Ningxia Taste Description

Ningxia Taste is in a mall. It’s the kind of cookie-cutter restaurant that has long rows of identical tables, where groups of coworkers form lines during workday lunch hours like cattle waiting for feed. But it is also a banger, a welcoming place with friendly service and unusually tasteful decor (well, for a mall). We’re recommended the Wuzhong boiled mutton (RMB118), which for a star dish is disappointingly dry and flavorless. The local flavor eggplant (RMB29), fares better – it’s both sugared and spicy. Our favorite is the squeaky, chewy fried oat noodles (RMB39). But if you want the full experience, get a camel meat skewer (RMB9, we’re not joking). Ningxia Taste, alas, is not the mind-blowing culinary discovery we hoped for. But it is a solid choice for lunch in Chaoyangmen.