Adam Pillsbury

Din Tai Fung
Best Xiao Long Bao
Cuisine: Chinese (Shanghainese)
English-language menu: Yes
Kid-friendly food: Most kids love xiaolongbao (soup-filled round dumplings).
Three healthiest items for kids: Steamed shrimp and pork xiaolongbao, steamed green vegetable pork buns, fried rice with shrimp.
Kid-friendly staff: Very friendly towards kids, although not too many of the waiters/waitresses speak English.
Bathroom: Very clean washroom (hands-free soap dispenser and taps) and sit-down toilets.
Kids’ play area: Clean area with non-stop looping cartoons and stuffed animals.

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Takenosuke

Cuisine: Japanese
Non-smoking section: No
English-language menu: Pinyin/Japanese/English menu with lots of photos which makes ordering simple.
Kid-friendly food: The restaurant is near the Japanese embassy, and many Japanese families bring their immaculately behaved children here for the okonomiyaki.
Three healthiest items for kids: Grilled salmon, grilled vegetable skewers, gorgeous avocado salad and delicious steak.
Kid-friendly staff: Staff speak Chinese and Japanese only, but they are not immune to the charms of English-speaking kids.
Bathroom: Sit down and clean.
Kids’ play area: N/A
Seating: Wide booths in which a family of four can spread out comfortably. There are also two shoe-free tatami rooms, which can accommodate larger parties. There is at least one highchair.

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Bring the Family: Lau Pa Sak
Was your favorite childhood restaurant impervious to change? If so, Lau Pa Sak may be for you. The clientele is composed of regulars, including cheerful huaqiao clans on weekends. As for the décor, a patron of seven years failed to identify any change after renovations in January; the sepia-toned photos of olde Singapore, the fruit shrine, the statues of deities Guan Gong and Shou Lao were all in their usual places. Also immutable is the menu, featuring well-executed “hawker” cuisine, the Lion City’s street food that fuses Chinese, Indian and Malay influences. A neophyte would be well advised to try the curry puffs (airy dough pockets stuffed with chicken and potato), Hainan chicken (slices of cold poached chicken served with rice and dipping sauces, RMB 40), Beef Rendang (spicy Malay coconut curry, RMB 50), and Nasi Goreng (fried rice with shrimp served with a fried egg and satay skewers, RMB 40). Some kids may feel more comfortable with a ham sandwich or cheeseburger, but one pint-sized regular who recently tried curry puffs and fish ball soup for the first time, exclaimed in reference to her past ordering decisions, “What was I thinking about eating only sandwiches?”

 

 

Daily 11am-11pm. Xindong Lu (opposite Canadian Embassy), Chaoyang District (6417 0952). 朝阳区新东路加拿大使馆对面

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Bring the Family: Kong Yiji

Kong Yiji may initially seem to be one of Houhai’s least family-friendly restaurants; the tables are close together and elegant vases – not to mention that bust of Lu Xun – are within easy reach of little fingers. The trick here is not to leave the kids behind but, paradoxically, bring more – and reach the critical mass to secure a private room upstairs. Four families and a visiting New Yorker recently reserved one such baojian with two tables – one for the kids, one for adults – and enjoyed a luncheon that felt like Spring Festival at your uncle’s house in Zhejiang ... but with better food. The warm weather called for cold appetizers, including aniseed-flavored broad beans, minced vegetable and tofu. The presence of a visitor called for Shaoxing classics like delicious mizhi luyu, a whole fish with onions in a sweet sauce, beef with youtiao slices, braised fatty pork, and several tumblers of sweet rice wine (huangjiu), which is infinitely more palatable than baijiu.

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Family Outing: Season Café / Creperie
Art offers its own rewards, but if you need a sweetener to sell a family excursion to 798, consider a pit stop at Season Café / Creperie. Simple, fun and easy to eat, crepes are the ultimate Gallic comfort food, a staple of French childhood. Here, the savory galettes au sarrazin (buckwheat crepes) come with fillings classic (ham and cheese) and novel (bacon, scrambled eggs, fresh tomatoes and cheese). Perfect for dessert or for an afternoon goûter, the sweet, wheat flour versions can be ordered with honey (RMB 22) and Nutella (RMB 25). The restaurant sits down a quiet alley and its lack of pretension appeals to gallery-weary families.

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Beijing families take on the financial crisis

As economies around the globe have slowed or fallen into recession, families in Beijing are reevaluating their budgets to prepare for potentially tough times ahead. Find out how different families make decisions about spending and saving money, whether they feel the effects of the financial crisis, and what their strategies are for making it through the downturn in one piece – or even ahead.

THE FAMILY OF SEVEN

With five teenagers under the roof, Karen and Phil Lanman spend conservatively and save as much as possible, putting away a total of almost USD 2,000 each month. Will, the oldest child, is in his first semester of college in the US, while Cody, 16, and 14-year-old triplets Zachary, Matthew and Anna attend the International School of Beijing. Karen’s husband’s job as an air attaché at the US Embassy pays for the family’s healthcare, house in Shunyi and the kids’ tuition at ISB, but with college ahead, the Lanmans are savers.

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Beijing families take on the financial crisis

As economies around the globe have slowed or fallen into recession, families in Beijing are reevaluating their budgets to prepare for potentially tough times ahead. Find out how different families make decisions about spending and saving money, whether they feel the effects of the financial crisis, and what their strategies are for making it through the downturn in one piece – or even ahead.

THE MASTER SAVERS

Gina Wang and her husband put most of us to shame; they sock away 60 to 70 percent of their monthly earnings. Since marrying in 2000, the couple has purchased a two-bedroom apartment near Oriental Plaza in Wangfujing, paid off the mortgage, tucked away a good amount of money for retirement, had a baby, and saved up USD 24,000 in cash to buy a Nissan sedan this January.

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Beijing families take on the financial crisis

As economies around the globe have slowed or fallen into recession, families in Beijing are reevaluating their budgets to prepare for potentially tough times ahead. Find out how different families make decisions about spending and saving money, whether they feel the effects of the financial crisis, and what their strategies are for making it through the downturn in one piece – or even ahead.

THE SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS

We’ve always had a conservative budget for everything,” says Karen Patterson, who is the mother of a four-and-a-half-year-old, a small business owner, and the main breadwinner in her family. Patterson, who owns NU2YU Baby Shop and is a partner in Counting Sheep, a boutique for baby and maternity gear, lives with her daughter Hannah and her husband, a Chinese artist, in a sunny apartment with a rooftop terrace. Home is comfortable without being luxurious – which is exactly in tune with the family’s philosophy on money.

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Beijing families take on the financial crisis

As economies around the globe have slowed or fallen into recession, families in Beijing are reevaluating their budgets to prepare for potentially tough times ahead. Find out how different families make decisions about spending and saving money, whether they feel the effects of the financial crisis, and what their strategies are for making it through the downturn in one piece – or even ahead.

THE BIG SPENDERS

Christmas didn’t come last year,” says Nick Cochrane, an expat whose Beijing-based export business has taken a big hit from the global financial crisis. As major economies in Europe and North America weakened in the fall, Nick and his wife Katherine* acted quickly to slash their business and family budgets.

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