Beijing Opera Restaurant: A Taste of Beijing in the Heart of Metro Manila
If you’ve always wanted to go to
Beijing and try its cuisine but can’t (not yet anyway), the next best
thing you can do for now is go to Manila and try Beijing Opera Restaurant.
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| Copyright photo: The Paranoid Traveler/PFN |
As you can surmise, Beijing Opera offers cuisine from China’s capital. And
you can’t get anymore authentic as the owners hail from Beijing where they used
to run a restaurant. In fact, their contact information includes QQ which is
China’s Facebook equivalent. (Facebook is banned there, you know.)
So anyway, my family decided to try Beijing Opera especially since it was
offering a 30% discount in celebration of its first anniversary. Its interior
design might offend some sophisticated sensibilities so I will spare you its pictures but once the food is
served, you can easily get past that---including the servers’ occasional
fly-swatting in the background while you eat.
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| Jujube Paste Cake Copyright photo: The Paranoid Traveler/PFN |
We were first served with what seemed like dessert called jujube paste
cake but it’s not listed under dessert. It tastes like buchi with its mongo
filling but not as sweet. It is kind of heavy to start a meal with but its
delectable taste makes one optimistic about the rest of the meal.
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| Cake Copyright photo: The Paranoid Traveler/PFN |
Although it’s called cake, it doesn’t look anything like what we are used
to. In fact, it looks more like roti. And like roti, it does not have any
particular taste on its own until you dip with it something else like the next
dish.
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| Kung Pao Chicken Copyright photo: The Paranoid Traveler/PFN |
Although I love chicken however way it is cooked, Kung Pao Chicken is one
of those rare chicken dishes that I shun but Beijing Opera’s take on it makes me
a convert that I had to keep myself from finishing the entire thing before the
rest of our order was served.
It is not as sweet, spicy and oily as the ones I have tasted before. In
fact, I did not feel satiated afterwards. Instead, I found myself enjoying its
sauce by dipping the cake with it.
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| Mixed Vegetables Copyright photo: The Paranoid Traveler/PFN |
Their mixed vegetables dish was just okay, something you can experience
anywhere else.
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| Pork Intestines Copyright photo: The Paranoid Traveler/PFN |
Our family loves pork intestines so we were kind of
disappointed when we saw it was covered in flour which lessened its purity.
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| Layered cake Copyright photo: The Paranoid Traveler/PFN |
The layered cake is a Chinese-style pancake filled with pork
and green onion. It would have been more enjoyable if they had let up on the
filling which was too rich and thick. It’s like eating a really thick pizza
where you taste the crust more than the toppings. So I removed the excess
filling and folded it like a burrito and it became perfect.
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| Shrimp in Oil Sauce Copyright photo: The Paranoid Traveler/PFN |
I love shrimps and although this dish did not disappoint, it tasted more
like home-cooked sweet shrimp.
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| Dumplings stuffed with pork and scallion Copyright photo: The Paranoid Traveler/PFN |
People who go ga-ga over dumplings will enjoy the
authentic taste. The layer wasn’t too thin that it breaks and the filling was
just enough, unlike the previous layered cake. However, if you must order the
dumplings, skip the layered cake as they both have the same filling.
To down everything, we wanted a pitcher of iced tea but
it wasn’t available so we settled for plum juice but it was concentrated so
you’d be better off with its house tea.
You might notice that we seemed to have ordered a lot
which we did since we expected the usual kuripot
(stingy) serving. We were delighted to return home with a doggie bag so we can
extend our enjoyment in the comforts of our home.
Overall, Beijing Opera was a good enough experience to add
in our “return-to” list. It is a refreshing break from the myriad of Fujian and
Cantonese restaurants in Metro Manila and not enough Beijing, Shanghai and
Szechuan cuisines.
The prices of the menu range from P120-P400 with generous
servings. They also offer shabu-shabu at night.
Beijing Opera Restaurant is located at South Drive, Ermita, near Ocean Park
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