FFC's New Restaurant Xbek is an Interior Design Nightmare With Food That's Unable to Salvage it

It’s easy to miss Xbek. Tucked in the corner of Fortune Financial Center (FFC) basement floor, it takes perceptive eyes to spot the restaurant. Nevertheless, it’s still a good location, kind of. Office workers from FFC tend to migrate to the basement floor during lunch hours, seeking for a bite to eat.

Upon entering the restaurant, an immediate wave of patterns and mix-and-match interior design slaps you in the face. There are paintings and flower ornaments on the walls, a wooden display of old trinkets and a seemingly unnecessary glass display of fake plants in the middle of its floor space. Its marbled tables are paired with quaint old-fashioned wooden chairs and there are clusters of bulbous chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. Not to mention the large cat-like statue near the entrance (pictured at top). Independently, Xbek’s choice of furniture and decoration are amusing at best, but combined, they seem random, cluttered, and downright ugly. We also can't help but have Xbox pop into ours heads every time we see the resaurant's name.

Having opened in late 2016, Xbek's menu gravitates towards staple Chinese dishes, including the likes of rice with stir-fried minced pork in Chinese chive sauce for RMB 48 and rice noodles in chicken stock with roses (yes, roses) for RMB 48. For Chinese food standards it’s not high-end, but it is quite costly, especially knowing that the same dishes would cost less in more local Chinese restaurants found across Beijing.

The Chinese winter melon and meatball soup (RMB 48) comes with a bowl of rice and a tiny dish of fermented soybeans, all included. The service was prompt and the food arrived in no time. A classic of northern Chinese cuisine, a streetside Chinese restaurant would serve a large pot of the soup to share instead of an individual bowl. At RMB 48, our expectations were high.

Overall, the soup was … meh. The pork meatballs were well-seasoned and not overly oily like in cheaper restaurants and paired well with the light, clear broth. The winter melon was tender and pieces of ginger helped give the broth a fresh flavor. However, despite the superior quality, it simply did not taste better than its cheaper counterparts.

Xbek reminds us of a restaurant that you decided to try because you ran out of options, but which ultimately leaves you disappointed. The food was subpar, the prices a little too high for the standards, and the interior design too random and cluttered to be relaxing. Maybe if they paid more attention to the food and less on knick knacks, Xbek could be salvaged. Unfortunately, in its current state, this is not the case.

READ: Never Judge a Restaurant Just by Its Look: Bobo Serves Decent European Food at Sanlitun Soho

Xbek is located on the basement floor of the Fortune Financial Center, next to Starbucks and near the tunnel leading to Jintaixizhao Subway station.

Xbek
Daily 8am-9pm. B114, B1, Fortune Financial Center (FFC), ​East Third Ring Road, Chaoyang District (136 8301 7713)
朝阳区东三环FFC财富金融中心写字楼负一层B114

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Photos: Carmel Moersalim