Vegan-friendly
Lacto
Chinese
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. Reported closed October 2023.
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Last update on 21 Oct 2023 by QuentinMugiwara
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Added by wowser on 01 Aug 2007
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29 Reviews
First Review by Donkey Do
ANR
Points +68
Zen Vegan - Edit
After a long day of walking through the Forbidden City, Jingshan Park and the Drum and Bell Towers, I was looking for a peaceful vegan restaurant where I could enjoy the food and rest my weary feet for a while. Baihe was perfect, with numerous options on the menu (all the dishes are vegan except for two with some dairy). Rather than just one dish, I wanted some variety and selected 5 smaller ones, all of which were very good to excellent. The waitress, garbed in monk attire, was super helpful even though she spoke only a few words of English and I speak no Chinese other than hi and thank you. She even provided me a charger for my phone, without which it would have been challenging for me to find my way back to my hutong hotel. I probably spent a total of 90-120 mins there without any hint on their part of wanting to push me out, and it was the perfect way to end a very enjoyable day in Beijing.
Read morePros: Lots of vegan variety, only two dishes with dairy, Peaceful zen environment , Helpful staff
Cons: Staff speaks little/no English, which was fun :)
Guest
veggieplease
Points +47
very good food, gorgeous space - Edit
So many delicious thing on the menu. I enjoyed the pumpkin soup, the mock fish, the lightly sautéed greens...the dumplings were not as tasty.
Read moreVery pretty old house.
Guest
Crods
Points +114
Fabulous vegan food in cosy atmosphere - Edit
Not so easy to find. Head north from the major junction, then turn left (west) down the first alley that you can (not the one through a large metal gate). There is only one restaurant, so you can't miss it once you're close. It's worth it once you get there. The lay out is a bit higgledy piggledy, with small rooms. But that makes it cosy. The food was some of the best I've had in Beijing (and I've tried lots of the vegan restaurants). Imaginative dishes, very tasty, not too much oil, perfectly cooked (how can you cook okra to be that perfect?!). A plus for some of us is that, unlike many other vegan restaurants, you can buy a beer to go with your meal. The ipad menus are easier to navigate than in most places - the majority of dishes have reasonably sensible English descriptions. But like most vegan restaurants in Beijing, just order what looks interesting and you are rarely disappointed. Highly recommended.
Read morePros: Interesting dishes, Great cooking, Beautifully presented
Cons: A little hard to find, Fractionally more expensive than similar places
Guest
mmmeiday
Points +755
Peaceful banquet meal - Edit
I really enjoyed this restaurant. The setting is very peaceful - I found the way they divided the restaurant really nice as even though it was full, we felt we had a private space. It's unfortunate that I'm here in winter as the walk across the courtyard to the bathroom was very cold - very kind of them to turn the heating up for me!
Read moreThe food itself is very, very good. Even the simple boiled dumplings are perfect; I would recommend the yam with shredded potato the most.
It is an iPad restaurant but the captions are in both English and Chinese. The staff are kind, but it helped that I went with someone who spoke Chinese.
Pros: Very good setting, Fair prices
Cons: Menu can be a little vague in translation
Guest
evpierce
Points +58
Traditional vegetarian experience - Edit
Pleasant traditional setting inside Hutong courtyard with private rooms available. Buddhist influence sharing healthy lifestyle philosophy.
Read moreOrdered from iPad with pictures and some English worked ok.
Good quality produce and nicely presented with modern twist.
Both beef steak and eel dishes made of mushrooms were standout as well as sautéed taro.
Price is a little more but I think appropriate, expect around 150-200RMB per person.
WiFi available.
Guest
kittymarkshearth
Points +13
food ok but too pricey - Edit
Food was tasty but the prices are too high. We paid 240 RMB for 2 people and we were not fully satisfied afterward. You can get better food and bigger portions in other restaurants. So we would definitely not go there again and not recommended it.
Read moreA pot of black tea starts around 90 RMB.
Toilets were super bad.
Pros: English speaking
Cons: toilets, prices
Guest
cowcowcow
Points +68
Decent veggie food - Edit
Lily （百合）Vegetarian was a decent place to eat. A bit tucked away, but they had friendly, English-speaking staff.
Read moreI had the "kung pao chicken," wood ear mushrooms, and chrysanthemum tea.
The mushrooms were the classic spicy/sour cold dish you can find in many Chinese restaurants and were great. The kung pao "chicken" was just OK. It had Sichuan peppers, so avoid if you're not a fan of the numbing spice. Tea was also great. Can't go wrong with fresh flower tea.
Overall, a decent place, but a little expensive for China (~$15 USD for 1 person). Right in between Dongzhimen (东直门) and Beixinqiao (北新桥) stations. Look for 百合素食 or Fresh Foods on the entrance.
Pros: Quality ingredients, English-speaking staff
Cons: Little expensive
Guest
Justine_SP
Points +21
Hidden Gem - Edit
This place was a great find. Food is delicious, good portion sizes, reasonably priced and the staff are friendly.
Read moreIt’s a bit tricky to find though. Look for a shop front with a “Natural Whole foods” sign. Walk into the shop, and into the courtyard. The restaurant is to the right side of the courtyard.
I really would recommend this place to anyone looking for delicious vegetarian food.
Pros: all vegetarian menu
Cons: a little tricky to find
Guest
VegDre85
Points +138
best veg in beijing - Edit
We are here twice during our last visit a year ago and came back just to eat there during a recent layover. Best vegan food we found in beijing, we especially love the mushroom dishes and fake lamb skewers. Ordering on a tablet (picture menu with some english names). Portions are generous, and quite spicy!
Read moreGuest
kool_kitchen
Points +875
nice spicy mock eel - Edit
Hearty and tasty Chinese fair.
Read moreStand 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
Guest
Pascal_HK
Points +313
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.
Read moreGuest
tanyafr
Points +150
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!
Read moreCons: It's in Lonely Planet so if you're a tourist expec
Guest
Meghlake
Points +76
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.
Read moreGuest
maltman23
Points +6559
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.
Read morePros: Large variety of excellent vegan food. Very comfo
Cons: None!
Guest
terman
Points +32
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.
Read moreGuest
swestrich
Points +84
Great authentic vegetarian restaurant - Edit
This restaurant is one of the best in Beijing, but you really need to know what to order.
Read moreMy 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
Guest
MiaKarulino
Points +20
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.
Read morePros: atmosphere, the way the dishes look, -
Cons: expensive, tasteless and unfresh, descriptions of dishes don't match it
Guest
Benvolio_32
Points +121
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.
Read morePros: good location, nice atmosphere, OK food
Cons: unhelpful staff, listed items often not available
Guest
enRoute
Points +1413
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!
Read morePros: Unique space, Vast menu, Delicious
Cons: Expensive, Hard to find
Guest
Pitaya
Points +1313
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.
Read morePros: Beautiful building, Traditional interior, Good food
Cons: Not vegan
Guest
procrastinasian
Points +273
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.
Read moreFavorites 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
Guest
rhod
Points +68
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.
Read moreBTW- 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
Guest
AmandaUCSC
Points +64
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.
Read moreThe 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
Guest
Ashni
Points +2373
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.
Read moreIt 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.
Guest
Merciless666
Points +195
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.
Read morePros: cozy, reasonable, fast
Cons: hard 2 find, not in berlin
Guest
JesseD
Points +836
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.
Read moreThe 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
Guest
Prussi
Points +50
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%
Read morePros: good food, good price, partly nice interior
Cons: partly uncomfortable
Guest
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