Wuli Xiang

The name Wuli Xiang, meaning ‘fragrant room,’ accurately describes this elegant space in the Traders Upper East Hotel, which offers an airy and light version of the traditional Chinese restaurant, with glass screens and relaxing Chinese melodies playing.

The service is also light and confident (a welcome mainstay at Shangri-La outlets), but it’s the delicate flavouring of the food that leaves the biggest impression.

A variety of Chinese dishes are available, though the true speciality, which makes Wuli Xiang a rarity in Beijing, is the Huaiyang-styled cooking.

Blending traditions from the cities found near the ends of the Huai and Yangtze Rivers – Huai’an, Yangzhou and Suzhou, for example – this is a light, fresh and sweet cuisine.

Each dish is based on a single main ingredient, so the essence of the dishes remains pure and unsullied. The double-boiled duck soup with bamboo shoot (38RMB per person) is a delicate, almost cleansing broth filled with tender meat still on the bone and crunchy vegetable stalks, all retaining a consistent flavour.

Braised sliced pork in oyster sauce (58RMB) is fatty and finger-licking good. Its characteristic smoky-sweetness is only surpassed by another regional cooking characteristic: precise carving techniques.

The result is a dish composed of a house of cards constructed by even pork slices. The braised bamboo shoots and vegetables (48RMB) retain a satisfying crunch and zest. The small dishes and desserts, not always of the Huaiyang school, are also well-executed.

The spring onion pancake (15RMB) is just as oily, crispy and aromatic as anything you’ll find on the street, but better quality. Sweetened yellow bean cake (12RMB) is nutty and gently sweet, and should satisfy amateur sweet tooths.

For a real flavour punch, check out the Chinese pancake with green tea and peanut (16RMB), a green tea ‘crepe’ wrapped around pieces of peanuts and some peanut butter, and covered in sugar and sesame seeds.

Wuli Xiang also specialises in tea, though you’ll have to pay for it – a bottomless pot of pu’er retains its excellent flavour, but doesn’t quite justify the 168RMB price tag.

Overall, though, Wuli Xiang has all the refinement of a good hotel restaurant but without the stuffiness or exorbitant price tags.Manuela Zoninsein

Wuli Xiang Traders Upper East Hotel, 2 Beisihuan Dong Lu, Chaoyang district (5907 8416). Open 11.30 am-2pm; 5.30-10pm daily. Meal for two around 350RMB. 朝阳区上东 商贸饭店东四环北路2号

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