EAT: The Rug SLT Finishes Renovations, New Menu at Tribe, Dining Deals at Las Musas

Robynne Tindall, Contributing Editor | Nov 10, 2020 4:30 pm | Add a comment | 325 reads

EAT: Your bite-sized guide to the best eats to be had in Beijing this week.

Monday and Tuesday dining deals at Las Musas

Newly-opened Mexican restaurant Las Musas has a couple of new dining deals that should tempt you over there to sample their offerings if you haven't been already. Just like at sister restaurant Slow Boat, Mondays are meatless at Las Musas, with all vegetarian and vegan tacos and salads buy-one-get-one-free with the purchase of a drink. Alternatively, head over on Tuesdays for buy-one-get-one-free tacos with the purchase of any two margaritas, available on all tacos, from their creative vegan options like the taco de Jamaica with roasted hibiscus flower, avocado, and tinga sauce, to meaty options like carnitas or slow-cooked lengua with salsa verde.

New winter dishes at Tribe

Never ones to let things go stale, Tribe have refreshed their menu for winter, introducing plenty of colorful, hearty dishes made with seasonal ingredients. The theme of the menu is "flow in love with food," inspired by the feeling of being in the zone you get after a good yoga class or, indeed, a good meal. As always, Tribe's dishes are healthy, but not too healthy, such as the cauliflower-crust pizzas, which forego the gluten but don't skimp on the cheese — we like the "Apple (Pizza) of My Eye," topped with bacon, apple, mozzarella, and rosemary. The "Vegan Lovers Bowl" will certainly help you reach your five-a-day with its combination of red quinoa, sweet potato, chickpeas, pickled beetroot, avocado, and Chinese toon sprouts but our favorite dish from the new menu is, undoubtedly, the "Unity Through Beef Noodle Soup," (pictured in lead blog image) which is a warming Korean-inspired buckwheat noodle soup topped with beef, eggs, tofu, and kimchi, and flavored with spicy gochujang.

The Rug Sanlitun reopens following renovations

The Sanlitun branch of The Rug has reopened following a brief round of renovations and we can honestly say that they have knocked it out of the park with both the new interior and the new menu. The interior has been given a fresh and imminently Instagrammable new look, with a William Morris-inspired mural along one wall on the second floor and coffee bar built from transparent glass bricks. Even better, the restaurant now has its own toilet, complete with fancy heated Japanese seats.

The Rug has always been known for brunch and while the new menu has plenty of brunch-appropriate dishes — including shakshuka, homemade yogurt, and even fluffy Japanese style pancakes topped with boba — there are plenty of options for other times of the day, as well as for those following special diets. We were particularly impressed by the low-carb options such as a double meat bacon cheeseburger with lettuce wrap and lamb meatballs with cauliflower rice. The Rug has also cooperated with Beyond Meat to create meat-free options such as a hearty double burger.