Oh Josephine de retour à Pekin

Beijing: Agua – Just a Pretty Face

Despite the smog, Beijing ranks No. 8 of the Top 10 Global Cities this year, according to 2014 Global Cities Index by A.T. Kearney. But smog is not the only flaw of my glorious hometown, the embarrassing low quality standard of its western restaurants is also bothering me every time when I go back.

Agua, part of the Aqua restaurant group from Hong Kong, has opened its door in Beijing since 2008, as one of the upper class Spanish restaurants in town. I like its interior a lot, from colour scheme to lighting design; so elegant and trendy at the same time, pretty and refined, perfect place for a date.

Our dinner started with ham – ‘Jamon Iberico de Bellota ‘La Dehesa de Extremadura’, 50 months cured Iberico ham; and it says on the menu that it was elected ‘best Iberico ham in the world’ in 2011; so I guess it’s acceptable to pay RMB528 (approx. €62) for a few slices. But as we all learnt from our lives, price tags don’t guarantee anything, the ham didn’t taste very fresh and was a bit dried out. Also I’ve noticed the olive oil that was served for the bread seemed to be normal cooking olive oil, what a scandal….

Then the tapas ‘Slightly torch-flamed Mediterranean tuna belly, vinegary shallots’ and ‘Warm Carpaccio of scallops, hot vinaigrette’ came, both in fancy presentation and super mini portions, tasting incredibly mediocre and confusing; you can tell the attempt of imitating the creative leading modern French cuisine (possibly inspired by its fellows like Amber or alike in Hong Kong), but this attempts are so shallow and soulless that you can even taste how little they cared about the how the food tastes, maybe on the bet that one can survive well with only a pretty face in this sometimes superficial city…

The main course – ‘Arroz caldoso de bogavante’ – Juicy Maine Lobster rice – was not bad though, well presented and quite tasty, but by this time I was already quite upset by the constant disappointments so far (the disappointments were bigger due to the expectations raised by the fine presentations), and besides, for almost €90 you get better dishes almost anywhere…

Somehow I left the restaurant with the impression that, they focused on everything but the taste of the food itself here…

Price: RMB 300+ per person.
Address: 4/F, Nali Patio, 81 Sanlitun North Street, Beijing, China. +86-(0) 10-5208 6188