For weekday lunches, the Renaissance Food Studio is packed with business professionals and conference attendees, but that didn’t prevent us from taking our son to their lunch buffet on a rare shared holiday as the location is walking distance from our home. For the Beijing jaunt, it is a great start or end to a day exploring Wangfujing pedestrian-shopping street, Tiananmen Square, or the nearby hutongs.
We purposely timed our visit for a later hour to avoid the rush, and found a table near the coffee bar–far away from the bustling self serve counters. The server went hunting for a high chair, and we parked our stroller in a corner by our table.
Our little Jax, freshly woken up and hungry, but wary of this new environment with quietly conversing business men and women in black and blue suits, watched everyone carefully and was incredibly well-behaved. He made few sounds, dropped very little food, and smiled at the server every time she passed by. What a wonderful lunch!
But what about the food? Food Studio serves Asian and western fusion cuisine. We started our meal with fresh seafood (sashimi, oysters and prawns) and maki rolls, cold appetizers (pasta salad, seaweed), breads, and soup (tomato and broth). Next, Jax had steamed sweet potato and pumpkin, baozi, and zhongzi from the Cantonese dim sum table, while we served ourselves roast beef, grilled vegetables, and baby herb potatoes. We also pigged out on curry, chow mein, and “Swedish” meatballs.
We had plenty of fruit, tasty ice cream (green tea, mango, strawberry, taro), macaroons, cheesecakes, tarts, and chocolate cake. By the end of the meal, we were all in such a food coma, that when the server came to give us the child package, a cute bear coloring set. We didn’t even know how to react. We were already the last customers there, so rather than opening it, we thanked the staff and took it home. I must note that the place was squeaky clean by 2:30pm
Overall, a good dining experience. We were asked for last calls before the cleaning process, not rushed at all, and the staff was as pleasant and professional as if we hadn’t used an incredibly affordable Nuomi groupon. We will definitely be going back!
Lunch buffet RMB 218. Dinner buffet RMB 355. Free for children under the age of 5. For reservations, call 6520 8888.
Photo: Renaissance Wangfujing, Jessica Suotmaa
