Authentic Hui Muslim Food in Beijing: Speed Pizza, Fujian Beef and Turkish Qubbe

Reposted from the web

Summary: This Beijing halal food guide maps real restaurants visited by the author, including a Hui Muslim-run Speed Pizza, Fujian beef dishes, and Turkish Qubbe, with practical notes for Muslim travelers looking for authentic halal food in Beijing.

— Hello, Travel —

As usual, before I share restaurant details, I want to answer some questions I get asked often:

1. The Yahya official account is not a marketing page. I have no team; I run it myself. Yahya is my religious name, and it is a name specifically for Muslim men (so, to clear up the rumors, I am not a young lady).

2. I am not a professional food critic. My job has nothing to do with travel or food. I list my profession at the end of my articles, and writing about halal food is just a hobby.

3. I only write about restaurants I have actually visited. Even if a place is famous, I won't write about it if I haven't eaten there. Just because I write about a restaurant doesn't mean I think it is delicious. Taste is very subjective, so I rarely praise or criticize dishes.

4. If you want to find a restaurant address, use Gaode Maps, Baidu Maps, or Dazhong Dianping to search for the name to get the address and phone number. I only add notes about the address if you cannot find it online.

5. Unless otherwise noted, halal restaurants in Beijing sell alcohol. There are only a handful of restaurants that do not serve alcohol.

6. I am from Beijing.

1

Western-style fast food: Speed Pizza

The Joy Breeze (Huiju) mall in Daxing District has had many surprises lately, and this Speed Pizza is one of them. Speed Pizza is a chain brand, and their other locations are not halal. Only this shop on the second floor of Joy Breeze is run by Hui Muslims. At first, when I heard the owner was a Hui Muslim, I was a bit worried—you know why. When I came to check, the server brought out the ingredient packaging from the kitchen that had the halal label on it, and that put my mind at ease.

Coincidentally, the owner of this shop is the son and daughter-in-law of the family behind the Jingnan No. 1 Hot Pot (Jingnan Diyi Shuan) in the Xueying Hui Muslim village. I know the family, and their hot pot place is quite famous in the southern part of the city. The ingredients for the Speed Pizza at Joy Breeze come from their family.

Screenshot of my chat with the owner

After adding the owner on WeChat, I learned they run three shops in Joy Breeze. Besides Speed Pizza, Lou Sanshao and Niujiufen are also halal. Because they are chain brands, they don't display a halal sign, but the ingredients are delivered separately.

Signature cheese pizza

Following the staff's recommendation, I ordered the cheese pizza. The crust is thin, and they are generous with the cheese, which has a rich milky flavor. The pizza comes with a small cup of honey. You can add it if you like, but don't add too much or it will be too sweet.

Pan-seared salmon salad

Honey-glazed rice cake boneless fried chicken

The restaurant has good food and service. It is great to see halal restaurants moving toward this business model. By copying the management style of famous restaurant brands and just focusing on controlling the quality of ingredients, they have a real chance to grow and succeed.

Lou Sanshao

Both Lou Sanshao and Niu Jiufen are on the third floor of the Joy City mall. Lou Sanshao is a modern Beijing-style restaurant, and Niu Jiufen is a Fujian beef restaurant.

2

Fujian Cuisine: Niu Jiufen

Niu Jiufen is a chain restaurant serving Fujian cuisine. Only this location on the third floor of Joy City is halal. There is no halal sign in the shop, but the ingredients come from their own farm in Xueying.

As far as I know, there are no halal Fujian restaurants even in Fujian. Fujian cuisine has always been a blank spot on my halal food map, so I was lucky to satisfy my taste buds at Niu Jiufen.

Looking at the Niu Jiufen menu, they only serve beef dishes and vegetarian food. You must order their signature Chinese-style beef ribs.

The beef ribs come in small and large portions. I ordered the small one because I was afraid of wasting food, but it turns out two people could easily finish the large portion.

Seaweed jelly (shihuagao)

Seaweed jelly (shihuagao) is a specialty drink from Fujian and a Quanzhou intangible cultural heritage. It is made by boiling seaweed powder. It has a light, slightly sweet taste and is great for cooling down in the summer.

Grapefruit sparkling water

Beef ribs for two

The beef ribs are soft and tender, showing the skill of Hui Muslims in stewing beef. You can take the big bones home, and you do not have to worry about the meat being tough. The beef broth is delicious mixed with rice; a young man could eat three bowls of rice with it.

Lettuce with scallion oil and fried shallots

Lettuce with scallion oil and fried shallots is the most popular vegetable dish recommended by the restaurant. If you were in the south, they would definitely use lard, but here they use beef fat.

Spicy beef rib pot

The spicy beef rib pot has dried bean curd sticks (fuzhu) and fried tofu puffs (doupao) on top, with beef underneath. The chili is quite spicy but very fragrant. It is another dish that goes well with rice. When I shared the photos on social media, even friends from Shaxian, Fujian, agreed that it looked very authentic to Fujian.

3

Turkish Cuisine · Qubbe

The head chef from the Turkish Embassy opened a new Turkish restaurant near Xinyuanli. I organized over twenty friends (dosti) to visit and try the food.

As more people signed up for the dinner, I worried there wouldn't be enough space. Once I arrived, I realized I worried for nothing. The restaurant is very large and can seat 100 people at once.

Mixed Grilled Meat

This signature mixed grilled meat platter is the longest one I have ever eaten, nearly a meter long. The menu says it serves 10 people for 2,228 yuan, but I tested it myself and found it is plenty for 20 people. Some netizens complained about why the chili peppers were charred. Actually, this is a traditional way to eat them. In the Middle East, Mexico, and Sichuan, China, people char peppers because it lowers the heat and brings out the flavor. There is scientific evidence for this, so peppers must be charred to be fragrant.

Filet Mignon

They have filet mignon here for 388 yuan a serving. The meat is very tender, and you can choose how you want it cooked.

Hollow Bread

They have a special oven, and all the bread is baked to order, so the service is a bit slow. When the bread arrives, steaming hot and smelling of fresh wheat, you realize the wait is worth it.

Sweet Potato Fries

Rotating Grilled Beef Burger

This is the famous Turkish kebab. The meat is stacked on a spit and rotates constantly on the grill. It is sliced off and tucked into bread. Students who have studied in Europe will find this very familiar.

Cheese Pita Bread

My favorite pita bread flavor is cheese. Pita bread is like a boat-shaped stuffed pie, made the same way.

Feta Cheese Salad

We ate four types of salad, including arugula salad, shepherd's salad, and feta cheese salad. The cheese salad is the most unique because the cheese is sour.

MADO ice cream

For dessert, we had MADO ice cream. It comes from Turkey and is made with pure goat milk. It tastes much better than Haagen-Dazs. It costs 38 yuan per scoop, and my friends loved it.

Kubei Turkish Restaurant really captures the authentic flavors of Turkey. The restaurant has a strong Turkish style, and even the tableware is flown in from Turkey. Ambassadors from Central Asian and Middle Eastern countries attended the opening, which shows the quality is reliable.

4

Turkish Cuisine: Istanbul Restaurant

Istanbul Restaurant has reopened. It operated in Jianguomen for over ten years before closing for more than two years. This place is special to me because we used to go on dates here before we got married. The new location is near Sanlitun.

Compared to Kubei, this place is more affordable. Kubei costs about 300 yuan per person, while this place is just over 100 yuan.

The restaurant still has a blue Mediterranean style, but it is much more spacious and brighter than before.

Turkish coffee

Turkish coffee is boiled and very strong. Turkish people often tell fortunes based on the patterns the coffee grounds leave at the bottom of the cup. Of course, this is just a custom left over from the age of ignorance.

Doner kebab (donaer kaorou)

This is a mix of chicken and lamb, and you need to eat it wrapped in bread.

Beef pita bread

Rice pudding

Rice pudding is a dessert that originated in the Middle East. It is made with rice, butter, and milk, and it is a bit like a thick, dehydrated porridge.

5

Arabic Cuisine: ZAYTON Restaurant in the Village

Zaitun is the transliteration of the Arabic word for olive tree. The restaurant is in Sanlitun, and both the chef and the owner are Palestinian.

Arabic chicken wrap

This place is very good. The Arabic chicken wrap tastes just as good as the ones I had abroad, and the price is quite affordable at 50 yuan per person. This is likely because they share space with the bar next door and don't have their own dining room, just a small kitchen, so you have to sit outside, which keeps costs low.

Arabic coffee

Arabic coffee is more bitter than Turkish coffee and has a sour taste. People who don't like coffee might find it hard to drink, but I can handle it.

The Arabic grilled meat wrap is also very fragrant. I told the chef it was delicious, and he said it wasn't the best yet, and that it would be even better when I come back next time to eat it fresh off the grill.

6

Ningxia Cuisine: Huiweigong Silk Road Food

I have recommended Ali Restaurant's Ningxia dishes before, but I recently found another Ningxia-style restaurant. The owner is from Jingyuan, and the lamb in the shop comes from Yanchi tan sheep in Ningxia.

Huiweigong is a family chain with four locations in Qingniancheng, Xiguomao, Yayuncun, and Sanyuanqiao.

Dawukou cold noodles (liangpi)

Dawukou cold noodles are quite famous in Ningxia and are a must-order cold dish at any Ningxia restaurant.

Clear-stewed lamb chops

Clear-stewed lamb chops are all about the quality of the meat. You only need to add a little salt to stew them, and Ningxia lamb has no gamey smell.

Homemade farm-style vermicelli

Stir-fried vermicelli with minced meat is a common home-cooked dish in the Xihaigu region. The local specialty is potatoes, and vermicelli made from high-quality potato starch tastes great.

Hand-pulled noodle pieces (mianpian)

After finishing the dishes, end the meal with a bowl of noodle pieces to feel full.

7

Pangasius fish hot pot (suobianyu huoguo) and Bobo fish

Pangasius fish hot pot has been very popular in Beijing for the past few years. A Bobo fish restaurant opened in Xiguanshi Village in Changping, specializing in this dish. Pangasius fish has smooth skin, tender meat, and very few bones. It has no small bones, making it easy and delicious to eat.

The restaurant features Hello Kitty decorations and a pink color scheme throughout. I guess the owner's daughter designed it.

You can help yourself to the dipping sauces, with eight different flavors to mix and match.

The shop is currently running a promotion where vegetable dishes are free.

Two people can easily finish a large pot of fish. The fish is already cooked when it arrives, and you can add vegetables to the pot after you finish the fish. I recommend the spicy flavor.

Xinxin Cake Shop

If you think Xiguanshi in Changping is too far to travel for just one restaurant, you are wrong. Xiguanshi is a village for Hui Muslims, and there is plenty of halal food there. Please look at the photos below.