Searching the capital for the perfect salad

Beijing restaurants please take note: wilted lettuce, a watery tomato and fat dollops of sweet mayonnaise do not a salad make. It’s enough to give a girl a case of salad-rage, knowing there are but a handful of people in town who understand the art of salad. But where are they hiding? I will tell you where they aren’t hiding: in the salad bars at Pizza Hut and Sizzlers, two places that should only be visited for entertainment purposes. There you can watch people pile their small bowls with layer upon layer of random ingredients as though they’re trying to win first prize in a salad tower building competition.

Salads are tricky, particularly that staple of travelers everywhere, the Caesar. While the dressing only has eight ingredients, it seems like there are eight million ways it can go wrong. Luckily Bocata’s version is creamy and tasty; the only problem being the miserly portions and the lackluster wait staff.

Another favorite is Café Panino Techa, where the local working crowd goes for big bowls of mixed greens, chicken and bacon tossed in a house balsamic dressing. They flock for the excellent sandwiches as well, but those in the know are well aware that this is not some mythical wonderful land of good salads: diners consciously stay far away from the green apple and melon mess passed off as fruit salad. In all fairness, if you are foolish enough to get a fruit salad instead of the delicious chocolate tart, you had it coming.

There are, of course, some more exciting varieties of salad around, like the artfully constructed and slightly more expensive chicken sesame salad served up at Lailaiken. Equally tempting (and even more exciting considering the free top-offs) is Golden Peacock’s cold shredded vegetable and glass noodle dish, served with a tart, garlicky coriander dressing. It may be extreme to travel all the way to Minzu Daxue for a ¥10 salad, but hard times call for hard measures.

That’s why I head all the way out to Lido, the home of Il Casale, which, as the sister restaurant of the Italian organic farm Agrilandia, is naturally the place someone would look for a good salad. One bite of their rucola, Veronese red leaves, cherry tomato and parmesan cheese salad and you’ll taste the difference. Dressed up in specially made dressings, it’s a good thing that this delight is served so far away from downtown: All the other salads would surely be green with envy.