Beijing Chinese Dining

I wish we could’ve tried the food. Went close to noon on a Sunday and they seated us fairly soon. We sat and waited for our waiter who finally came and we ordered some tea and asked for a couple more minutes with the menu. Bad mistake. He returned about 15 minutes later with our tea, in a leaking teapot and said he’d be right back with teacups. He did finally return, without teacups, and took out meal order, apologized for the leaking teapot, and walked away taking the teapot with him. We’re now 30 minutes into this deal… No food, no tea… And as we watched others who sat after us getting served we started getting anxious. We cut our losses at an hour, left our water glasses and empty plates and walked out.
For the love of god, hire better staff. Can’t care about your delicious food if it never gets to the table.

Beijing is a nice classy Chinese restaurant located in the heart of Lexington Center on the second floor of their building. I’ve only been here for lunch and their lunch specials are an amazing value. Someone in my office calls Beijing their «kitchen», because they go there practically every day, and it’s easy to see why.
All the meals are priced between $ 8 – 11 and it comes with sweet & sour soup, white or fried rice, and the choice of egg rolls or chive pie. I would recommend the chive pie if you like chives — the doughiness of the wrapping along with the fact that it’s freshly made to order is worth it right there.
I have a few favorites that I typically get: yu-​shiang fish, beef noodle soup, or the shredded tofu and pork (spicy). I like that every meal is filling, and they’re also extremely fast. If I only have 20 minutes to eat, there’s a good chance that I can order sit-​down and be out of there in time for my next meeting. As for the dishes themselves, in general, I like the taste, but it can be a bit on the sweeter side. Almost all the dishes are just a little too sweet to feel totally authentic. I do think that it may have been customized for a more «American» taste. They also definitely throw on the spice, so be prepared for some sweating if you order something spicy.
All in all, a very dependable place to eat at for lunch.

I’m generally not a big fan of most suburban Chinese restaurants, but heard about this place and tried with a friend. We had hot and sour soup which was very good and then shared two dishes, the shrimp stuffed eggplant in black bean sauce and the Kung Pao Chicken. The eggplant dish was incredibly fresh and flavorful while, I have to say, the Kung Pao chicken was the best I’ve ever had. You just have to try it to see what I mean. Heading back tomorrow night with two friends to see if we can try some new dishes but it’s going to be hard not to order these two dishes!

We returned for another Christmas night dinner one year later, with about a dozen intervening visits. The quality is still excellent, with many dishes not found in an Americanized Chinese restaurant.
Two issues stand in the way of the fifth star:
— Some of the waitstaff have limited English language skills. This can make it difficult to have a dialogue when there are questions or special requests.
— The racial stereotyping continues: our table is always set with silverware, replacing their basic setting of chopsticks. We are continually warned about menu items (this is served cold; that is spicy) on the assumption that we must not know our way around authentic Chinese food.
I don’t think their intentions are bad, but it’s still annoying. I’m sure that Asian-​Americans are far more often the object rather than the perpetrators of stereotyping. All the more reason for them not to make assumptions about their customers based on appearance.

I was food poisoned either by their «famous» crispy fish recommend by people here or another pork dish. Their food is junk, it has no safety nor taste, and it’s never authentic Chinese food, the only good side it they are well decorated, if you care about food safety, stay away from them.

The service was really bad. The restaurant was half full but it still wasn’t as busy as it could be. However, we had to wait for quite a long time to get noticed. When a waiter finally noticed us, we just ordered drinks because after examining the menu, we didn’t find anything that we felt like eating at the moment. He immediately told us that in this case, we had to move to the bar. He said that they were busy and thus they couldn’t let us occupy the table. There were to perfectly empty tables right next to us and no line at the entrance. This all wasn’t said in a nice way. It was literally: «You can’t seat at the table then. You have to move to the bar.» The whole scene was super awkward and I certainly won’t be back.

Had dim sum yesterday. First time at the restaurant with my wife. Very nice. Good service and everything was perfect. Had the pot stickers, mini juicy buns, shrimp dumplings, hot and sour soup. Yum. The jasmine tea was a real treat.
Right in downtown Lexington.
Most importantly, my wife said she can’t wait to go back. She is a hard marker and she also commented positively on the décor. A lot of Asian dinners along with a few round eyes.

Probably one of the best Chinese places. Four stars is because of service could be better. Particularly the dinner where the server almost seems in a hurry to go home.

This place was really good and for $ 10 I think a really decent lunch price. We asked for a pot of tea and we got a black one with rose something– delicate and well balanced to go with our meals. I got the General Gao’s and my friend got a tofu/​pork combo. She let me take a bite of hers and while it was suppose to be spicy, it was very flavorful and delicious. My chicken was great — not too heavy and just tad spicy. You get egg drop soup, rice and spring roll with the meal. Depending on how hungry you are, you might be taking it home for later — solid place.

Seriously, too freaking good. And today, they had an opera singer from China practicing in the bar area. Best Chinese ever and free opera. Win.
Ps try the everything– because everything is amazing

I’ve been here a few times for lunch now and the food has been great. The ambiance and service are also very good.
My favorite lunch order has been the Filleted Fish with Vegetables. The sauce is perfect. They served it with an excellent Hot and Sour soup.
My only complaint with the lunch special has been that they offer a choice of Spring roll or chive pie. I have tried both and don’t care for them. I think they should just offer a selection of soup choices and skip the chive roll.

Our second time here tonight. We loved it. The place is beautiful. The service was amazing. The food was awesome as before. The prices are reasonable. A very pleasant experience. We’ll definitely be back!

Our party of 13 went for lunch and food and service here were all excellent. At first we were gonna order everything from lunch special but our server recommended us to order from the menu as the lunch portion was small. All dishes we ordered were delicious, and I can’t say what dishes are not good. One from my friends swear the cumin beef there was heavenly.

Recently dined here with the Mr. and little one and will definitely be back! The interior is very inviting and feels very airy and calming. It’s probably one of the most modern/​fancy Chinese restaurants I’ve ever been to. There’s a mixture of tables and booths — the booth worked out for us great and was wide enough for baby in the car seat (we were able stow our stroller near the front).
Onto the food (with my take on each):
* Wonton soup
It’s my go to soup when I’m feeling under the weather (which was the case when we dined here). It used to be me go to soup any time, but after being served so many lack luster soups at various places (under filled wontons, too little wonton to broth ratio), I switched to getting hot and sour. The wonton soup here is hands down the best I’ve ever had! I ordered a small size and although it was a small portion, there were four (4!) wontons which were generously filled and the filling was very delicious and flavorful. The bowl was practically overflowing with wontons much to my amazement! The broth itself was perfectly seasoned. Would totally get it again even when I’m not sick!
* Chinese muffin stuffed with pork pot roast
They should rename these pork pot roast buns or something because muffin isn’t the right word. It was also listed in the «rice and noodle» section of the menu, when it really belonged in the appetizer section. The dish was delicious and came with two buns (perfect for sharing with the Mr.) and were generously sized. Both components: bun and filling were well prepared. However, more filling could have been added to balance the bun to filling ratio.
* Crispy whole fish (seems like their signature dish)
We kept seeing other people order this, and we were intrigued, so we got it too. The preparation was really impressive. Another reviewer wrote that it resembles a bloomin onion from Outback and I totally agree. Somehow they chefs were able to debone the fish and carve out little petals of meat, coated the whole thing in some type of light batter and fried the whole thing. The fish petals were easy to pick off and with no bones, it was very easy to eat. The sauce was slightly sweet — another reviewer likened it to sweet and sour sauce, but I disagree, it wasn’t sour at all but the color was similar (more orange than pink though). We were really hungry so we were able to finish the whole thing just the two of us, but it would be a good portion size for family of four (assuming that other dishes were ordered as well). It was a great dish but not something I’d order every time and I wish there was an option to pair it with a more savory sauce.
* Cumin flavored stir fry beef
Not what I’d expect to have at a Chinese restaurant, but it was pretty good. I was also expecting the beef to be more sizzling/​crispy given the stir fry mention in the name of the dish, but it was surprisingly very tender. The beef was flavored very well — definitely tasted the cumin. Would probably order it again.
* House special fried rice
Yummy. :) This is kind of fried rice that is white (not the soy sauce based brown fried rice). I love this kind of fried rice. It was very light and flavorful. I could eat heaps of this stuff. Will definitely order this again!
* Peapod stems
When ordering, we couldn’t decide on a vegetable so the server suggested that we get peapod stems. It wasn’t on the menu, otherwise we would have ordered it right off the bat cause we love love love peapod stems. The portion was generous and the preparation was well executed. However, we were shocked when we saw the check, ’cause they were $ 15.95! Out of all the things we ordered, this was the second most expensive item (crispy whole fish was the most but that’s justified). So I felt like that’s why the server pushed it and without knowing the price because it wasn’t on the menu, I felt like we were hustled a bit (not to mention that the server was pushing it on other guests). That being said, we would still order it again cause we love them and don’t eat them anywhere other than Chinese restaurants. But be forewarned about the price!
The service (other than the peapod stem hustling) was great. There was a young man who came by often to fill our water (the Mr. always requires like 4 – 5 refills) and he was so nice and polite. :) They warn you ahead of time that the dishes come out as they’re done, so everything doesn’t come out at once. This was a bit of a bummer because our fried rice came out last (I really wanted to have rice at the same time as the entrees).
All in all it was a great dining experience. I’m looking forward to trying new dishes next time!

Food is good although more expensive than most Chinese restaurants.
Ask for NO msg.
Very nice clean décor.
Good service.
Would recommend if in the Lexington, Ma.

Excellent new Chinese restaurant with a focus on northern Chinese dishes. Be aware that the food comes out much, much slower than a typical Chinese restaurant. They served us dishes mostly one at a time. Not sure if this was on purpose or not (have only been here once).
We had the following dishes:
— shrimp and chive dumplings: excellent. They appear to make their own dumpling wrappers. I think I would prefer the pork over the shrimp, but these are worth getting.
— family style tofu: very good (and a bit spicy). I really liked this dish a lot by my in-​laws found it too spicy. I thought it was pretty mild, spice-​wise.
— yuxiang qieze (eggplant in yushiang/​garlic sauce): very good, but on par with most other places I’ve had it. Eggplant had good firmness too it.
— beef with cumin: MUST HAVE! This dish was awesome!
Our good Chinese friends sitting at another table tried out the crispy whole fish but were not thrilled about it. So be forewarned.
All the comments above are approved by my Chinese wife, mother-​in-​law, and aunt-​in-​law (all originally from Harbin).
Prices here are phenomenal! We were amazed when the bill came at how cheap our dinner was. Surprised not to see more people at this restaurant.
I typically visit a restaurant a few times to find out all the good dishes before writing a review, but my wife and I are moving out of New England soon, so had to write this based on a single visit.

Food good overall, seems like they spent lots of money on renovations, looks very nice inside, up a flight of stairs.
Our big party tried to pay using several credit cards, they made an exception for us to use 3, typically can split 2.
Price very reasonable for quality.

First off, I am Chinese, grew up in Hong Kong and know a few things about Chinese cuisine.
It’s after thanksgiving and just move to nearby area. Tried few of them on Unilocal with 3 – 4 stars but turned out disappointed.
Not knowing what to expected with this trial, the environment was a truly surprise. It was pleasant, cleaned, carpeted floor, lots of booth table for 2 – 4 people, and well decorated. It just felt comfortable. If you’ve been to Chinese restaurants, you definitely know how important it is.
We were greeted with smile, taken to a booth table, and sat comfortably. Waitress was polite. We had two people and ordered Scallion Pancake, Seafood and Tofu Soup, Stir-​fried vegetable Medley, and Beef with Vermicelli in Hot Pot.
Each of the dishes were well made and tasted authentic. The pancakes were crisp and had the right thickness. The soup was a real soup absolutely tasty, not like some restaurant making it like glue. After all, the prices were the same as those horrible restaurants we tried before. This was the best in the around area so far!

So I’m Chinese. I’ve eaten at excellent restaurants throughout China that survive, in an extremely food-​obsessed country, only by virtue of their amazingly skilled cookery. This place is in Lexington but it might as well be on a main street in Beijing.
Try the crispy whole fish (the famous 松鼠鱼) and you will see what I mean. Imagine a blooming onion, but fish. Tender, crisp and light fried petals of fillet drenched in a sweet and sour sauce. This dish is hard to find in the States because it’s so hard to execute. I’ve seen the frying done right but the sauce was too cloying, or the frying done sloppily with bits of burnt fish. But here they’ve nailed it. And the presentation is breathtaking.
The sliced pork served with hoisin sauce and thick hot flaky pancakes are to die for. The pancake probably was made with lard… just like back home.
The chicken lettuce cups and spicy cumin beef were both tasty, with tender delicate pieces of meat… also we had a cold spinach dish with some kind of Sichuan peanut sauce. Yes. So flavor. Much good. Nom.
We were also treated in the beginning to a warm, velvety bowl of tomato spaetzle soup. I thought the translation was a bit creative, but the nubbly bits of shaved dough inside did resemble spaetzle. They had a pleasantly chewy consistency.
All in all I would go here again with my family. Everyone was impressed and every plate was cleaned. The best part? None of the food was neutered for the so-​called Western palate. I’m glad more places outside of major urban centers are starting to move away from snore-​worthy «American Chinese» menus to showcase what Chinese cooking really is.

Beijing Chinese Dining has been open for about 4 weeks. They have taken over the location that previously hosted: Khushboo, Stone Soup & Grill and a long time ago Bel Canto. They have done a great job renovating the space, giving it much more of an up market feel than it has had in the past.
I confess I had a few concerns when eating here for the first time. Lexington Center has history, charm, wonderful shops, but is not really known as a mecca for authentic Chinese food. However, concerns vanished when I tasted their food. It is a little toned down for the Lexington palate, but was still very good.
The menu text is a little odd. It looks like Google Translate had a hand in the writing. There were some really strange names for dishes such as «Chinese Muffin stuffed with Pot Roast pork» that didn’t quite convey the image I was expecting for this delicious dish.
Here are the things I’ve tried:
Beef with Vermicelli in Hot Pot — Excellent, so addictive I could not stop eating this one, even though I was way past full.
Neptune’s Special Fried Rice — Excellent, with plenty of large fresh shrimp and scallops.
Chinese Muffin Stuffed with Pot-​Roast Pork — Excellent, similar to a Gao Bao, Taiwanese burger, but instead of pork belly, the pork is leaner sliced and shredded.
Beijing Chinese Dining is a great new addition to the Lexington Center dining options.