Tianchu Miaoxiang

Tianchu Miaoxiang opened in Beijing in 2003 and was one of the first restaurants to bring imperial vegetarian cooking into contemporary fine dining; in 2024 it entered the Michelin Bib Gourmand list for the first time. What "imperial vegetarian" demands is that shape and flavour both hold: a vegetarian dish has to achieve the layered richness of a meat dish, yet cannot lean on heavy oil and heavy sauce the way imitation meat does — only on stock, heat control and knife work. The founder took that road and pushed a single dish, toon tofu, to its limit: the recipe has not changed in twenty years, and the few weeks each spring when fresh toon comes in are the time regulars wait for all year.

Over more than two decades it has become a landmark of Beijing's vegetarian scene: to know who is cooking vegetarian food and how far they have taken it, you sit down and eat a meal here. Our Beijing vegetarian deep-dive places most of its main meals here or at its sister kitchen — not for the sake of a photograph, but so that you can taste how far Chinese vegetarian cooking can go.

Toon tofu only exists in spring, with a window from late March to mid-April; if you want this dish, the timing matters. Dinner seats are tight, so booking three days ahead is advisable. It is in the city centre and reachable by metro; our groups avoid weekend dinner service, when the kitchen is steadiest. Around 200 yuan per person, which is in the bracket that deserves a serious meal.