Best Food In China

Location

What better way (gastronomically speaking) to spend your Sunday, you may wonder, than by enjoying a leisurely brunch at Red Orange restaurant. Our BFIC team visited the Crowne Plaza Sun Palace in Beijing recently to investigate.

Every Sunday between 11:30am and 15:00pm, the granite worktops in Red Orange restaurant are loaded with everything from meatballs and sashimi to chicken korma and cheesecake as part of the hotel's 198 RMB "3F Sunday Bruncher". The 3F apparently refers to three tag words: friends, fresh and fun.

As it relates to the food - arguably the key component of any restaurant - let's start with fresh. According to the promotional leaflet, Red Orange boasts "a mixture of Chinese, Asian and Western live cooking and buffet with weekly market-fresh signature highlights". The range of foods on offer is indeed extensive, and it must be said, beautifully presented, although unfortunately the quality was somewhat less uniform.

We started well with the Japanese corner; the sashimi range is small but the cuts were indeed market-fresh, and the sushi rolls were admirably executed and looked rather pretty. A whole snapper fish, which leers at diners from the top of the ice-packed sashimi tray, was I thought a comical presentation feature until I noticed that its body had been pre-sliced and diners can in fact tong out small sections to try – a lovely piece of culinary creativity.

If it is seafood that you're after then Red Orange performs very well, offering fresh oysters, New Zealand mussels, lobsters from Australia and several types of crab including deep sea red flower crab, a particular delicacy. We especially enjoyed this section; in fact it was the highlight of the brunch.

The Chinese range, which includes specialities such as chicken feet and cow's stomach, a good range of soups and a ‘live cooking’ corner which when we visited was decked out with Beijing duck, was on the whole very well done, with authentic and tasty fare cooked to a high standard.

The chefs also had a good stab at traditional Western breakfasts, with Continental pastries and a British fry-up, to mixed effect. The croissants, crumbly and buttery just as they should be, were delightful and a rare treat in Beijing. Pork and chicken sausages, and streaky bacon were satisfactory; made-to-order omelet with mixed veg overcooked and overseasoned.

In addition, there is a separate counter of heated trays hosting a wide variety of (broadly-speaking) Western meat dishes, with everything from roast turkey to potato gratin with ham. Some of these were a little hit-and-miss in quality and downright odd in flavour combination, but the range is so extensive that diners are certain to find something that appeals with a little mixing and matching.

Kids will love the dessert section with its extensive range of cakes, ice cream and cute chocolate fountain. If you can drag them in that is. For Red Orange has the rather special feature of a separate supervised kids play room, superbly decked out with a Nintendo Wii, DVD player, ball pond, table football and separate buffet, which presumably relates to the other to F’s: fun (obviously) and friends (a lazy brunch with friends over wine [which bumps the buffet price up to 258RMB but a decent range is on offer], undisturbed by the little darlings). Perhaps family would be more appropriate, as with both over-60’s and kids above 120cm enjoying a 50% discount (kids under 120cm eat free), you really can feed the whole clan without breaking the bank.

Although the Western section could certainly do with some tweaking to uphold the Crowne Plaza’s 5* reputation, the “3F Bruncher" does boast some real culinary highlights, and on the whole Red Orange offers a pleasantly relaxed environment, friendly service and decent food to liven up your Sunday afternoon if you have spare cash to splurge.

-- by Jennifer Pooley

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