The Muslim Restaurant At The Beijing Language and Culture University

Entrance to the BLCU Muslim restaurant.

The Muslim restaurant on the Beijing Language and Culture University campus is really one of the great eateries in the area and is in fact famous throughout Beijing for it's traditional Xingjiang style cooking where this type of food originates. I'm pretty sure I even remember it appearing in Time Magazine's Beijing edition towards the end of 2010 and it has been featured on many websites dealing with the food scene in Beijing, as well as by many casual writers and bloggers who have visited.

As I briefly mentioned in my LaVita Cafe, BLCU post, the Muslim restaurant is also the only other place on campus beside the canteens that I know of where you can use your food card to pay for everything.

How to get there

The Muslim restaurant is located on the west side of the new canteen buildings on the BLCU campus (see map at the end of this post). If are standing at the south gate facing north, walk ahead to the crossroads in the centre of campus and take a left so that the canteens are now on your left. Walk up to the main entrance, past all the bicycle parking and instead of going into the canteens turn right before the stairs and follow the corner round to the left. You may still be able to see the outdoor area where they roast all the meat skewers fresh to order over hot coals (see picture at the end). It almost looks like a stall or vendor but much more elegant and finished with traditional designs. If in doubt, let your nose guide you!

Skewers and kebabs

This is the main reason so many people eat at the Muslim restaurant on the BLCU campus. There is a great range of meat skewers and kebab style dishes that make it hard to ignore. It is also great value in terms of the quality of food they serve with most meat skewers sitting at around the 4-6 RMB mark or thereabouts (though the prices were increased after the move to the new canteen buildings at the very end of 2010). The flavours and seasoning are great, the meat is generally tender and well cooked and many people will find this a welcomed change from the usual Chinese cuisine they may have been dining on for the past weeks or months.

Keeping with tradition, most of the meat used at the Muslim restaurant is lamb and I don't think you will see any pork on the menu at all, though you will find beef and chicken. I really recommend you try the sish kebabs and a few of the classic lamb skewers too, which I'm sure you will come back to time and again. They just never get old, trust me.

I stayed at BLCU for 12 months and by the end of my time there I was still regularly visiting the Muslim restaurant on campus, either to sit in and enjoy a big meal or just to grab some meat skewers and noodles to take away. It's also one of the restaurants, if not THE restaurant, that I miss most from my time at BLCU and I have no doubt that when you leave you will too.

Noodles and rice

The noodle dishes at the Muslim restaurant are a real treasure. My personal recommendation is to try the "Chow Mian Pian" which are flat square cuts of noodle dough cooked with tomato sauce, lamb and vegetables. The flavours are incredible and the portions are filling. Again, superb value for the mere 10-12 RMB that it costs you.

There are a number of other noodle dishes aside from the classic Chow Mian Pian but they pretty much all play on the same great tomato, lamb and vegetable combination in one way or another. You can (and should) try the long hand-pulled noodles which are also fantastic instead of the signature square cuts that I've already mentioned. The one downside to noodles at the Muslim restaurant (and you find this at all the Muslim restaurants in Beijing because it's just how they cook) is that they tend to be quite oily, whether you can immediately notice or not.

However, oil aside, the really wonderful thing about noodles at the Muslim restaurant is that they're freshly made to order, with chefs working hard in the kitchen to hand-pull the dough each time. This makes all the difference to the dishes as you can really taste the freshness that is locked into noodles which have just been boiled moments earlier. Sometimes they will have been made in a big pot before lunch or dinner service begins, but the flavours they deliver are still extremely fresh and satisfying.

Because I was never a massive fan of rice dishes, I never ordered any here though had friends that did and loved them. The most popular type of rice dish served here is quite plain but well flavoured and comes with some lamb pieces on top to mix through. If you enjoy rice, be sure to order some here. You never know, it may become one of your new favourite rice dishes!

Nan breads

If you like Indian nan breads, you're going to love the nan breads they serve here. They are round and almost like a pizza base without the topping (the edges even rise up like a pizza crust), sometimes seasoned with a bit of salt, chilli, cumin, oil and other spices and heated over the hot coals until they're crisp on the outside and fluffy and soft inside. Just perfect and only something like 5 RMB if I remember correctly. In my experience, they are served plain here (without the seasoning) which I think is a bit of a shame but they're still a great accompaniment to your meal.

My recommendation is to order one to accompany your lamb skewers and then just wrap them round the lamb pieces almost creating a kebab-like experience. The tastes complement each other wonderfully and you won't be able to get enough!

Yoghurt and sweets

Not everyone realises that you can buy a cup of fresh home made yoghurt at the Muslim restaurant for something like 10 RMB. It's quite sour though which is how fresh yoghurt should be but don't worry because they bring you a couple bags of sugar in case you want to sweeten it up a bit, which a lot of people choose to do (though I never did). This can be a great counter to the chilli if you order a hot dish and is also good for you due to the natural probiotics that occur in yoghurt as most people already know.

I would recommend you definitely give the yoghurt a shot, especially if it's something you enjoy. Again, a nice change from what you may usually find yourself eating at an evening or lunch meal.

Finally, I would like to mention the deep fried battered banana (or apple, depends on your personal preference) covered in like a caramel sauce that is sticky but quickly sets and hardens so you need to eat it relatively fast. These are absolutely delicious if you have a bit of a sweet tooth after the meal and the portions are pretty big so definitely one for sharing with friends or between a small group. For something like 20 RMB, this guarantees that your meal at the Muslim restaurant will go out with a bang!

Have you eaten at the Muslim restaurant on the BLCU campus? What did you think of it?

Official BLCU campus map, Muslim Restaurant

The outdoor area where they cook meat skewers fresh to order over hot coals

One last thing...

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