- Alex Springer
When I was growing up, my family had a casual tradition of getting Chinese takeout for dinner every New Year's Eve. It was on these annual trips with my mom to pick up boxes of fried rice, lo mein and broccoli beef that I started to associate Chinese food with celebrations. Now that I'm a bit older, of course I understand that Chinese food is awesome regardless of the occasion. However, there is something about New Year's Day that makes me remember those little takeout boxes of fried rice and broccoli beef that helped my family and I ring in a new year. So, as I shuffled the deck of exciting new restaurants that 2025 would deal to me, tradition dictated that Beijing Restaurant would have to be my first pick of the year.
Beijing Restaurant is only a few months old, but it has already built up a decent amount of buzz for local Chinese food fans. I've noticed an exciting trend where international restaurants are including a wider range of regional cuisines on their menus, and Beijing Restaurant is no exception. Most of the restaurant's offerings are culled from China's Sichuan province, which is what initially got me in the door. As was noted in my 2024 year-end roundup, I've become a pretty big fan of mapo tofu, and I love that it's becoming more widely available in these parts. Beijing Restaurant's mapo tofu is an absolute knockout, so let's start things off there, shall we?
Beijing Restaurant's mapo tofu ($15.95) is listed on the menu as "Tofu in House Special Spicy Sauce," so if you also kneel at this particular altar, that's what you want to get. It has the telltale chili pepper icon beside its name on the menu, and it's possible to ask for the heat levels to be ramped up a bit if you want your mapo tofu to put the hurt on you. I wanted to try out the default heat levels before I got too crazy, and what I got was just right for my own heat tolerance—I could even see myself requesting a bit more heat in the future.
Everything here is designed to be served up family style, so you do get a lot of bang for your buck with each entree. The mapo tofu arrived in a lovely goblet-shaped serving dish—and it's absolutely gorgeous. Those pearly white cubes of silken tofu marinating in a deep crimson sauce and topped with fresh scallions and plenty of black pepper had me feeling weak in the knees.
A buck will get you a refillable bowl of white rice with your dish, which is a necessity if you want to soak up all that fiery sauce. It's a dish that leans heavily into the Sichuan peppercorn, which imparts a lovely numbing sensation to the tongue and is one of the reasons that this dish has become so near and dear to my heart. It's a sensory-altering experience that doesn't go too hard but is just strange enough to be enjoyable—and it's also a lifesaver if you ever do get in over your head with those heat levels.
I also tried out the Chongqing-style chili chicken ($18.95), which I thought was an excellent contrast to the mapo tofu. Where the latter's silken tofu and oily broth caress the tongue with their flavors and textures, the chili chicken's shallow fry and dried chili garnish is drier and crispier.
When it arrives piled high with dried chili peppers and a reddish hue on the breading, the chicken looks as if it will absolutely set your taste buds ablaze. I didn't find that to be the case, however. Yes, there is a nice chili kick from the dried peppers and the chili oil that coats the meat, but there's a great depth of flavor going on here. The boneless chicken meat is chopped into perfectly bite-sized pieces, and each bite explodes into a spectacle of savory and spicy flavors that even maintain a hint of sweetness. It's one of those dishes that implies a broad seasoning palate along with a deft hand to keep those flavors balanced. I thought this was truly remarkable stuff, and kept finding myself popping these wonderful little morsels into my mouth long after I felt full.
Beijing Restaurant is the type of place that inspires a certain level of commitment from its diners. There were so many things on the menu that I had never tried before, and I am already planning repeat visits in order to broaden my culinary horizons. Based on my initial visit, I feel like this is a special addition to Utah's restaurant scene as it will impress many fledgling and veteran foodies with its meticulous tributes to Sichuan cuisine.
