Bingtuan Dasha 兵团大厦

This brutalist block of a government building in Beijing’s tea district hides a gourmet secret: the finest Xinjiang
restaurant in town. Waitresses in shapely dresses usher dealmakers past counters of still-warm putao nang (bread baked to resemble a bunch of Turpan’s famous grapes) to smart tables topped with fresh flowers and gold and silver ornamental teapots. An open kitchen
reveals chefs spearing great hunks of marinated lamb onto willow-wood skewers brought in from Xinjiang – gimmicky for sure, but the rich, faintly fruity flavor trumps most other chuan’r.
Indeed, it’s lamb, of the aromatic, melt-in-the-mouth kind, that’s on everybody’s table. Order two hours ahead to sample tender lamb ribs or a whole cumin-spiced leg, but the nang bao rou – lamb chunks slow-cooked on the bone in a mild tomato sauce and served atop a huge, floury nang bread – is wonderful and demands no advance planning. Kao baozi, palm-sized pastry pockets of fatty lamb ubiquitous in Xinjiang, are a joy here (dabao some for your friends), and meat-pie fans should go for the roubing, a large circular lamb and onion pie in crispy, flaky pastry.
For dessert, try all manner of ethnic cakes and pastries, including what the menu describes as baklava (bakelawa, RMB 4), sticky with honey and walnuts and a scrumptious counterpoint to the near-sour homemade yoghurt studded with fruit. Should you need any more persuading to make the pilgrimage out west, the Chinese government has awarded Bingtuan Dasha an “A” rating for hygiene, which puts it in a rather elite club – especially, it should be noted, for a Xinjiang restaurant.