There seems to be a lot of negative response to Element Fresh winning the best restaurant award. This might be a little undeserved, but then so is the award.
I was a huge fan of ET back in Shanghai. I could always count on them on a groggy sunday morning to provide a high-quality peace offering to my body in apology for the previous two nights of debauchery. Best of all, I could do this without ever having to pick up the phone or talk to someone, because ET has the greatest and most convenient online-delivery system I've ever seen in China. Seriously, why don't other restaurants learn from this example? Easy to navigate, pictures, low minimum order - I sometimes order from them only BECAUSE I love their website so much.
The point is, the food was fresh and tasty. Albeit pricy, but occasionally worth it.
Then they opened a branch to Beijing, and - I can only presume - hired one of their junior busboys to manage and cook in it. Something went wrong, I don't know, but the tastiness and freshness simply did not survive the move.
First of all, they inexplicably got rid of the best item on the menu: the tilapia sandwich, and replaced it with a chicken sandwich. Yea, great, because I can't think of anywhere else in Beijing to get my hands on a piece of grilled chicken.
The ingredients are just missing something. The word "freshness" comes to mind for some reason. It's still GOOD, but it's nowhere as good as the original branches in Shanghai. And, unfortunately, since the prices are the same (50-70rmb mains), it's not always worth it. I'm willing to accept that maybe it's harder to get quality ingredients or something here than in Shanghai because Shanghai is... on the silk route? I don't know.... or maybe the chef is still learning. But something's off, and it needs to be fixed.
Nevertheless, here are some personal recommendations:
-California Hippie Sandwich: veggies veggies veggies, tasty tasty tasty. I believe it comes with a hallmark card that reads "Dear liver: sorry." The avocado, sadly, is lacking at the Beijing branch (or maybe it's just the wrong season), but at least they're generous with the portions. 45 RMB - not bad.
-Tandoori Chicken Wrap: haven't tried the Beijing version, but the Shanghai version was phenomenal. 68 RMB - ouch.
-Macaroni n Cheese: always hits close to my heart. Priced at an absurd 58 rmb (I know cheese is expensive, but come on - it's boiled wheat with a couple mushrooms), it's only to be used at a time when I really want some comfort food. But damn it's good.
-The asian menu I've sampled was surprisingly good, but I don't know why people would go to an american restaurant in beijing to order a 60rmb chinese entree...
Basically, most everything except the sandwiches seems ridiculously overpriced given that you can find similar items much cheaper in Beijing.
Element Fresh deserves neither the best restaurant award nor the bad rap it's gotten from reviewers here as a result. It was a great place in Shanghai that experienced some transitory pains, which I hope they will recover from if they expect to keep justifying their prices. And I still love their online-delivery system.
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