Capital M (Beijing, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

Australian restaurateur Michelle Garnaut has always got a knack of finding the perfect place for a restaurant in a city. After unearthing a gem in M on the Bund in Shanghai, she found herself another wonderful venue at Beijing's newly restored Qianmen pedestrian street for her latest venture, Capital M.

Better known for its breathtaking terrace view over the Forbidden city and Qianmen Gate than its contemporary cuisine, Capital M seems to be a better choice for afternoon tea rather than lunch or dinner. And that's our initial plan.

After a little hiccup where we found ourselves lost in the Qianmen Emperor's Avenue, we finally spotted a "Capital M" sign on the street and by following the sign, we burst onto an alley leading to the famed restaurant and bar.



Located on the third floor of a newly reconstructed building in Beijing's oldest shopping area, Capital M is considered as the hippest address in the city with an unparalleled view of the Qianmen Gate (literally means the front gate). It's definitely the place to see and be seen in Beijing.



Before we sat down and started ordering food and drinks, we decided to check out the highly-touted view in the terrace.



The terrace does boast a nice view of the Zhengyangmen gates and the archery tower with the Tiananmen square far in the background but it's not as jaw-dropping as we have all hoped for.



The restaurant stopped serving afternoon tea set after 5:30pm so we ended up just ordering some cocktails and snacks.

But placing our order proved to be another difficult challenge altogether. At the end, we had to literally grab someone from the cashier to help placing the order.

There was also other careless mistakes such as serving me a cranberry drink when I had ordered a "Mango Tango".

The snacks were largely hit-and-miss as well. Take the gravlax for example. I thought the salmon gravlax was quite nicely prepared but it was completely let down by the rock-hard slices of bread.



The service was real spotty from start to finish. Perhaps we have caught the staff at a bad time in between afternoon tea and dinner but the lack of attention was truly unacceptable. 


Food Rating: 4/10
Price: ¥ ¥ ¥
Address: 3/F, No.2 Qianmen Pedestrian Street, Beijing 100051 China
Closest Metro Station: Qianmen
Tel: +86 (10) 6702-2727
Website: www.m-restaurantgroup.com/capitalm/

View Larger Map