Out of the cold

Warm your tummies with the best of Beijing's latest seasonal menus. Ye Jun recommends some cozy destinations for winter.

As the temperature drops below zero, it gets harder for Beijing restaurants to attract diners out into the cold and wind, but they have come up with some certain winners to lure dedicated gourmets out of their warm cozy nests.

Raffles Beijing's East 33, for example, has a new winter menu that will have diners gathering round a hotpot, enjoying seafood. The buffet restaurant has specially commissioned some special clay pots for tabletop stoves so diners are warmed up comfortably, regardless of how hard the cold wind blows outdoors.

There are four base stocks to choose from - a spicy Sichuan broth, a nutritious chicken soup, a Southeast Asian-style bak kut teh or pork ribs soup, and a spicy and sour Thai tom yum goong.

To start the meal, you can create your own dip at the open buffet station from almost 20 different ingredients. Concoct a traditional Beijing sauce with sesame paste or go for a simple soy and chili dip.

For the main meal, there is a big selection of mushrooms and vegetables, and freshly prepared lamb and beef.

But the highlight is definitely the seafood: two fresh abalones for each customer, Alaskan crab leg, ready-dressed sea crab, fresh crab pincers, white prawns and a variety of shellfish.

The seafood at the hotel is of high quality, and the sea crab, for example, is heavy with meat.

Besides the seafood hotpot buffet, East 33 also offers hot dishes, Cantonese dim sum, cakes and desserts.

If you prefer the smokiness of meat grilled on an open fire, a good place to go is Kanda Yakiniku Restaurant. The chef is a Chinese who has returned after 10 years training and working in Japan.

That experience is immediately apparent in the arrangement of the sliced beef and pork on the plates. The meat platters not only look good, but also the quality of meat is another source of pride for the chef.

Wagyu beef is imported from Australia, while "snow flake" beef, a beautifully marbled but more reasonably priced option, is the best of its kind from Northeast China.

Diners in a group will probably want to opt for the beef, seafood and sashimi platters. The restaurant offers mushrooms, or potatoes with butter and caviar in foil bowls, which can be heated directly on charcoal stoves.

If you have the expertise, you may try grilling the meat yourself. Otherwise, the experienced waitresses are ready to help you.

The charcoal stoves are set inside the tables, with ventilation systems hidden below, and there is no smoke to irritate the eye or taint your clothes.

The designer of the restaurant is Japanese, and he has named every private room after a place in Japan. Rooms are decorated with elements, such as cherry flowers, little ponds and Japanese paintings.

There is sake, beer and tea to go with the meals.

If you are not into hotpots or barbecues, there are still plenty of winter warmers to choose from, like a very nourishing oxtail soup at the China Grill on the 68th floor of the Park Hyatt in Beijing.

This is double-boiled oxtail soup with Matsutake or pine mushrooms and Chinese herbs.

A new item on the winter menu, the soup is a great energy booster, which will instantly warm the body.

Several furnaces work in the open kitchen at the restaurant. If you happen to have a table nearby, you can actually feel the warmth coming from the ovens - very pleasant on a bitterly cold winter day.

Because of the proximity of the stoves, an order of grilled beef arrives at the table so hot that you may want to wait a little for it to cool down.

The restaurant's new winter menu also includes an excellent chocolate mud cake, with vanilla bourbon ice cream and whisky sauce, the kind of dessert that will make you feel happy through the rest of the day, and warms you from the inside out.