Eating out is no longer just about the food – it’s also about what you can snap for Instagram. Restaurant aesthetics – from the decor to how the food is presented – have taken on unprecedented importance, prompting some restaurateurs to put just as much thought into how photogenic their concept is as what to put on the menu. Beijing is home to royal palaces and imposing temples, and plenty of restaurants in the city have majestic ancient settings. Then there are those that promote “red tourism” – nostalgia trips that hark back to communist China’s early years. They are full of memorabilia dedicated to communist China’s first leader, Mao Zedong, and where staff wear the uniform of Red Guards, the young radicals who waged war on their elders and on everything old during the Cultural Revolution. We tried a dozen themed restaurants in the Chinese capital, and have picked out five that offer visitors a surreal dining experience. 1. Tai Loong Fat Kee Visitors to this recently opened establishment will spot various Hong Kong staples, including the Mong Kok MTR station, green Hongkong Post letterboxes and red KMB bus stops. The most eye-catching part is the live seafood tanks like those commonly seen in Hong Kong Chinese restaurants. “I come from Hong Kong and I want to recreate the landmarks from my hometown,” says Tai Loong Fat Kee co-founder Marco Lai Tak-fat. He says all the seafood is shipped by air from Hong Kong and other parts of mainland China. “Hong Kong seafood is much bigger than that found in Beijing,” he adds. Surrounding the restaurant’s main dining area are replicas of old Hong Kong shops, including a mahjong parlour and a barber shop, which serve as private dining rooms. We ate in a private room that has been made to look like a Hong Kong public housing estate flat. We ordered a 2.6kg (5.7 pound) Alaskan crab which was turned into two dishes – fried typhoon shelter crab, and crab steamed in egg white. The crab (1,376 yuan per kg) was tender and had a rich umami flavour. Other trademark Hong Kong-style dishes included flavourful, juicy roasted goose (98 yuan) and conch and fish maw chicken soup (588 yuan for a large portion). The stewed “old chicken” in the soup helped highlight the sweet freshness of the seafood. Tai Loong Fat Kee, B701, 7/F, Viva Mall, 65 Dongsanhuan Zhonglu, Shuangjing, Beijing, tel: +86 10 5903 7003 2. Bai’s Home Courtyard Dating back three centuries, Bai’s Home Courtyard was once the palace garden of Prince Li, the second son of Emperor Taizu (1559–1626), who founded the Qing dynasty . Diners are served by waitresses dressed as royal consorts and concubines . The common dining area is made to look like a royal court, replete with a golden folding screen, an emperor’s throne and imperial household utensils. Outside the royal court, there’s a big lake, pavilions and rockeries. Surrounding the lake are private dining rooms that have been decorated to look like concubines’ quarters. There are performances of royal dances and songs accompanied by traditional string and woodwind instruments. The imperial cuisine on offer includes expensive fare such as deer tendon (1,288 yuan), and abalone and other assorted seafood with ginseng in Chinese casserole (688 yuan per person). The restaurant setting is superb, and fun for those who want to dine like a royal, but the food on offer is generally overpriced and not that great. We ordered Peking duck (268 yuan), which was too dry, and braised fish maws with sea cucumber slices and shrimp (298 yuan) had a sauce that was too viscous and heavy, and overwhelmed the taste of the ingredients. Bai’s Home Courtyard, 29 Suzhou Road, Haidian District, Beijing, tel: +86 10 6265 4186 3. 99 Yurts Next to the Han-Mongolian Culture Park on Suzhou Road, 99 Yurts boasts 50 small Mongolian-style tents for private dining and two big yurts for customers to share. The restaurant is famous for its lamb. Diners can order a whole lamb (1,999 yuan) or a half (which is enough for 15 people and is priced at 1,199 yuan). The lamb is roasted in the open kitchen, and is tender and juicy. Those who want smaller portions can order dishes such as roasted lamb leg (529 yuan), which is lean, and roasted lamb rack (799 yuan), which is fattier. Lamb dishes are served with pita bread, cumin, chilli sauce and Sichuan pepper. We liked the lamb tripe with peppercorns (59 yuan) and sheep head in casserole (89 yuan), which is generously portioned and comes with lots of potatoes. We also enjoyed a non-lamb dish of dough slices in casserole (79 yuan) with chicken meat and spicy soup. 99 Yurts, 9 Yongtaizhuang Beilu, Mafang Cun, Dongsheng Xiang, Haidian District, Beijing, tel: +86 10 6299 1888 4. Xiaoxiang Zengfu Health Garden Next to 99 Yurts is Xiaoxiang Zengfu Health Garden, made to look like a canal town in southern China. Bobbing private boats fill a mock canal, and there is a big wooden water wheel. The Hunan cuisine on offer is reasonably priced. We liked the braised eel with sesame oil (98 yuan), the garlicky sauce accentuating the umami of the seafood. We also enjoyed the tender frog with spicy sauce in stone pot (88 yuan). Xiaoxiang Zengfu Health Garden, 9 Yongtaizhuang Beilu, Mafang Cun, Dongsheng Xiang, Chaoyang Haidian District, Beijing, tel: +86 1352 1300 856 5. Eight Hot Pot Blackboards and desks fill this school-themed restaurant. With its nostalgic ambience and old toys and stationery, Eight Hot Pot aims to take diners back to the 1980s. The menu looks like a test paper, and diners have to fill it in with their food choices. The food is delicious and cheap. We ordered the frog base hotpot (108 yuan), separated into spicy and non-spicy stock, and added ingredients including duck blood (18 yuan) and lamb (32 yuan). The staff sing karaoke and play games with diners. On the weekday we went, it was packed with customers, and the atmosphere was boisterous and happy. Eight Hot Pot, 172 Deshengmen, Xicheng District, Beijing, tel: +86 10 6608 8880