After my experience at Shu Yan Fu, I was intrigued by these new immersive dining experiences across China and would like to try them out. While they are fun, they are usually quite pricey, so it is impossible to try every single restaurant that provides this kind of experience. Read about Shu Yan Fu here
At least 2 main restaurants were doing these immersive experiential meals, and I did some research before determining to book with Yu Xian Du. Different from the other restaurants, Yu Xian Du focuses on the Imperial Banquet Experience from the Qing Dynasty
Yu Xian Du was a standalone building, and it is also connected to the Food Museum exhibition. There was a grandeur to the place when we entered the building, with rows and racks of costumes and areas for makeup. The moment we arrived, we were shown to the registration counter for our booking, and as I booked the 1st row VIP seats, I paid 798 RMB per person. Costume and makeup cost another RMB 100 to 350 per person, depending on the chosen set of clothes
Subsequently, we realised that the basic dress up, which is the RMB 100 to 200, happens right at the main hall of the building, and they are just thrown onto your existing clothes. They will offer your storage for your coats and big bags, where you are handed a bag tag for tracking. The more expensive costumes, above RMB500, have dedicated rooms and changing rooms on the 2nd floor, where you get to properly change out of your own clothes and into the innerwear of the costumes with a better selection of quality headgear and accessories. Since our version was to put on our clothes only, it was extremely hot to wear throughout the dinner and at some point, we were busy fanning ourselves, and my nephew just took off his hat
Once you get dressed up, you can either go to the 2nd/3rd or 4th floor, where there are backgrounds and scenes being set up for customers to take pictures with. They have a pavilion, fake stone bridges, a lotus pond, an ancient wine house, a restaurant and a lot more scenery for you to take pictures. You can also choose to go into the main dining hall, which is also great for pictures, as it really resembles the real banquet hall of those palace dramas we see on TV. Just like the other experience, the table setting was elaborate with a scroll describing the menu, exquisite china for drinking and eating. Small side dishes were also provided to snack on before the main meal
As we were in the front row, we were served most elaborately, as if we were established ministers and guests of the emperor. Between each dish was a dance performance or a poem recital that described the dish placed in front of us. We started with soup and roast pigeon, which was pretty nice in terms of flavours, but nothing too extraordinary
The next couple of chapters revolve around exotic tribes sending in their dancers to celebrate the Majesty’s birthday, which is why many genres of dance were performed. We got another classy abalone stew, stewed giant meatball with rice
At some point, we lost track of the food served, as it was quite obvious that the food in such an experience was not the main highlight. The performances and the content shown were a lot more intriguing than the food itself
By the end, we were served 2 desserts, which was a nice finish to the meal itself. The closing performance was also befitting of a royal palace banquet
Overall, the food is slightly better in terms of flavour than the one I had in Chengdu, but if you’re here just for the food, I would recommend not wasting your money. But if you were here for the immersive performances, I would say it was a totally enjoyable experience. From both my experiences, paying for the VIP front row was well worth it, as you get to enjoy the show at its best, with a view of everything that happens in the room. Although the more expensive costumes looked very pretty, I was pretty satisfied with my cheaper version, and I would recommend coming earlier to the restaurant for more dedicated service and also more time to take photos in the different sets. We were late, and the make-up artists kind of rushed through dressing us, and we also did not have much time to take photos
Address: 117 W 4th Ring N Rd, 117, Haidian District, Beijing, China, 100081
Lunch and Dinner service only at fixed times, and pre-booking is required either via WeChat or other platforms
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