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In Subu, treats welcome wannabe astronauts
By Paul Panckhurst |
January 11, 2009, Sunday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
WE ordered a bowl of bullfrog in a Beijing restaurant that looks like the set of a 1970s science fiction movie.
No, that's not a combination I'd tried before.
Fried and served with vegetables, the amphibian chunks were flavored by fiery red peppers. Like most of the dishes at Subu, it was fine, not spectacular.
The restaurant is in the financial district, on the city's west side, at one end of the top floor of a gleaming, cavernous mall called Seasons Place, where Gucci meets Dior meets Versace.
The restaurant's most distinctive feature is tables enclosed in capsules, a kind of NASA-meets-nightclub style that could turn a group meal into a private party. Inside these shiny pods, diners can control the lighting and the volume of the background music.
There's a minimum charge per table for capsule dining of 1,000 yuan (US$150). "Un-capsuled" dining is also available.
As exports wane, factories close and China's economy heads for what may be its toughest year in almost two decades, diners here are doubly shielded from the realities outside: they're in capsules that are inside a temple to luxury brands.
The menu, which spans Sichuan, Cantonese, Shanghainese, Japanese and Thai influences, bears similarities to that of the South Beauty chain.
That's no surprise: Both Subu and South Beauty are part of a restaurant empire founded by businesswoman Zhang Lan.
A third arm of the enterprise is the Lan Club - the Philippe Starck-designed bar-restaurant that didn't quite cut it for Bloomberg's Richard Vines last April.
Indifferent
It was overpriced and the food was indifferent, he judged.
Subu's prices? Moderate. The frog dish, for example, cost 68 yuan (US$10).
I nursed my addiction to sesame sauce by eating a dish comprising little bundles of lettuce soaked in a pool of the stuff.
On three visits, my guests and I tried sushi, steamed egg-plant with minced garlic, braised pork-ribs with sweet-and-sour sauce, spicy beef with chili oil, scallops with pawpaw, fried pork and hot pepper, mushrooms with oyster sauce, sesame balls and others.
We were satisfied, not swept away.
Still, the "space-ishness" had a certain entertainment value.
"So, we're going to the moon!" a friend laughed, looking at the curved, cushioned walls in our pod and speculating the food might come as an array of space pills, a la "The Jetsons," the 1960s cartoon.
Other guests feigned weightlessness as a gag.
In a mainly English-speaking group, we had one language tangle: a double gin-and-tonic that arrived as two drinks in two glasses.
A real misstep, though, involves the design.
On an initial visit, the capsules created by Denmark's Johannes Torpe had exteriors that were sleek and white.
Mysteriously, they're now plastered with gaudy blue stars.
That looked like a big mistake. If your food's just OK and the design is what sets your joint apart, it's best not to mess with it.
Subu, Seasons Place, Jinchengfang Jie, Xicheng District, Beijing. For information, telephone +86-10-6622-0261 or visit http://www.seasonsplace.com/.
No, that's not a combination I'd tried before.
Fried and served with vegetables, the amphibian chunks were flavored by fiery red peppers. Like most of the dishes at Subu, it was fine, not spectacular.
The restaurant is in the financial district, on the city's west side, at one end of the top floor of a gleaming, cavernous mall called Seasons Place, where Gucci meets Dior meets Versace.
The restaurant's most distinctive feature is tables enclosed in capsules, a kind of NASA-meets-nightclub style that could turn a group meal into a private party. Inside these shiny pods, diners can control the lighting and the volume of the background music.
There's a minimum charge per table for capsule dining of 1,000 yuan (US$150). "Un-capsuled" dining is also available.
As exports wane, factories close and China's economy heads for what may be its toughest year in almost two decades, diners here are doubly shielded from the realities outside: they're in capsules that are inside a temple to luxury brands.
The menu, which spans Sichuan, Cantonese, Shanghainese, Japanese and Thai influences, bears similarities to that of the South Beauty chain.
That's no surprise: Both Subu and South Beauty are part of a restaurant empire founded by businesswoman Zhang Lan.
A third arm of the enterprise is the Lan Club - the Philippe Starck-designed bar-restaurant that didn't quite cut it for Bloomberg's Richard Vines last April.
Indifferent
It was overpriced and the food was indifferent, he judged.
Subu's prices? Moderate. The frog dish, for example, cost 68 yuan (US$10).
I nursed my addiction to sesame sauce by eating a dish comprising little bundles of lettuce soaked in a pool of the stuff.
On three visits, my guests and I tried sushi, steamed egg-plant with minced garlic, braised pork-ribs with sweet-and-sour sauce, spicy beef with chili oil, scallops with pawpaw, fried pork and hot pepper, mushrooms with oyster sauce, sesame balls and others.
We were satisfied, not swept away.
Still, the "space-ishness" had a certain entertainment value.
"So, we're going to the moon!" a friend laughed, looking at the curved, cushioned walls in our pod and speculating the food might come as an array of space pills, a la "The Jetsons," the 1960s cartoon.
Other guests feigned weightlessness as a gag.
In a mainly English-speaking group, we had one language tangle: a double gin-and-tonic that arrived as two drinks in two glasses.
A real misstep, though, involves the design.
On an initial visit, the capsules created by Denmark's Johannes Torpe had exteriors that were sleek and white.
Mysteriously, they're now plastered with gaudy blue stars.
That looked like a big mistake. If your food's just OK and the design is what sets your joint apart, it's best not to mess with it.
Subu, Seasons Place, Jinchengfang Jie, Xicheng District, Beijing. For information, telephone +86-10-6622-0261 or visit http://www.seasonsplace.com/.
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