Another year has gone by, and it’s my company’s annual dinner with the China team. And we have been trying differently Mongolian restaurants in Beijing as they were always fun and delicious. The Mongolian Camp restaurant was our choice this year.

Mongolian cuisine

Mongolian cuisine is mainly derived from the traditions of ethnic Mongols. It is a blend of their nomadic diet and influences from northern China and Russia. Mongolians have different eating habits depending on their geographical location due to the local products available.

In pastoral areas, ethnic Mongolians eat beef, mutton, and dairy products as their staple food. In agrarian areas, the eating habits of ethnic Mongolians are similar to the Han (Chinese majority) people. They eat corn flour and millet as the staple food, and sometimes they eat rice, wheat, coarse rice, buckwheat flour, and sorghum. With the increasing popularity of greenhouses, more varieties of vegetables are appearing on the ethnic Mongolians’ dining tables.

The cooking methods are relatively simple and emphasize the freshness of ingredients, including barbecuing, stewing, steaming, and instant boiling, of which barbecuing is the most popular cooking method.

Appetisers

The dinner started with six appetisers – 大拌菜 Sala, 木耳秋葵 Black fungus with okra, 沙漠野沙葱 Mongolian chives salad, 凉拌羊肝 Lamb liver, 果仁牛板筋 Spicy beef tendons and a potato salad was so popular that I didn’t even have the chance to take a photo of.

Milk Course

When you go to Mongolia, you will definitely be treated to diary products made from sheep and yak milk. These days, they can also be made from cow milk, but the best would still be the ones from sheep milk. Not for the faint hearted, sheep milk has a “goaty”, gamey smell that would remind one of BO.

The set included Yoghurt Chewy 奶片, Nougat 奶酪塊, Milk Drops 奶豆腐, Butter 黃油, Margarine 白油, Sheep Milk Tea 鮮奶茶, and Fried Millet 炒米. Everything is made from sheep milk.

奶茶 Sheep milk tea has very little tea in it. It’s mainly sheep milk boiled with oats.

Mains

成吉思汗烤肉 Genghis Khan grilled lamb ribs were grilled quite dry and heavily seasoned.

部落手把肉 Tribal hand pulled lamb was a typical Mongolian lamb dish that consisted of boiled lamb that you can easily pull off the bones and dipped in the sauce. The lamb was not boiled thorough enough so it was hand pulled quality.

椒盐基围虾 Salt and pepper marsh prawns is not exactly a Mongolian dish. And it has solidify my belief that seafood in Beijing was quite bad.

牛肉炖土豆 Stew beef in potato was cold when it was served.

老醋功夫鱼 Carp in vinegar sauce was another poorly executed dish.

杭椒炒肉 Pepper with beef – I cannot believe they even counted this as one course, there wasn’t any traces of beef in it.

蒿杆炒珍菌 Chinese celery with mushrooms turned out to be the only hot dish that turned out well.

喜庆扒丸子 Happiness meatballs were quite bad as well.

橙汁八宝饭 Eight prosperity rice with orange glaze – seriously?

腰果西芹百合 Celery with cashew nuts – the other only nice dish tonight.

Mongolian BBQ Lamb

The Experience

Dining at the boldly decorated Mongolian Camp along with the traditional Mongolian singing and dancing performances arranged by the restaurant, it almost feels like you are in the middle of the vast grassland in Mongolia. The roast lamb there is perfectly cooked to be tender on the inside and crispy on the outside.

郡王府 Prince Shun Cheng Mansion is a historical building that once was the house of Prince Shun Cheng. He was a Mongolian prince that helped the Manchus fought the war to win the empire. As gratitude, Emporer Shunzi gave him the title of Prince Consort that was hereditary and also gave him this palatial location for his abode.

The ger is a modern contraption with heater/air-con and proper lighting. But the toilets are still quite far away, and it was winter when we had the dinner. Beijing winter nights can be quite unforgiving.

Seriously, the food was a let-down. But the atmosphere and service were quite good. I prefer 99 Gers better. Would not recommend to go – in fact we would blacklist this place.

Mongolian Camp BBQ 蒙古大营
Chaoyang Park S Rd, Chaoyang Qu, Beijing Shi, China, 100018
Tel : +86 10 6599 1997

https://www.facebook.com/pages/蒙古大营北营/1564167827209581

Date Visited : Jan 2019