sauce.
Pros: good location, nice atmosphere, OK food
Cons: unhelpful staff, listed items often not available
Contributions +832
Wonderful space w/hyper-creative novel of a menu - Edit
It's a bit tucked away on a street which is in the middle of a lot of renovation, so at the moment (April 2013) it's looking very torn up and dusty outside. Inside is another world, though... I almost thought they were closed as there was no one in the small store which serves at the entrance, once I found my way back into the restaurant though I was greeted and given the large and mouth-watering menu. Really liked the braised pork intestines(!) and the seitan pepper fry. Yes, there are a lot of mock meats here, but also many purely veggie options. The kind of place that makes living in Beijing seem a lot more realistic!
Pros: Unique space, Vast menu, Delicious
Cons: Expensive, Hard to find
Contributions +469
Beautiful restaurant with large menu - Edit
I have visited this vegetarian restaurant many times and food has always been good, but I especially like this restaurant as an aesthetic experience. It's an old Chinese building and the interior of the restaurant is really beautiful and traditional, but not too fancy. It's between the Lama Temple area and the Dongzhimen transport hub, close to the Ghost street restaurant area, so the location is quite good for all the tourists visiting Beijing. It's a Buddhist restaurant and at certain times of the day the personel of the restaurant pray together in the lobby of the restaurant.
Pros: Beautiful building, Traditional interior, Good food
Cons: Not vegan
Contributions +164
Excellent! - Edit
We were in Beijing for five days, in March and went to this place three times. We tried a lot of different things on the menu, and weren't really disappointed with anything we ordered except for one dish (sorry, I've forgotten which), which wasn't terrible.
Favorites were the mini burgers, dumplings, and a fish dish (sweet and sour, I think?)
I didn't think it was that hard to find (I used Google Maps), though the alleys are a little tricky to navigate.
The staff were friendly to us and we had no trouble ordering, though they don't speak any English at all. As far as we could tell, it's entirely vegan.
There's an area toward the front where you can buy a few organic vegan products, including interesting stuff like peanut protein (like soy-based TVP, but made of peanuts!).
One kind of odd thing, though - right around 5pm, the entire staff gathers in the front area and does some kind of reading/chanting that seems vaguely religious (Buddhist?). It goes on for a very long time. To leave the restaurant during this, you need to walk directly through the gathered people, and it feels very awkward. Best to get to the restaurant and finish your meal before that, or go around 6pm. Another couple and I ended up waiting 20 minutes for them to stop so we could slip out, and ended up just slipping out during a pause. It was really awkward. Otherwise, no issues!
Pros: Great food, Big menu, Reasonable prices
Cons: See review re 5pm gathering
Contributions +40
Nice food, quiet environment - Edit
This place might be a bit difficult to find if you don't have someone to speak mandarin to the taxi driver, it's down a backstreet in quite an odd location. It was quite busy when i was there on a Sunday lunchtime- not too busy- just pleasantly so. The food was decent but not spectacular. Similar to lots of places I've eaten in Beijing. Price is reasonable and menu is quite large. I had the pancakes which are a bit boring- some spicy eggplant which was nice and some soup dumplings which were decent. It has quite a pleasant, quiet atmosphere.
BTW- The branch in the SUMMER PALACE CLOSED DOWN- according to the owners of this restaurant.
Pros: Decent food, Quiet, Quite nice decor
Cons: Similar to other places, Location difficult to find
Contributions +38
Friendly but too much mock meat - Edit
I went there with a big group and tried a lot of dishes. The mock fish was quite good, but I was disappointed that about 90% of what was ordered (everything except the eggplant/potato dish) included mock meat. Even the jiaozi (dumplings) were chock full of fake pork without enough veggies to complement it.
The atmosphere, after spending a while trying to find the place (not obvious -- I speak/read Chinese so that made it easier since the hutong sign was all characters!), was nice, and the staff was friendly and attentive to our large group. The prices were OK, mid-range.
I don't think I'd return except for a small bite or to have a cup of tea; the lack of veggies and overkill on the mock meat was just too much for me to really enjoy it.
Pros: cozy, friendly service
Cons: all mock meat, difficult to find
Contributions +283
good food and pretty place if you can find it! - Edit
The challenge is to find this restaurant - we managed to get good directions from our hostel and walked around 15 minutes to get there from Yonghegong - Lama temple station. It is on a quiet hutong but have faith that it does exist! We stopped at a few places on the way to confirm that we were going in the correct direction and were pointed the way.
It is a really pretty restaurant and we saw in the conservatory area.
We found it difficult to communicate with the waiters here!
We had the mini mushroom burgers for 5 yuan as a snack which were very tasty but snack size as to be expected from their price. the noodle soup was good. they also have some vegan desserts at the front of the restaurant on display and are on a page in their drinks menu if I remember correctly. My friend enjoyed the biscuit with walnut, and I had a chocolate square. It was quite dry and very cocoa-ey, but nice to have the taste of chocolate.
Contributions +111
my favorite in Beijing so far... - Edit
only been there once, since it really isn't easy to find this cozy place. my friend and i tried some 4 different dishes and they where all amazingly good. sadly they haven't had my favorite tee. nice place for any occasion.
Pros: cozy, reasonable, fast
Cons: hard 2 find, not in berlin
Contributions +459
They wouldn't Serve Me ?!?!?! - Edit
I found this restaurant and was seated politely, but then the staff just wouldn't serve me. I tried to make eye contact and smile several times, but each time they would either just quickly smile and look away, or refuse to make eye contact at all. Meanwhile they served very attentively to the other two tables in the room, and in between times they read fashion magazines (I think) in a large group. I waited for half an hour and then eventually left, at which point they politely pointed me to the front door. I was polite, well dressed and spoke Chinese when I entered, so I can not understand why they wouldn't serve me. I have never experienced anything like it before, in three years of living overseas.
The food the other tables got did look excellent, so if you find it and manage to get your order taken, you should get a good meal.
Pros: Nice setting, Nice *looking* food.
Cons: Don't seem to like foreigners (or just m, Hard to find, Expensive
Contributions +32
Make reservation - Edit
Food is good as mentioned, but they have some cosy tables and some uncomfortable ones. Usually the best tables are occupied. So better make a reservation to get one of the good places for enjoying the food 100%
Pros: good food, good price, partly nice interior
Cons: partly uncomfortable
Contributions +16
Wonderful! - Edit
I found this restaurant here on Happycow and decided to take a couple of friends/coulleagues (all of them non-vegetarian) there for saturday lunch. The hotel concegiere instructed the cab driver with directions (after having called the restaurant) but he still had a hard time finding it (he had to call them too).
The place didn't look very much from the outside, but after having been led inside by the friendly staff members this impression changed. It was a very harmonic and beuatiful setting, with light coming through the roof throughout the entire place.
The menus were partly in english with very nice pictures of the various dishes and we started ordering away until the waitress stopped us with a "I think this is enough for four people". And it sure was. All the dishes looked great, and tasted the wonderful. All vegetables were crisp and fresh, something you seldom find here i Beijing.
I think that all of us had their best Beijing food experience so far (after having stayed here for several months). Price was riddicilously low when the check arrived.
A great meal and a great experience. I really reccomend this place to everyone!
Pros: Food, Atmosphere, Service
Contributions +4244
lama temple - Edit
best way to find this place, head to lama temple hostel, and head past it down a small street.
the food was excellent, for one of the first times in china i get a staff member to suggest something. they asked if i liked hot food, i said yes, and for once....it was hot.
wide range of veg, beancurd and mock meat dishes. prices start from cny15.
staff were fab, and they were very happy to see my happycow print, and took it to show everyone.
Pros: great food, great staff, very clean
Cons: hard to find
Contributions +45
Overall good restaurant - Edit
This restaurant belongs to a chain(see main list)and so serves the same menu at each. Menu not in English but pictures on about half of dishes, so unless you can read or speak chinese you can only pick from these!Food we ordered very fresh, but lacking some good flavour (maybe due to lack of MSG, oil, etc) so not so bad.
Pros: Friendly staff, organic fresh food, Lovely interior
Cons: Lacking in taste a little, Fairly pricy, Hard to find
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