Sanlitun | Noodle Bar
With a semblance to Japan's famed ramen shops, 1949's Noodle Bar is an absolute one-of-a-culinary-kind. Only five components are used to make the richest bowl of miantiao in the capital, and it's all about the beef, baby. At one waft, even herbivores are tempted by the tender beef brisket, tendon and tripe that are simmered in the Bar's signature noodles (zhaopai mian), hand-pulled right behind the bar. Either way, there won't be even a drop of broth left when you get up, beef-drunk, from your barstool. Even better, the set menu is only ￥38.
Contact: Courtyard 4, Gongti Beilu, 工体北路四号院, 6501-1949

Dongzhimen | Food in Novel
Many of Beijing's Yunnan restaurants offer Cross the Bridge Noodles, but the quantity and quality of the ingredients here plus their amazing chicken broth sets this place apart. A nutritious mix of (at minimum, 14) ingredients are added to the broth, everything from cashews and quail eggs to pea shoots and chicken breast, smoothly complementing a silky swirl of authentic Yunnan rice noodles. This healthy portion is a steal at ￥18, but for an extra ￥110, slurp down shrimp meat, bamboo worms and luscious bee pupa as well.
Contact: Dongzhimen Nei, No.15-1, 东直门内15-1号, 8406-0237

Dongcheng | Yellow River Restaurant
Yellow River is one of those grimy, hole-in-the-wall places that would be lucky to pass health inspections in most other countries. Yet some of the Beijing’s yummiest noodles are cooked up right here. Out of the 17 distinctly Shaanxi noodle dishes on menu, the owners recommend the youpo chemian and saozi chemian, and we dare say that the latter is the better. The flour noodles are pulled flat and cooked in a slightly acidic pork and vegetable soup so ambrosial it should be bottled and sold in supermarkets. Best of all, it’s a mere ￥10.
Contact: Meishuguan Jie, Jia 24, 美术馆东街甲24号, 6404-4526

Michael Engstrom