King's Joy

As a vegetarian restaurant, this place is bound to have polarizing reviews. Personally, I really enjoyed it—the dishes were light and flavorful, and the tableware was beautifully curated with great taste. However, my friend wasn’t a fan, finding the food bland and lacking flavor. Food is always a matter of personal preference, but this spot is definitely worth a try to form your own opinion!

My dinner here is one of the best meals I've ever had. Each dish is rich, flavorful, and delicious, awakening my palette. King's Joy has my favorite way of eating - small dishes of variety. Plus the service is simply impeccable. Our head waiter (Romas) did a wonderful job providing professional attention and great details. I am looking forward to coming back next time I'll be in Beijing.

Do not trust the 5 star reviews. This restaurant is an absolute scam. For their seasonal menu, they serve you raw vegetables on top of dry ice and present it as a dish. They give you some sauces that you can easily get from any local supermarket. Next are some incredibly bland foods which are so mediocre for the price and high review this restaurant constantly gets. Now the service, the staff were constantly looking and whispering (this I don’t mind) but the one specifically assigned to our table looked extremely distracted and annoyed. The only positive aspect was the atmosphere, mostly because of the beautiful live harp music. Honestly this is the worst Beijing and Michelin starred restaurant I’ve dined in. Save the money, go somewhere else.

Good food in a lovely place, near the Yonghe Gong. Although I am not vegan or vegetarian, I have appreciated the menu created by the chef and the quality of the ingredients. I have lived a great experience with my family (children are welcome, with a dedicated menu) in this country with a food culture very different from mine, with good service and lovely music. Prices are adequate.

It's is a stunning vegetarian restaurant tucked away in the ancient Chinese quarter of Wudaoying Hutong, just across from the Lama Temple. This was the first restaurant I ate at when I first arrived in Beijing and also the first 3-Michelin star restaurant I ate at in China. For me, this is the best vegetarian meal I have ever had, simply amazing – far surpassing all the Michelin starred vegetarian restaurants in Japan and Europe. Located across from the iconic Yonghe Temple, the restaurant’s entrance is shrouded in mist and harp music emanates from the center of the dining room. It may be a bit odd, but it fits perfectly with the excellent design, elaborate menu and beautiful atmosphere of the place, which turned out to be one of the most outstanding meals (including non-vegetarian dishes) I've ever had in China. The restaurant has 5 types of menus: Seasonal Tasting (¥999), Imperial Grand (¥1399), Comprehensive Set (¥1999), Indulgence Set (¥2588) and Luxuriant Set (¥3999). I chose the latter set, which has a total of 18 steps from appetizer to dessert, all using seasonal vegetarian products. The dishes showcase a variety of cooking techniques, from pan-frying, steaming, stir-frying, braising and even slow cooking. From the strong flavour of the Sichuan mushroom jerky, to the complex texture of the Malay vegetable curry served with rice crackers, my sister and I nodded to each other in silent appreciation for every dish on the menu. Not only did the chefs use excellent ingredients with rich flavours, but they also enhanced the dishes with their professional marinating and fermentation skills. The space was beautiful, the food was delicious, yet unfortunately the service was lacking. The only downside to this lunch was probably the poor staff training. It was basically non-existent. However, I was reminded by my friends that this is quite common in Beijing, even in high-end places. The main job of the waiters is simply to bring food from the kitchen and bring back empty plates. As a result, the staff had little to no knowledge of the ingredients, or the order of the dishes, so my order was messed up – one of the main dishes ended up right before dessert, while a cold appetizer was served alongside the main course. When I told the senior manager that they really needed to pay more attention to the order of the dishes, her response was: “All the dishes were served at the end, isn’t that the most important thing?” She wasn’t rude at all, just really clueless about how the menu worked. However, both my sister and I agreed that, in the context of such great food, the frustration with the service team was a minor issue. I will definitely come back here whenever I am in Beijing, as it is hard to imagine anywhere else in the world that can create such a delicious meal without using meat. ¥3999 / 1 person ~ 14 million VND (US$560)

I feel like this place should be called “Mushroom’s joy”instead of “King’s joy”. It’s fine dining so of course overall the food tastes good, the service was excellent, and it was overpriced. This place was my first 3 Michelin stars restaurant and I walked in without a reservation. It was a unique experience for sure, but I don’t think I would necessarily recommend this restaurant, unless you’re really into mushrooms or really want to try the first 3 Michelin stars vegetarian restaurant of the world… The place is located right next to the Lama temple and the setting is quite exceptional. There was an artist playing harp and it was extremely beautiful. Even though all of this atmosphere was amazing, the food was NOT it. It lacked texture, it lacked flavour, and the portions were ridiculously tiny. The dishes (including the “mains”) could have all been mignardises. I know that in Michelin restaurants the portions are never huge, but I have never seen such small portions before. It’s clearly because of this restaurant that people laugh at fine dining saying that when you leave you’re still hungry. I disagreed, till this day. Thankfully, before serving the deserts, the waitress asked me if I was full or not, and if you’re not you can ask for more rice or noodles (MUSHROOM soup noodle of course). What disappointed me the most is that not a single dish amazed my taste buds, I never once thought “omg this is genius”, and that’s what I expected for my first experience in such a restaurant… All of the dishes kinda tasted the same, they had the same flavour profile (heavy in mushroom) and the textures were not really developed. It was all kinda soft. This place would definitely suitable to bring your grandparents who lost all of their teeth. The deserts critically lacked originality. I was served a rice pudding (A RICE PUDDING IN A 3 MICHELIN STAR RESTAURANT), a moon cake and a rice cake. Sure everything tasted good but where is the surprise?? So even though overall the experience was pleasant and I’m really glad and feeling super lucky that I got to experience such a special restaurant, the food left so much to be desired. And maybe they used expensive special mushrooms or whatever, but there are definitely better restaurants out there to spend 200€ on.

As the first vegetarian restaurant which has been marked & collected by the Michelin as 🌟🌟🌟and from the restaurant manager, this restaurant is the first three stars vegetarian restaurant around the world. Firstly,the diner in environment perfectly matches the topic of how traditional PEK restaurant looks like, therefore, from the setting address, interior decoration & service quality,it can be seen that the owner spend his own enthusiasm for the restaurant. At least, According to the previous mentioning terms , the only Michelin three stars vegetarian restaurant absolute right evaluation. Secondly, for the term of cuisine, the main course such as quinoa boletus wellington with red wine pineapple grapefruit enzymes is highly recommended, because, there is no difference between this & real steaks in taste & appearance. Lastly, usually having fine dinner with wine is a routine for any type of Michelin restaurant, yet, for this restaurant, it offers different juice to service corresponding cuisines. It can be marked such as unique. However, from food, dinner in environment & service quality, the first Michelin three stars vegetarian restaurant is well-deserved.

Six stars! I would become a vegetarian for Chef Gary. The most delicious food, freshest ingredients and best service. Flavors exploded in my mouth in all the right ways. I love zhajiang, but can no longer have it since I gave up pork. King’s Joy’s mushroom zhajiang on rice casserole was perfect. The peach resin soup was fabulous in taste and texture. The egg white truffle salad was out of this world. The wellington tasted better than any beef I’ve ever had. The dessert pastries were so delicious we took two extra orders home. Service was also perfect, attentive without being overbearing.