FoodBanter.com - Maison Boulud ¨¤ P¨¦kin - First Restaurant opened by Celebrity Chef in Beijing

Daniel Boulud, a Michelin two-star chef known for his signature
restaurant Daniel in New York, opened the doors of Maison Boulud, his
seventh restaurant, in June 2008 in the heart of Beijing. The eatery
is his first outside the United States.

Maison Boulud is located in one of five buildings in a compound that
housed the U.S. Embassy in Beijing from 1903 to 1949, and which has
been converted into an upmarket development called the Legation
Quarter, just east of Tiananmen Square. The renovation looks lovely,
and as you enter the restaurant you come into a large reception hall
with an impressive double staircase at the back, with the reception
desk to the left. Further to the left, through a doorway, is the bar
area, with lots of sleek looking tables and chairs and a nice, though
smallish bar.

The summer menu at Maison Boulud, with 428 yuan ($63) for a fixed
price set, features dishes such as roasted beet salad with Chinese
black walnut goats' cheese and crispy suckling pig with daikon
sauerkraut.

The history of the building is impressive. The Dalai Lama sought
refuge there in the 1950s. Former U.S. Secretary of State Henry
Kissinger secretly met Chinese premier Zhou Enlai there in 1971, a
year before President Richard Nixon's visit to China.

The compound, built in 1903 by American architect Sid H. Nealy, also
houses Japanese restaurant Shiro Matsui, run by Hong Kong restaurateur
David Yeo, and Sadler, with two Michelin-star Italian chef Claudio
Sadler.

Also in the compound is a Patek Philippe shop, so if you have money
left over after dinner, you can spend it there.

Maison Boulud ¨¤ P¨¦kin ²¼Â³¹¬·¨²ÍÌü
Cuisine: French
Address: Legation Quarter, 23 Qianmen Dongdajie, Chongwen District,
Beijing ³çÎÄÇøÇ°ÃÅ¶«´ó½Ö23ºÅ
Hours: Daily noon-2pm 6-10pm
Phone: 010-6559-9200
Parking Available
Price More than Y400 per couple
Accepts International Credit Cards
Website: http://www.meiguoxing.com/Restaurant...on_Boulud.html