I'm back in Beijing after a few weeks away, and eating like crazy to catch up with work and the dining scene. I was especially eager to return to the city to get to Hello Kitty Dreams, which opened in late December.

"They could serve poop, and I would still love it!" I declared in the weeks before Hello Kitty Dreams opened. Unfortunately, it was a self-fulfilling prophecy. The food is outrageously bad. I'm willing to bet they serve better fare in prison. In Siberia. In the 1930s. Well, that might be a stretch, and the poor souls in the gulags never got mousse cakes that looked like Hello Kitty, but let's just say the food is the only reason I'm not going to become a Hello Kitty Dreams regular.

The decor is glorious:

The servers are very cute and nice:

Yes, of course I wore my (well, one of my) Hello Kitty T-shirt(s):

This purple "red potato and beeroof" soup was part of the daily set menu. You could choose a single person menu for RMB188, or a two-person menu with the exact same food for RMB368. There were no options at all. Whatever Hello Kitty's cooking is what you eat. Again, gulag-esque.

Zombie Kitty:

But apart from that, there have been other exciting dining experiences, with far better food.

Wednesday, I finally visited Man Fu Lou, an exquisite Beijing-style hot pot restaurant just north of Jing Shan Park. I was attracted to the place when I biked past and saw its beautiful facade last year, and when I looked it up, the only information I could find in English was a very positive writeup on Beijingdaze.com.

The interior is gorgeous, the individual-sized, Qing dynasty imperial-style hot pot is delicious, and service is some of the best I've ever had anywhere in Beijing. We asked our waitress to take a photo of us, and she started adjusting the settings on dining columnist Sarah Ting-Ting's camera like a pro to make sure we got the best shot. They also came around and put our cell phones on the table into little ziplock bags to make sure we didn't get soup on them. Awesome.

Yesterday, I also recovered from my Hello Kitty-induced fast with a fantastic meal at Susu, where I got to try a whole slew of their newer menu items. Highlights include the spicy homestyle lemongrass chili chicken (RMB78), the crispy tofu salad (RMB68), which was our unanimous table favorite, and the light, sour country bamboo soup (RMB48).

In some dining news, Sequoia's Kerry Center location has closed, but the Jianguomen one is still open. And French bakery Amandine has also closed due to a landlord dispute, but all the pastries can still be ordered via Amandine's website, and you can also pick them up at the small art gallery space just across the way from Amandine's former spot in Sanlitun SOHO. Manager Brice says they're looking for a new spot and should reopen in three to four months.