Article: Randy Lee Svendsen    Photos: by Don Cody & St. Regis Beijing Hotel

Dear Cherry,

For many years now, Sunday Brunch has been one of my favorite weekly activities.  It is a good way to wind down the weekend and relax in preparation for the coming week.  For over a year I have gone regularly to The Garden Court Restaurant at St. Regis Beijing Hotel to enjoy their unique approach to Sunday Brunch.  Of the many options for Sunday Brunch I have tried in Beijing, I find the style of this brunch to be best suited to my tastes, elegantly reserved, and relatively quiet.  I prefer a buffet type Brunch with many choices of food options, and I like the elegant décor and layout of The Garden Court Restaurant, with the option to dine outside when the weather is good.  The inclusion of live music adds the finishing touch to the overall ambience of the Brunch experience there.  Located amongst the food stations on polished beige marble floors, an experienced gentleman plays an electronic keyboard and a talented lady sings many popular songs and old favorites.  Somehow the Champagne just seems to taste better when accompanied by great music.

With Brunch open from 11:30 to 3:00 every Sunday, I arrived at the grand St. Regis Beijing Hotel at 11:45 the day of this review.  I enjoyed being greeted by the professional doorman, a true gentleman who always compliments me regarding my Tang Zhuang style Chinese shirts and we shared a few nice words as usual.  Walking into the elegant front lobby I looked up at the chandeliers and other beautiful interior accents as I turned left and followed the polished beige marble floor to the entrance of The Garden Court Restaurant.  Here I was greeted by the charming hostess Tiffany Lv and taken to my regular table by another hostess named Hendy Mu.  I like my seat, which is a curved sofa upholstered in soft beige suede, one of twelve set around the outer walls of the dining room.  The round table has two armless chairs with round backs opposite me in case I have guests.  The table is polished black marble set with a rich oval shaped dark brown leather placemat with a 1-inch boarder of textured leather.  Sambonet silver-plated flatware is appropriately placed and glassware is by Riedel.  I like the design of this restaurant.  It is in tune with the rest of the hotel, which has a very solid and stately feel to it and is decorated with modern elegance throughout the facilities.  As is usual, my waiter was Gordon Li.  Recently promoted to captain for his exemplary service, he is a true professional who always takes exceptional care of me, and without even asking he brought my first Bloody Mary, very spicy and made with gin.  He knows that I always start with two of these and when they are finished he will pour my first glass of free flowing MUMM Champagne, included in the cost of Brunch, and then watch my glass like a hawk, swooping in to refill as required and never letting my glass be empty.  As a point of interest, there is a book called “The St. Regis Bloody Mary World Collection – Vodka, Spice and All Things Nice” which provides the history of the Bloody Mary.  As stated in the foreword, “When John Jacob Astor IV set out to realize his vision of creating ‘the finest hotel in the world,’ The St. Regis New York was founded upon a heritage of tradition, innovation and luxury.  Now, the St. Regis is an icon of classic elegance and timeless sophistication, and graciously delivers flawless bespoke service and every fine amenity so you feel as comfortable as you would in a private home.  To complement the hotel’s trademark lively entertainment and decadent indulgences, The St. Regis New York debuted its very own colorful cocktail in the heart of Manhattan’s high society in 1934.  Today, each St. Regis hotel and resort proudly serves its own variation of the classic drink.  All are prepared with the freshest homemade mixes, and each salutes tradition with its own unique twist!”  Several of these different signature cocktails are available at St. Regis Beijing Hotel on a special Bloody Mary drink list, all of which I have tried.  The signature Bloody Mary for this hotel was created by Oscar Martinez, the director of food and beverage.  It is called the Great Wall Bloody Mary, made with Tsingtao beer and Bloody Mary mix with ice and a lime wedge.  Oscar will have the privilege to create another one at the new St. Regis Lhasa Hotel soon to open in Tibet.  But for now, I get the best Bloody Maries in Beijing from Gordon Li or Vanilla Jiang, who is one of the waitresses who also looks after me whenever I attend Sunday Brunch at St. Regis Beijing Hotel.

I had a nice talk about how everything looked that day with Oscar Martinez and Allan Zhang, the assistant manager.  Then I took a walk around the food stations to describe the available options, stopping for a moment to discuss the offerings with the executive chef Giordano Faggioli and to find out who was working in the kitchen that day.  The first station, and where I always start is the cold seafood, which displays on crushed ice oysters on the half shell, mussels with a tomato relish, shrimp, baby lobsters, abalone, crab, crab legs, lobster claws, scallops, sashimi, clams, razor clams, and 4 kinds of caviar with condiments.  Against the wall to the kitchen is a grilling station where you can select fresh meats, sausage, chicken, and fish for grilling to your liking.  There are also several casseroles already made up if you want to try some hot dishes like beef, sea bass, snapper, BBQ pork, sweet potato, and a Sicilian dish.  There are several kinds of mustard and other condiments to use as desired.  Across the room is a salad station, next to a cold cereal table, and in the middle of the room is a big oval serving table with lots of preparations like assorted sushi and shashimi with rice, corn-on-the-cob, shrimp, chicken salad, parma ham with melon, fruit salad, asparagras with poached eggs, tomato and mozzarella, bamboo shoot salad, seared tuna salad, nicoise salad, squash salad, seaweed and slice cucumber, foir gras terrine, watermelon and feta cheese, beef Carpaccio with arugula and parmesan, sliced lotus root with rice filling, and potato salad.  Opposite this is a Chinese cooking station with spicy crab with chili, chicken with curry, pan-fried pot stick, spring rolls, wide noodles, beef with oyster sauce, spicy fried green beans with chili, spicy wok fried chicken Sichuan style, and tempura already made up, and they will cook fresh noodles in a variety of ways or give you a slice of a suckling pig.  The steamers offer vegetable buns, prawn dumplings, and Chinese BBQ buns.  Condiments include vinegar, soy, and chili sauces.  The next station is the bakery with pizza, calzone, and many kinds of breads, rolls, muffins, pastries, and doughnuts.  A round table next to this has six kinds of cheeses, nuts, pate, cold fish dishes, and meat cold cuts.  The back wall of this room is the dessert station with a multitude of delectable treats offered including fresh fruit, a variety of fruit tarts, chocolate covered puffballs with cream filling, tiramisu, brownies, cakes of all kinds, and assorted ice creams made available by executive pastry chef Jerome Benda and his staff.  Since much of the cooking is done live and in front of you, there are many kitchen staff members at the cooking stations available to help with any questions or preparations.  This day we had the excellent assistance of Tom Zhao, Dirk Dong, Tony Gu, Peter Han, Bob Li, Terry Liu, Tony Liu, Moreno Yu, Wang Xiao, Owen Zhao, Bruce Liu, Tyler Yan, Victor Zhou, Molly Zhang, Kenny Zhang, Louis Guo, and Lisa Wang.

My Dining Experience:  One of the waitresses named Kelly Ma brought my water and generally looked after my table removing plates and glasses as required.  The dining room was well appointed with additional wait staff including Vanilla Jiang, Sherry Pan, Betty You, Joey Tian, and Rita Zhao, all very attentive to the needs of the guests.  I went to the cold seafood station to get my first plate, two each of shrimp, half baby lobsters, mussels, scallops, and four kinds of caviar (black, orange, light green, and dark green) on a slice of bread.  As I returned to the table Gordon poured my Champagne and brought a metal finger bowl with lemon, and Kelly brought a white ceramic bowl to put shells in.  The colorful caviar looked good on the four corners of the white bread.  I ate them by color starting light to dark and the fish eggs were crunchy and good.  Next I ate the oysters, scallops and mussels with sweet tomato relish and they were very fresh and cold having been sitting on crushed ice.  Finally, I ate the shrimp and baby lobster with only a squeeze of lemon.  All were very fresh and cool with the Champagne on this hot August day.  I am lucky that Herbert Sun, operations service manager for the hotel, personally cooks some surprises for me every Sunday and they are always a treat.  This day was no exception and for my next dish Herbert prepared some lobster risotto and delivered it to my table with a smile.  It smelled wonderful and was made with chunks of lobster, butter, herbs, white wine, and lobster head oil, served with a whole lobster claw and Chinese parsley on top.  It was very hot and the rice was well accompanied by the pieces of lobster and the sauce described above, which was a little salty.  This was very good and a great central course in appetizer portion.  A rich and filling dish, I was concerned I would not have room for much more, but I needed to describe my normal brunch process so I continued.  Gordon brought a fish knife and fork while Herbert prepared my next dish, teriyaki snow fish with ginger cut to look like a flower and stem displayed on green leaves.  This was a very nice presentation and the deep-sea fish was so soft and tender, very delicate, and I loved the teriyaki flavors in the sauce that liberally covered the 3 small pieces of fish.  I ate each piece with a small amount of ginger.  Very nice and thank you Herbert!  Knowing that my next course was a cheese plate and I like red wine with that, Gordon brought a 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon by Long Mountain and poured a glass.  On my cheese plate I had a thin slice of pizza with cheese, pepper, onion, and mushroom, a small slice of calzone, and six kinds of cheese on wheat and dark bread with some peanuts and walnuts.  Each of these small samples was good with the red wine.  Feeling the need to describe some desserts, I proceeded to the expansive selection to pick a few small samples including a blueberry and cream tart, tiramisu, double puffballs with cream filling and a blueberry on top, and carrot cake with a raspberry and a chip of chocolate on top.  I took my time with this plate and savored the different sweet flavors alternately with red wine and Champagne as I felt would be most appropriate.  When the red wine was finished, I continued with the Champagne and conversations with the staff until leaving at 3:00.  It was a classic Sunday Brunch experience for me, just the way I like it.

For those of you looking for a relaxing Sunday Brunch in a quiet and luxurious environment with open buffet, free flowing Champagne, and a satisfying live music performance, stop by The Garden Court Restaurant at St. Regis Beijing Hotel on any Sunday and let Oscar Martinez and his team of professionals entertain you with excellent food and wine delivered with the very finest of service.

To all of you, CHEERS!

My Best as Always,

Randy