For anyone going to the Summer Olympics, this would be one of my top picks for eating in Beijing. It is located in the Grand Hyatt, the venue is superb, you can see all the chefs preparing the dishes, and they are renowned for their Peking duck, which is considered the best in Beijing by many afficionados of this extraordinary dish. (I should say that one of the older traditional Peking duck places, Quanjude – which I believe has several locations in Beijing – has its own proponents, but I didn’t have time to check out their duck.) This restaurant calls their dish “old-fashioned” simply because the duck is roasted in wood-fired ovens, which is the way it was done in the past, before electricity.

Our meal was simply sensational from start to finish. The quality of the ingredients, the freshness of the food, and the service were all impeccable. Its location in the Grand Hyatt ensures that a number of the staff speak very good English, which makes it easy if you’re not fluent in Mandarin. I preferred the Peking duck, because having it in Beijing, especially in such a great venue, is hard to beat, and it was as good a Peking duck as I have ever had, although I would love to have it side by side with Peking duck from the Falls Church Peking Gourmet Restaurant in Northern Virginia, which to me is the best in the United States.

The starter dishes were all incredible, including the poached chicken with crushed peanuts and the sauteed straw mushrooms with green soya beans and crispy garlic. The sizzling Kobe beef was good enough to please even the enthusiasts of this special beef in Tokyo. I also thought the blue cod with homemade chili and crispy shallots was a sensational dish, and the pot stickers, which sort of surprised me coming at that end of the meal, were fabulous as well. We drank simply, as we had somewhat overdone wine at lunch, but we had a delicious non-vintage Champagne from Bollinger, the Cuvée Speciale, followed by a somewhat straightforward, pleasant Petaluma 2006 Chardonnay, but a delicious, supple, fruit-forward and complex 2005 Gaja Promis, which I believe is made from Sangiovese, Syrah, and Merlot.

I highly recommend this restaurant in the Grand Hyatt in Beijing for extraordinary food and a very creative and well-chosen wine list.