新京熹 老北京涮肉火鍋 Xin Jing Xi Peking Hotpot 华𤋮 Live 五棵松 (Beijing, CHINA) ★★★★☆

After our driver dropped us off at Wukesong Station (五棵松站), it took us a while to find our footing in an unfamiliar territory. But the good thing was, we had all the mobile apps installed and it didn't take long for someone to locate Huaxi Live Hi-Up Wukesong (华𤋮 Live 五棵松), an entertainment, sports and lifestyle hub right next to the station.

This is a place where we find all the different international cuisines including American, Thai and Korean just to name a few. And at center stage were of course cuisines from different provinces in Mainland China. I decided to let some of my foodie colleagues decide where to dine tonight and boy, did they deliver big time.

Xin Jing Xi Peking Hotpot (新京熹 老北京涮肉火鍋) was our dinner venue tonight and we managed to bargain for a nice VIP room away from the hustle and bustle of the over-crowded main dining area. As it turns out, this is an upscale dining chain specializing of modern Chinese hotpot that has branches all over Beijing including Wangfujing (王府井) and Sanlitun (三里屯). 

It took our server some time to set everybody up, first with a traditional hotpot per person.

It was followed by this cute-looking container for our dipping sauce.

On top, we had the green Chimichurri-like sauce for the lamb, followed by the honey, soy and sesame sauce for the beef and housemade chilli oil with fresh chives and garlic for the seafood. Last but not least, we have what looked like Japanese sesame sauce in the middle which our server said could be used for pretty much everything.

As recommended by our server, we took a flyer on the most popular broth offered by the kitchen which was the clear broth. 

Ximeng grass fed 180-day lamb meat (錫盟草飼180 天羔羊肉) – They sure know how to make an entrance with their signature 180-day lamb meat and for ¥99 each, these came in a long glass container that was almost the length of our table. In fact, we could barely fit it on the tabletop.

I have to admit I am not a fan of lamb but I've had more than my share for lamb on this trip. This was by far the best lamb I had this week. The thin-sliced lamb was so tender yet it didn't come with any strong and distinctive gamey flavor it often associated with lamb. This was very very good.

Thick cut Australian valley-fed snowflake cattle steak (厚切澳洲谷飼雪花牛小排) – I am not sure about some of their translations on the food menu but I got their point. These Australian beef was indeed well-marbled and flavorful (not sure about thick cut).

Sometimes, I had trouble telling the lamb and beef apart but they were both very very tasty, especially when it's eaten with the rich and tangy sesame sauce. 

Hand shredded large pieces of fresh hairy belly (手撕大塊鮮毛肚) – Silky smooth and a bit lacking flavors.

Crab meat, North seafood, shrimp slide (蟹肉北海鮮蝦膠) – The shrimp mousse was very delicate but I probably won't mind a bit more salmon roes in there.

Roasted corn skewers (烤玉米串) – The sweet corn came with this lovely crunch so it came with little surprise that I couldn't resist from having a second skewer. But having said that, I thought the seasoning was a little over the top.

Ximeng grass fed lamb skewers (錫盟草飼羊肉串) – Very tender but pretty much the same seasoning as the corn skewers which I thought was getting a bit boring.

Yam noodles (淮山麵) – Instead of ordering udon noodles, we had these yam noodles that's soft and less chewy. Not bad.

Quicksand sesame paste brown sugar cake (流沙麻醬紅糖餅) – I was the one pushing hard for desserts here and persistence paid off. This looked like the Chinese sister of a French mille feuille and for ¥19, need to say more? 

This tasted a lot like the red bean paste pancakes (豆沙鍋餅) from Shanghainese cuisine but much bigger in size and in my opinion a little tastier. The brown sugar pancake in particular was a bit more flaky here and the runny sesame paste (gotta love their translation of "quicksand sesame paste!") was so decadent.

A very happy gathering. I am just thrilled to have participated in tonight's group dinner rather than having Da Dong roast duck on my own, which was my original plan. The night was fillled with laughter and sometimes tears, from too much laughing. That had to be one of the highlights of this Beijing trip.

Food Rating: 6.2/10

Price: ¥¥¥¥

Address: Shop G079, 1/F, Wukesong, Huaxi Live, 69 Fuxing Road, Haidian District, Beijing, China

北京市 海淀区 复兴路69号 华熙LIVE五棵松1层G079

Closest Metro Station: Wukesong (五棵松)

Tel: +86 10 5360-6611

Website: www.jingyu2020.com/h-col-127.html

Opening Hours: 11:30am - 2:30pm, 5:00pm - 9:30pm daily