King's Joy

Very good food, beautifully presented, with pleasant atmosphere (with a mix of temple and upscale restaurant), and very good service. Pricey, but worth it for a splurge. 3 of us had plenty to eat, with nice tea, for 275 RMB each. On the night we were there, two very good musicians (cello and harp) played western music at a tasteful volume.

On my first day in Beijing, my friend, a "local" who works in Beijing part time but lives in Hong Kong, asked me to if vegetarian was OK for lunch. This was a nice surprise. I agreed and we were off to the King's Joy. I was shocked when we arrived and to find a harp accompanied by a cello playing in the atrium of the restaurant. We were seated at the adjacent table and promptly had our drink orders taken. To be 100% honest, I don't know exactly what was ordered for drinks or for food because I completely deferred to my Chinese friend. However, the juice, something similar to cranberry, that was served in individual dry ice accented carafes with small 1 oz shooters was almost enough reason to visit King's Joy. We started with a pseudo pork dish that reminded me of Korean Char Siu. We also had a lettuce wraps and another TVP dish that resembled a fatty grilled beef. A 4th dish was served as sushi, and again, having arrived at 0530 in the morning and not sleeping, I didn't examine it, I just enjoyed the presentation, texture and taste. All of our orders came a la carte. Again I can't be specific, but I assume that our bill came to right at 1000 Yuan for the two of us for what was a light yet satisfying meal. We left a bit of food untouched. The service was fantastic. As mentioned, I completely deferred to my friend who speaks Chinese, but I was treated with no disrespect as another reviewer commented. Our glasses were never less than half full. We were brought a couple of small complimentary appetizers. The wait staff was constantly present, yet in no way obtrusive. Unless harps and cellos are your daily, I'd recommend this as a special treat. I will definitely be back next time in town.

This restaurant is great for special occasions, but if you don't want to pay 700 RMB per person for dinner, go with a cheaper option like Pure Lotus. At King's Joy, my partner and I each had a set meal for 499 RMB and with wine our total bill was a bit over 1400 RMB. We both thought it was a delicious meal and a beautiful restaurant. We had a great night.

As other reviewers pointed out, if you are vegan you need to be careful. Our set meals had cheese and eggs.

Located across from the Lama Temple; reservations recommended.

I am sorry, that other members of Happycow.net had negatove experiences in King's Joy, Beijing. for us it was a very nice evening. (Despite the fact, that I turned from vegan to vegetarian for the limited time of a week in Beijing)

Here our experience:

Our last evening in Beijing we wanted to have some special dining experience. Being vegetarians/vegans from Austria, our choice was simple: We headed for the "best": King's Joy!

Sunday evening, the place not crowded, but with a very special music: a Lady that played the harp! How extraordinary is this nowadays!

Our young and charming host: Ms Zhaoyayun guided us through the i-pad menu and we took the "8 course" set meal.

Food was just excellent, many different nuances, natural ingredients and very creatively arranged on the plates.

In Berlin and Vienna we know Restaurants with similar quality and subtlety, but we did not hope to get something special in Beijing.

Pricewise, Kings Joy is on the high end of the scale (499 each set menu, plus wine) but it was worth every Yuan.

This was a very exclusive end of our first stay in Beijing.

We certainly will come back and try some of the other delicate meals.

So please make your own picture about this fabulous restaurant with it's stylish - awardwinning - interior and the little garden. It is worth a visit, if you want to experience something special!

I went here on a sightseeing day during a business trip, otherwise I might have found it too expensive. When I entered the restaurant by myself, they looked at me as if it was too weird, coming alone. They offered me a table in a sort of tea area, far away from other customers. This location looked very nice, so I did not mind too much. The menu was in an I-pad. There were many pages you could scroll through and them make your choice. The dishes are very expensive, but look beautiful and sound interesting. I chose 3 dishes, which I thought should be enough for 1 person. Sadly here is where things went horribly wrong. Apparently there was something wrong with my choice. the waitress did not speak much English so the manager came to my table. He scrolled through the I=pad again 3 times to ask if I could confirm my choice. I did, but this is not what he wanted to hear, the order was not placed. I asked him what I should do, bu he never answered, he just scrolled through the I-pad again. I still don't know what I was supposed to do, I think they expected me to order 10 or so dishes, which doesn't make sense when you are alone. In the end I just walked out, because it was apparent that they were not processing my order.

I find it quite shocking that they refused to take my order, but could not explain what was wrong with it. I really would no recommend this place to single travellers as they seem very reluctant to cater for you when you are alone.

Very stylish and sedate decor, quiet atmosphere, attentive waiting staff. The menu has a strong Western (mostly French) accent. Lovers of mushroom dishes will be able to indulge. The presentation of food and drinks is highly sophisticated and very impressive. Portion sizes vary a lot. With respect to this and to the quality of food, most items are considerably overpriced. 100 RMB for a tiny slice of cheese cake with passion fruit sauce, albeit delicious, is just exorbitant.

This is a really upscale, quite expensive vegetarian restaurant just opposite Yonghegong, Lama Temple. It is situated in a totally new but traditional style courtyard building. The interior is really fancy. They serve Chinese vegetarian food, but many of the items are not vegan. (Even though the chef of the restaurant is a monk who has left the monastery to spread vegetarian message, the magazines have told.) I was not super impressed with the food, especially regarding the price. And the service was not really good either.

I went to King's Joy with a group, and have to say that my feelings are mixed. On the other hand the restaurant is beautiful, situated next to Yonghegong Lama Temple and the hutong areas, with a picturesque interior, a bamboo grove in the inside yard, etc... So the surroundings and the interior are beautiful. On the other hand, the staff was very unfriendly. They told us that we have to choose our dishes quickly, because the chef has to get home. Excuse me? In an expensive restaurant you'd expect the staff to actually stay on the premises to serve the customers. And King's Joy is expensive, a bit too expensive for my taste. We did have a reservation, so you'd expect to get service.

This is not a mock meat restaurant so I wasn't expecting piles of stir-fried tofu and seitan, but as a vegan I was disappointed to find that almost all the tofu dishes had egg in them. The food was ok, not anything to write home about. I'd recommend the eggplant dishes. The food presentation wasn't anything special, I'd expect more from a high-end vegetarian restaurant like this.

But the staff's attitude was the worst part of the evening. When we went to the bathroom, one staff member actually came to escort us out. You don't do that to paying customers! Maybe we, a mixed group of Chinese and expats, didn't fit the customer profile. But in any case, how rude!