| One East - Hilton Beijing |
| Cháoyángqū Dōng Sānhuán Běi Lùdōng Fāng Lù Yīhào |
Reviewed by Josh K.  |
This place is good without being great. I was tossing up between a 3 or 4 star rating but decided to give it the benefit of the doubt.
As with any Hilton Hotel restaurant you expect something pretty special. The decor was well thought out, not flashy, but homely, whilst the mellow jazz bumbling in the background helped to serve this ambience. However, one problem was that we were sharing the restaurant with only one other group of patrons, leading to a lack of buzz about the place.
We took on the 3 course Business lunch set at Rmb 130 p/p. We were rapidly brought some excellent fresh homebaked breads to nibble on whilst we waited in anticipation. We ordered a couple of glasses of wine; an Italian Pinot Grigio and a French Cabernet Sauvignon at Rmb 65 and Rmb 80 respectively (both at the cheaper end of the extensive wine list but both excellent).
For starters, my Girlfriend ordered the Tuna and Salmon Carpaccio (essentially sashimi) and I the Crab Salad with Tomato, Cucumber and Lime dressing. Both were fresh and tasty, earning the coveted thumbs up award.
For mains, I chomped on the Steak Sandwich, which considering it was local beef was suprisingly tender and the slices of brown bread wrapped around it was top notch. However, the red wine sauce that accompanied it was, in my view, too thin. It would have been great served with a steak but proved not very easy to incorporate into a sandwich. Unfortunately, the main disappointment of the meal arrived in the form of my girlfriends main course; Angel Hair pasta with New Zealand mussels and peppers. Unfortunately, only 2 mussels made it into the dish and what I love most about NZ mussels is their sheer size, but these 2 poor fellows had been chopped in half. Once these had been gobbled up in 4 mouthfuls we were left with a very basic pepper pasta (the kind you made as a frugal student).
For dessert, we shared the only two choices on the menu; a Chinese tea creme brulee with apple sorbet and hazlenut ice cream with passionfruit coulis. Both tasted pretty decent, but the crust of the creme brulee was totally undercooked leaving disappointing sogginess where cripsy, crunchy satisfaction should have been.
We finished it all off with a well made cappacino and Oolong tea.
At the end of the day, although this was a decent dining experience, I won't be rushing back. We felt they played it too safe and lacked adventure with their food design. With the plethora of alternative business lunch options in the area, both better food and better value leads me to predict that the One East restaurant will remain deserted at lunch time. Maybe it's a better venue for dinner, something I could be persuaded to try sometime.
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