Beijing's Best Ningxia Restaurant is Located in the Hutongs

Looking for Beijing’s best Ningxia restaurant? Our go-to is A Xi Ye (阿西叶), a great halal restaurant where you can explore Silk Road cuisine in Beijing – and it’s located in a great hutong neighborhood! Below we’ve listed eight fantastic dishes we think you’ll love, so save this post and you’ll be ordering like a Ningxia native in no time.

On UnTour’s Old Beijing Dinner Tour and Hutong Breakfast Tour, we have the opportunity to introduce some of our favorite dishes brought to Beijing along the ancient Silk Road. Spanning more than 6,000 km (4,000 mi) from China to Europe and North Africa, the trade route is responsible not only for taking noodles all the way to Europe, but also for introducing many Central Asian and Middle Eastern flavors to China. This intermingling of cultures has produced distinctive and delicious cuisines along the Silk Road route, one of which is the cuisine of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.

Approximately the size or Ireland, or West Virginia in the U.S., and located on the Inner Mongolian-Manchurian steppe, Ningxia is made up of deserts and grasslands and is one of the main homelands of China’s Hui Muslims. As such, this the region’s halal cuisine makes excellent use of its abundant sheep, goats and wheat. A Xi Ye serves great dishes from Ningxia, and its surrounding regions, allowing you to explore the Silk Road without leaving the hutongs.

Build up an appetite before you arrive by going on our favorite walk through the hutongs and make sure you’re ready for a feast because this list is a celebration of meat, noodles and baked goods, and is sure to leave you feeling filled to the brim.

Ordering Recommendations

羊肉红柳 yángròu hóng liǔ
Large mutton skewers spiced with chilli and cumin

烤包子 kǎo bāozǐ
Tandoor-baked pastries filled with spiced mutton

沙湾大盘鸡 shāwān dàpán jī
Originating in neighboring Xinjiang, “big-plate chicken” is a stew of chicken, potato, onions and green peppers. It comes served with wide, flat wheat noodles.

馕包肉 náng bāo ròu
Mutton stew served on top of a baked naan. As you eat the stew, the naan soaks up the sauce. And then you have a second act just as good as the first.