Dizzy Delights
by Mick Jones
Eating on the move usually means a sandwich and a flask of coffee if you're lucky, a chocolate bar and a can of Coke if you're not.
At the Belle Vue on top of the Kunlun Hotel on the East Third Ring Road, however, it means five-star cuisine lovingly prepared by an Austrian maestro.
Revolving restaurants might strike you as a slightly tacky hangover from a best-forgotten architectural age, but don't let prejudice hold you back from the Belle Vue. The cooking is outstanding, the service excellent. And on a clear evening, the view isn't half bad, either. This is the only revolving restaurant in the city offering "innovative European dishes", with a menu blending various European traditions.
"We've introduced a lot of Mediterranean cuisine," said the Kunlun's Executive Chef Erich Garber. "It's very popular, especially with the expat community. But the local Chinese are becoming more open to European cuisine. Sixty percent of our guests are local - they are particularly attracted by things like goose liver and snails."
The crucial ingredients are largely imported - herbs from Australia, goose liver from France, beef from the US or South America.
In spite of this, the Belle Vue's prices are very reasonable. Salads start at 30 yuan for the Eden Salad and go up to 78 yuan for mussel and tiger prawn. The leaves are crisp, the vinaigrette tart. It's not easy to get a good salad in Beijing, so take advantage of one of these while you're here. Following up with the excellent Wild Mushroom Soup at 32 yuan.
In between courses, entertain yourself with a glance across the ring road to the Great Wall Sheraton's non-revolving revolving restaurant, its mechanism stuck fast in concrete owing to a mishap during construction.
Now order some white wine (the wine list is also surprising; not at all the usual restaurant rip-off) and get stuck into a large piece of baked Scottish salmon with basil and garlic, balanced on a bed of mashed potatoes and mushroom (138 yuan). The fish is fabulous - the texture perfect, moistness fully intact, and the taste sublime.
Since the chef hails from Austria, it makes sense to place faith in the Viennese apple strudel (38 yuan) before taking your digestif, your coffee, and your leave. But don't hurry: Staff are under strict orders not to hassle customers no matter how late they dawdle over drinks.