Longcheng Tang
There's nothing quite as good as home-cooked food, which is what you'll get at Liuzhai Shifu. The place feels like its spring all the time with its air-conditioned courtyard prettily decked out in trellises covered in fake flowers, vines and atmospheric red lanterns.
The menu focuses on traditional Liu family recipes that are a century old. Some dishes seem familiar but the chef tweaks a number of them to create a more wholesome and nutritious dish.
The eggplant roll (32RMB), for example, is chockfull of pork stuffing encased in a battered eggplant shell. It's served in a saucepan – just like at home when you can't be bothered to wash an extra plate.
The roasted rabbit (68RMB) is also recommended – tender meat topped with sunflower seeds, peppers and dried chillis that offset any gaminess in the meat. They don't stinge on ingredients, either.
Even the fruit juices (from 15RMB) are freshly squeezed. Be sure to order one of their traditional drinks such as the walnut black rice juice (25RMB glass/80RMB jug); all of which offer medicinal benefits as an added bonus.
8 Jiangjia Dayuan, Meishuguan Dongjie (opposite Longfu Hospital to the south) Dongcheng district (6400 5912). Meal for two around 150RMB. 刘宅食府, 东城区美术馆东街蒋家大院8号（隆福医院对面）
Red Capital Club
The Red Capital Club's small courtyard is a historic treat crammed full of Chinese ‘Party' memorabilia – from Mao sculptures and newspaper cuttings to worn leather armchairs and old photographs.
The menu is an entertaining read, with each dish accompanied by an anecdote. The dragon prawn dish, ‘Raising the Red Lantern'(58RMB), we are told, dates back to the Jin dynasty when Emperor Sima Yan would release a sheep to pick one of his 10,000 courtesans to spend the night with.
Eager to vie for royal attention, the courtesans would place said dish outside their doors to entice the sheep. The menu also offers lessons in modern Chinese history, with the favourite food of recent Chinese political leaders featuring heavily.
Try ‘Deng Xiaoping's Spice of Life' (78RMB) – a spicy and flavourful chicken dish – but give the ‘Chairman's Favourite' (88RMB) red roasted pork a miss.
Each dish is presented with vegetable carvings; Deng's chicken is flanked by two cats, one white and one black, in homage to the former leader'sstatement that ‘It doesn't matter whether a cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice.'
If you aren't up for a meal, head to the Club's cigar bar to grab a drink, soak in the atmosphere and puff away on Red Capital (18-68RMB) or Cuban Cohiba (368RMB) cigars like the big fat capitalist you are.
66 Dongsi Jiutiao, Dongcheng district (8401 8886). Open 6 to 11pm daily. Meal for two around 500RMB. 新红资俱乐部, 东城区东四九条66号
Sihe Hongting Caiguan
The most famous resident to live in this small courtyard was the last emperor Puyi's uncle Zhaitao, whose life was made into TV serial The Last Wangye (Duke).
When the Qing dynasty collapsed, the courtyard fell into ruin until Chairman Mao, who valued Zhaitao's expertise in providing logistics for the People's Liberation Army, gave the former court official 2,000RMB to restore the home to its former glory.
While it's now fully refurbished and updated with arty photos of Chinese operasingers, the architecture, stone floors and some furniture pieces are more than a hundred years old.
Its menu is an interesting one – the list of double-boiled soups (from 48RMB), for example, are labelled according to the age and status of the potential diner. Here, the prices reflect the quality or rarity of the ingredients.
In the tanshaoye soup, which we are told is ‘Best for successful businessmen', you get premium ingredients such as shark's fin. But it comes with a hefty price tag (398RMB).
If you come in a group of four or more, be sure to order the less morally reprehensible Hangzhou fish soup (128RMB), which comes in a huge steaming pot that will take up most of your table.
And while Sihe's food may be good, it's the summer drink promotion that's unbeatable and worth getting lost in the hutongs for.
Lasting until the end the August, they'll be giving each table 20 bottles of Tsingtao beer for free, with no minimum spend required.
Xiyangwei hutong, Kuanjie Shizilukou, Dongcheng district (8404 6024). Open 9.30am to 10.30pm. Meal for two around 300RMB. 四合红庭菜馆, 东城区西扬威胡同14号宽街十字路口
By Time Out Beijing
Editor: Hao Di
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