Black Sesame Kitchen

Here we all are, looking a little superimposed, at the entrance to Black Sesame, a private kitchen in a hutong where you can attend the Friday evening dinner or arrange a private dinner any night of the week - no wonder you need to call to get in!
The idea is that you get a set menu of 10 dishes per evening (you can see these listed on the board behind us) and they are brought out one after another, freshly cooked in front of you by a jolly Chinese chef (see pics below....). The food was really tasty, and there was a lot of it. Another benefit was the wine, and apparently Chilean wine is best value over here due to some no-tax arrangement between the PRC and Chile. Good to know, as the Dragon Seal and Great Wall wine from the local vineyards have been pretty disappointing.... unsurprisingly!
Now what a clever idea we have here! I completely failed to take pictures of the other dishes, but here is the chef deep frying and candying the yams for our dessert. Note the mirror on the ceiling so you can observe his skills from while sat at the table! Action shot!

The owner of this place must be absolutely raking it in, which grates a little if I'm honest. It's RMB250pp for the group dinner, and RMB300pp if you organise a private dinner (which we did because the Friday night was full). Now, bearing in mind you can pig out at Xiao Wang Fu (yes, I bang on about it because I love it) for easily less than RMB80pp including beers, duck and a variety of delicious dishes, it seems a bit steep. Hmm. I understand the novelty value, that it's tapping in to a gap in the market in Beijing and that it's targeting the expats, but I still felt a bit peeved by the price. Plus you wonder how much the chef is getting, and how much is going to the owner, a food critic in Boston....

Overall though, an enjoyable experience, tasty food and good entertainment from the chef, and I'll definitely consider taking visitors again.