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jpr520

I have eaten here four of five times now. The food is excellent as is the service. And the servers are fun and entertaining.

1 year, 10 months ago

bill_greyskull

Here, experience a life-size diorama of a deer schlepping a load of brew seasoned with its own naughty bits.

Have a seat inside and treat unsuspecting out-of-towners to a few glasses of 鹿鞭白酒. After, give your friends a proper tour of the grounds, where they may witness for themselves disjoined deer-knobs afloat in glass globes of corn whiskey. Yes, the baijiu at this joint is made with corn, in the Northern style. I suppose the comparatively mellow flavor of corn baijiu is what obliges the addition of the above additive. Too bad the staff does not have a special song for this drink.

Also, don't miss the 盒子, a Northern pan-fried dumpling with the texture similar to that of an empanada.

 

1 year, 4 months ago

echhoe

Dongbeiren is great place for home sick Northerners who miss their food, great for adventurous people from outside of this region to sample the cuisine from this particular region of China.

Well recoomend the various stews, braised meats, Ribs, lamb chops. Also the side orders such as corn pancake, dumplings shouldn't be missed either!

Those that savour Chinese liquor, do try the "White Spirit", literally, liquor that is 50-60% proof, that gives a good kick, as the taste of the grain that the brew originates from lingers on...

 

1 year, 4 months ago

cynth

This restaurant certainly brought memories of Dongbei dining flooding back. While I didn't see anyone throw their chicken bones on the floor, there was many a "Fuwuyuarrrr!" shouted across the room.

We sampled two types of their ample jiaozi selection. The dumplings were tasty, but not up to the standard as Dongbei. The qiezi dun tudou (eggplant and potato stew) and cold shredded potato salad were both big hits with our guests. Next up was a chicken and chili dish which turned out to be a plate almost entirely of crunchy chilies, but with a few small pieces of chicken scattered through. The fried silkworms were delicious - like tiny crunchy sausages - but again, not as good as up north. And the bing, well in my opinion, Dongbei bing is one of the best styles in the country. We topped it off with some baijiu (naturally) and for a second it almost felt as if we were back home.

 

1 year ago

epeter03

Yum yummy Dongbei cai. The dumplings are damn good with the dishes containing 8 or so different verities. BBQ meat dish is quite tasty. A great place to take visiting friends or a group.

 

10 months, 3 weeks ago

missbeverly

I'd heard good things about Dong Bei Ren (it translates into Dong Bei people, by the way) - both from Shanghainese as well as from Dong Bei people. Apparently it's a great place to go with friends, since it's fun and loud, so it became the restaurant of choice when we decided to have dinner with some friends of ours. It's a shame they don't take reservations, because the place was packed and it meant we had to camp out on tiny wooden chairs to wait until our number was called. No matter, we amused ourselves checking out the (massive) restaurant and peeking at what others were ordering.

In a stand-alone building, Dong Bei Ren is proudly decked out with red and green colours everywhere - much like Christmas ;) It has a largely no-frills atmosphere - one huge rectangular room - but they hang photos of Chinese liberators on every wall and the dressed-up wait staff really give the place an atmosphere of organised chaos. It was disorientating, but loads of fun! We tried to order our way round the menu, because everything looked too enticing. Amazingly, I did some research afterwards and realised we basically ordered all the best / most recommended dishes. HURRAY!!!!

Dong Bei people evidently love their starches, which featured prominently on the menu. We had 3 different kinds - a sort of twisted savory donut, flat corn pancakes and round flaky pastry. The former 2 were nothing to write home about - basically tasteless and I'd have preferred white rice instead. The flaky pastry, however, was delish - much like roti prata. Most impressively served was the 4 chunks of pork ribs and 1 hulking lamb shank. Talk about a carnivore's delight! The pork ribs were salty and tasty, best eaten using your fingers (gloves are provided). The lamb shank? Pick up the huge bone with one hand and gnaw away - caveman style.

We also ordered a tumble of assorted dumplings, which were served in a myriad of colours to signify what they were. They had plain pork ones, veg ones, lamb ones, and even sauerkraut ones! Very tasty, but they should serve it in hot soup or in a hot bamboo steamer as they went cold in a few minutes and didn't taste as good. The Glass noodles, pork and mushroom soup dish was superb. I loved the flavour and the springiness of the glass noodles, and the pork was melty soft. Tasty!

But the star dish, by far, was the Sweet & sour fish. It came as a 'whole' fish with the meat in little cubes, all crisp on the outside and smooth and soft inside. The sweet & sour gravy was spot-on and we enjoyed the little fried potato pieces (which looked very much like the fish pieces). It was INCREDIBLE!! I would come back for the fish alone. Plus, we found out later that ordering the fish deserves a song and dance - a group of wait staff came round and sang to us something about "good fortune". At least that's what I think it was about :P Too cute!

Dessert was an eagerly anticipated Deep fried bananas with toffee, because it looked like that's what everyone else was ordering. A tumble of crispy balls containing hot soft banana, it had liquid toffee poured over it and is brought immediately to the table. You pull out a ball, and dunk it in a bowl of water. SAY WHAT?! Yep, we were confused too. Lots of sign language and water bowl sniffing ensued - we were weirded out by this strange step. But we realised that dunking it in cold water immediately chills the molten toffee and makes it crisp on the outside, encasing the fried ball and warm banana inside. MAN IT WAS GOOD!!!!! Not exactly great on the calorie front, but just awesome.

The only downside is their not-so-bright service. Whilst cheery, they could NOT seem to remember any requests made (for spoon, plate, menu, etc) and we had to ask 4-5 times every time before someone would action it. They seem like they can only serve food, and asking anything more short-circuits their brain or something. This would get 5 stars if they buck up on their service, but overall a fabulous restaurant and great to go with mates!

PHOTOS HERE: http://tinyurl.com/dongbeiren

 

1 month, 2 weeks ago

daniejen

The food was very tasty - kebabs were great; dumplings were mediocre; the lamb shank had NO meat on it; the banana balls were delicious, and the watermelon juice was only 8 rmb. I will go back there again soon to try the fish and other dishes!

 

3 weeks, 5 days ago