21 November 2013

Beijing Style - Flavour of Beijing ~ Chinese - Chinatown

Beijing Style is the spiritual successor to the much loved and sadly missed Daily Noodle Fast Food. It's just as ramshackle, almost as small, almost as cheap, and the food is excellent. Beijing Style is the kind of joint that inspires us to do what we do, whatever that is.

[Last updated March 2014]


Beijing Style is in a closet sized space in the northern stretch of Dixon Street. It replaces a mysterious joint we never got around to trying called "Deep Fried Stall'.



Beijing Style's boss lady had that "yikes, white people" look on her face when we first entered her restaurant. This look of terror can be misinterpreted, to us it means the food is going to be good. Boss lady is used to us now, it's all smiles.

Beijing Style is usually busy and the kitchen is tiny so the food can take a while to arrive, but it's worth the wait. Something about this place really reminds us of a tiny family-run restaurant you might find somewhere in the backstreets of China. It's an instant favourite.

With it's busy 12+ hours days, limited capacity and a high-rent location, Beijing Style could be around for another twenty years, or it could disappear next week. If this is your thing we recommend trying it now, right now.



The noodle dishes are the sure fire winners at Beijing Style. Noodles are made on site - as evident by the apparatus and explosion of flour in a corner of the dining area.



We love the 'Chinese spaghetti' dishes the most (plain boiled noodles with meat on top). The servings are huge, a small serve for $7.50 is plenty of lunch for one person. The noodles are fresh, thick and chewy.

  • Top ~ warm (or cold) noodle with chicken and cucumber - $7.50 (small). Those amazing thick, fresh, chewy noodles topped with cold shredded cucumber and chicken, with flavours of sesame, peanut and a little Szechuan pepper and chili. The flavour blew our socks off, unusual at first bite, but it was love by the bottom of the bowl. So happy. We've had this a couple of times.
  • Left ~ cold (or warm) noodles with fried pork mince and onion - $9 (large). This is the best Chinese skeddi we've had in ages, this is the easiest dish to recommend. 
  • Right ~ cold (or warm) spicy noodles with sesame sauce - $9.50. Pork mince with sesame sauce on hot or cold noodles.



Kung po chicken - $9. Diced chicken with peanuts and a little chili.  It's midway between the oily-spicy and sweet-saucy versions of this classic dish. We love the addition of cucumber. It's a substantial serve for the price.



Pork, egg, black fungus, tofu and lilly flower - $9. This mystery dish turned out to be a soup flavoured with vinegar. To the right is a huge plate of cucumber and garlic - $11.50. It's a bit pricey but a great sharing dish and very refreshing if you've ordered something oily.



Mr Shawn's homely favourite - tomato and egg ($9 with rice) - plain, simple and comforting. This version is so tasty Shawn is looking for hidden bits of pork, but he couldn't find any. There's something umami going on with the egg, must be the mix of googie, garlic, oil and salt. This version also has cucumber. It definitely gets the ya-ya's out.

On the awesomely funny cult classic Chinese dating show, If You Are The One, we once saw a keen lady contestant snag her man by promising to cook him tomato and eggs, it's a dish of love.



Lamb bones - $14. We've seen a lot of folks eat this dish here so we must try it. It's a big bowl of lamb (or pork) on the bone, there's ribs and neck and all kinds of bits. The flesh is moist and rich, it's swimming in a pool of super lamb-y stock, flavoured with cumin, coriander and lordy know what else. This is not "first date" food, unless you're a Flintstone. This is caveman food, you've got to get in and gnaw at the nooks and crannies, sucking off those delicious morsels of fatty flesh, poke around for some marrow and casually toss the depleted bones aside.



Noodles with pork and beans - about $9. Slices of twice cooked pork with green beens on those beautiful fresh, chewy noodles.



Fried everything - $11.50. We just had to order a dish called 'fried everything'. We envisaged battered deep fried mystery piggy parts but we got a plate of stir fried veggies with egg. Light, plain and simple, it tasted like Aussie chow mein, yet perfectly cooked, delicious. There's very few veggie dishes on the menu so this is a good one to remember.



There's a few little tables outside, in this weird little mall that reminds us very much of weird little malls found all over Asia, complete with tiny shops that seem to survive on optimism alone.

[BACK AGAIN MARCH 2014]



We'e been back a few times but always get the same thing so we don't bother with photos. Though tonight we tried a newby: noodles with chicken, cucumber and peanuts, $9. This is basically the kung pao chicken on noodles.



Beijing Style is at Shop 45, Number One Dixon Shopping Centre, 1 Dixon Street, Haymarket/Chinatown.


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13 comments:

  1. THANK YOU! Me and my gf nearly cried when Daily Noodle Fast Food closed down. This looks almost like a carbon copy! Very very curious to see whether they are by the same owners. Regardless, definitely cannot wait to try it.

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    1. We couldn't see a Peking Pie on the menu but the noodles are glorious.

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    2. Towards the end of their run (think end of 2011-early 2012) they didn't have Peking Pie either. It was the one thing i REALLY wanted to try after you guys showcased it in your post - which is what led me to try the place in the first place.

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    3. Try Xi'an Cuisone opposite the Entertainment Centre for a pretty good one, dare I say almost better!

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  2. Hectic mixer...! Love that style of cucumber salad, but that dish always seems overpriced. How can cucumber cost more than a dish of dumplings a lot of the time...?!

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    1. It's a big plate of cucumbers! Yes, it could be a little cheaper but there is some value, especially if you share.

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  3. There are so many good restaurants in this section of Dixon Street...why my friends and family always insist on eating at those 'honey chicken fried rice' places down the southern end of Dixon Street I have no idea. Keep up the good work guys!

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    Replies
    1. There's probably a time and place for every kind of restaurant, but the north end of Dixon St is getting far more interesting these days. The mall end is suffering a little at the moment and the big construction happening soon isn't going to help. I also worry about what will happen when they redevelop the Ent Centre.

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    2. I think there must be something about pedestrian malls that turns them into tacky tourist traps. I reckon that the southern end would get a new lease of life if they put cars back in.
      Stan.

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    3. The redevelopment of the Entertainment Centre could bring more residents to the area, bringing more restaurants, street food places and other assorted businesses to the area. But it seems the gentrification of the lower half Chinatown is happening already, one of the last Chinese grocery stores in the area, Everspring Supermarket, has recently shut down. It's been happening for years though, old Chinese groceries are virtually nonexistant now. I hope the new residents can help revitalise that part of Chinatown before it becomes a soulless tourist trap purely made up of overpriced Australianised Chinese restaurants and souvenir shops.

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  4. 'Fried Everything' and 'Flintstone Food'! Love the humour guys, your posts always gets a silly grin or two outta me.

    That egg, tomato and cucumber on rice looks so good, will have to replicate it at home =)

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  5. just had the hot oil noodles for lunch. wide belt noodles with lots of raw garlic, spring onion & dried chilli with hot oil poured over - so good!

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Thanks for your comment joy - please keep your musings happy - if you want to complain about a restaurant please do it on a restaurant review site (or your own blog) - we're all about celebrating cultural diversity and the great eats that come along with it :-)

Our ethics: We pay for all our own meals and travel (though sometimes Mum shouts us).