Originally Posted by
Scifience
I actually lived right across the street from you for about six months a while back (in the 中关村公馆 complex). As you've no doubt discovered, there's not a whole lot except for a 7-11 and a bunch of police cars in the immediate vicinity.
If you're looking for a nice escape one day, I'd can't help but put in a recommendation for ESSE Coffee (爱喜咖啡) near the intersection of Suzhoujie and Zhongguancun Dajie. This place has great coffee, salads, sandwiches, and bakery, and (IMHO) is one of the nicest places in Beijing to sit and chat or get some work done. Fast free wifi and friendly service.
http://www.dianping.com/shop/6082083 (Chinese)
http://4sq.com/1a9E3jA (English)
A bit father afield, but still within a ~20 minute walk, there are some decent little cafés and small restaurants on Yiheyuan Lu (what Suzhoujie turns into on the other side of the 4th Ring Road) across from the PKU campus. As
moondog suggests, though, Wudaokou is your best bet and is a ~15RMB taxi from you. Lots of options ranging from Korean and Japanese to pizza and burgers.
Happy to offer more specific recommendations if you have a specific type of food you're looking for.
This would be incredibly useful—a friend and I spent a bit of time on a concept app for this a while back, but machine translated reviews just looked too unprofessional (and often incomprehensible) and we ultimately scrapped it. Can't wait to see what you come up with.
Wow, you must know this area very well then! I went to the 7-11 around lunch the other day and the line was out the door with people getting lunch. Thanks for the café recommendation, will definitely check it out. Not too sure abt Yiheyuan Lu though, 20 min is abit too far to walk
I've only taken taxi once since arrival because I thought I've read here that it's very hard to get a taxi in Beijing.
As I've said earlier, I'm Chinese myself so I do prefer rice/noodle to burger/steak. I was actually looking for simple food for delivery, something my 3 year old will eat. I've gotten groceries from Carrefour, I guess cooking will be easier when we're too tired to go out.
Btw, is "potable water" safe to drink? My husband is tired of lugging bottled water from the store and he said his coworker just drink from the "potable water" tap in the kitchen.