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Michelin 2 Stars · Beijing

Jing Ji

京季 — Two-starred revival of imperial-era Beijing cooking inside the Ritz-Carlton. Red-clay stews, roast lamb ribs and lost banquet dishes reconstructed…

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Jing Ji

Why we list it

Two-starred revival of imperial-era Beijing cooking inside the Ritz-Carlton. Red-clay stews, roast lamb ribs and lost banquet dishes reconstructed from old palace manuscripts.

Booking note: Tasting menus dominate; state dietary needs at booking.

What to order

  • Stewed lamb with red fermented bean curd
  • Palace-style roast duck

Palace-style Beijing, revived

Palace-style cooking — the court cuisine of the late Qing — survives less as recipes than as a technique set: long red-clay stews, roast meats over fruitwood, and a repertoire of fermented seasonings that Western kitchens never adopted. Jing Ji works inside that vocabulary rather than deconstructing it, which is why the room has held two stars without ever turning modern for its own sake.

The lineage runs through Shandong, whose cooks staffed the imperial kitchens and whose braising and stock-making became the base layer of Beijing’s high cooking. What makes the food courtly is not extravagance but tolerance for time: stocks reduced for days, meats braised until the fibre gives, sweetness and salt balanced at a point that reads as mild to a modern palate.

What court cooking actually tastes like

Expect deep savoury rather than heat. Red fermented bean curd, soy, dried scallop and ham build a flavour that is rounded and faintly sweet; chilli appears rarely and never as a headline. Texture carries as much weight as taste — sea cucumber, fish maw, tendon and abalone are valued for how they feel, which is the part first-time visitors underestimate.

The roast duck is the accessible anchor of the menu, lacquered and carved at the table; the lamb stewed with red fermented bean curd is the dish that explains the kitchen best. Tasting menus dominate, and they are built to finish inside two hours, which makes this the easiest of Beijing’s starred tables to combine with a working day.

Booking and dietary notes

Being inside the Ritz-Carlton CBD, the room takes hotel-guest walk-ins more readily than the standalone houses, but book two to five days ahead for dinner. Window tables facing the CCTV tower are the ones to request, and they are assigned at booking rather than at the door.

State dietary restrictions when booking rather than at the table: the kitchen adapts the set menu instead of swapping dishes à la carte, and a same-day request usually means a compromised course. Wine service is competent and the Chinese list is short but well chosen; tea is the safer pairing with the braised dishes.

What to know before you go

The entrance is through the Ritz-Carlton lobby, which makes arriving by hotel car smoother than arriving by taxi from the street. Request the tasting menu at booking rather than deciding at the table: the kitchen builds the day’s shopping around the reservations, and a late decision gets a shorter menu.

Portions in the set menus are larger than the course count suggests. A table of two that adds an à la carte duck to a tasting menu will usually leave food behind.

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