Beijing City, owned by the former owners of Spicy City, recently opened.
After reading about it on Faye’s blog, I had a sudden wave of nostalgia and wanted to visit. Sure enough, when we entered, I immediately recognized the familiar faces of the owner and one of the waitresses.
Despite its name, the menu seemed very similar to what was offered at Spicy City, with dishes more from Sichuan cuisine rather than Beijing cuisine.
Husband and Wife
Husband and Wife dish is a cold Sichuan appetizer. In the US, it’s usually made up of slices of tripe and beef, tossed with chili oil, cilantro and garlic. This used to be one of our favorites from the former Spicy City, so of course we had to revisit it. While I liked the ratio of tripe and beef, I found the garlic overwhelming. It was the only thing we could taste.
Spicy Tofu Fish
Fish fillet and tofu are cooked in a chili oil broth. It actually was not as spicy as it looked.
Yang Zhou Fried Rice
This was one of the saddest looking yang zhou fried rice dishes I’ve had. Way too dark (from soy sauce), with a type of rice that was puffier than the short grain or long grain rice usually used in Chinese fried rice. Yang Zhou fried rice typically has a large mix of ingredients, including egg, vegetables, meat (beef, chicken), and shrimp. This was more like your standard basic ham and frozen vegetable fried rice.
Gan Bian Shredded Beef
The dry stir fry beef was our favorite of the night. The beef is first deep fried, and then cooked again via a dry stir fry with peppers. The deep fried beef strips were not too oily, with a crispy exterior and a good pepper flavor.
Overall, we left with mixed feelings about this place. It was nice to see familiar faces and dishes again, but we found the food to be just okay. The restaurant serves authentic Chinese in an area that doesn’t have a lot of Chinese food, which is a great for those who live nearby. However, given the distance from me and the so-so food quality, we likely won’t make another trip anytime soon.
Menu:
Beijing City
12334 Poway Rd
San Diego, California
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Beijing-City
Beijing City is in a strip mall that is forever changing. Tong Sake House just opened up (and it’s pretty good!), plus a Persian grill and bakery that I haven’t tried yet. Travis brought a few dishes home from Beijing City that were okay, but one of them was also honey chicken, which I don’t really expect much from.
Usually when I crave Chinese food, we’ll just stop somewhere along convoy on the way home from work. But, it’s nice to have options close to home (since it’s super close to us!)
I was actually thinking this might be good for you since it should be closer to you. Mr. K and I don’t spend too much time in this area, Convoy is much closer, so I think we’ll stick to there.
Doh! That looks like fried rice I made when I cooked the rice with too much water…
yeah the rice texture was too soft.