I think this sentence about sums it up:
Note: All categories designated as “Fine Dining” are above 500RMB. Those designated as “Casual Dining” are below 500RMB.
I’ll give you one flying guess which restaurant won both Restaurant of the Year and the Readers’ Choice (again). I’ll even give you a hint: It’s Maison Boulud.
We had a reader who had some very strong opinions about this. I’ll let E take it away:
Englishmen, really, you’re taking this whole self-hate thing a little too far! Maybe I’m off base, but I’m surprised that Time Out, a British-owned publication, is so interested in blowing their literary loads all over a bunch of French places. In three years in Beijing I haven’t been to Maison Bouloud once but evidently Time Out’s editors go there enough to rate the service and the chef as their Chef of the Year. What would Lord Nelson think? The bigger question is if Time Out is getting a few extra pink and green macaroons slipped in their pockets.
Look, I’m not saying the place isn’t good. But what’s Time Out’s food budget these days? Evidently pretty damn big. Go back a couple of months to Time Out’s Beijing’s Best Burger column. Winner: Maison Boulud. Really, they have a burger? So evidently Time Out’s writers go to Maison Boulud enough to go down the menu all the way to the burger? “Oh Garconne, no Steak Tartare for me today, just give me Le Burger.”
Either way, for the amount of praise lauded on this place, I hope when I die I’m lucky enough to be reincarnated as an onion for the soup. I don’t think my expense account is healthy enough to come back as Coq au vin.
Beijing Cream: we love you because you call out all these phony expat magazines on their shit! Keep doing what your doing, and maybe someday you’ll be even more popular than Shanghaiist (which deserves to get taken down a notch or two for the same crap Time Out is pulling).
If it’s jianbing you’re after then read The Beijinger.
There’s a shop near me that sells BMWs. I’ve never taken the time to complain about this.
I was talking with the American chef at NOLA one night and he told me that shortly after they opened a few years ago he was approached by a man offering consulting services that would guarantee that NOLA would win awards from the expat magazines if he gave him a $1000 or so.
The chef said he went to one of the assorted awards ceremonies that these magazines have a few months later and the guy that approached him was working at the event as an employee of the magazine.