Peking roasted duck (188 yuan/set) is made the old-fashioned way in VIC Bistro. (Photo by Jiang Wanjuan/chinadaily.com.cn)
To make sure the food is authentic, the hotel encourages the restaurant's three specialty chefs to cook the food they grew up with. Combining the talent of French chef Mikolajczak Yann, Indian chef Vinod Kumar and Beijing chef Liu Jianxin, the menu provide just about almost everything.
"When I think of Bistro in Chinese, the dishes that come to my mind are Peking duck, the old-fashioned pork skin jelly and roasted lamb, which are all in the new menu," said Chef Liu, the restaurant's executive chef. "Many people feel timid of walking into a five star hotel, and we want to change that concept. By adding those foods, we want to attract the customers who would not normally eat in the hotel."
"In my language, I understand bistro as all kinds of food available, that's comfortable to eat. Almost all the Indian food can be bistro, such as curry, barbeque and bread," said Indian chef Kumar. "But most Indian dishes are spicy. After we adopt the a la carte menu, I can adjust the flavor as required by the guests."
General Manager Aniere feels that hotel restaurants going free-standing has become the revolution in the industry today, and a hotel restaurant should not be seen as a part of the hotel, but compete with all restaurants around it.
"If you build a restaurant just only for the guests, I think that the people are missing the opportunity to provide what they are offering to everybody," he said. "We provide a great opportunity for our guests to come down, but we also want people to visit us from outside the hotel, to come here and to experience all the good things about our hotel."
If you go:
Vic Bistro, Sofitel Wanda Beijing, Tower C, Wanda Plaza, 93 Jianguo Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing. 010- 8599-6666.
