Beijing House, 1/45 Queen Street, Brisbane

Went here with some friends. My partner and I ordered deep-fried salt/pepper bean curd and "pork with special salt", plus we had special fried rice that was ordered for the table. I eat a lot of 'takeaway' Chinese food and a lot of authentic Chinese food, but the food we got was kind of in-limbo between the two. The pork with salt was quite tasty, if a little overpriced. The deep-fried bean curd was, to our dismay, not very crispy at all and while eating only one piece tasted delicious, subsequent pieces of bean curd quickly revealed the extreme saltiness of the dish - much saltier than necessary and certainly saltier than I have enjoyed at other restaurants. It was bad enough that I could feel the slight burn in one's mouth that comes with eating a large quantity of raw salt. The special fried rice was tasty but clearly made with cheap ingredients - peas, diced ham with the odd shrimp thrown in, etc. Nothing bad by any means but not worthy of the price tag. (With mains averaging $20 per plate you don't expect them to be worse than your local takeaway!) In terms of service - well it could only be described as haphazard. Our waitress was friendly all evening and helpful when discussing the menu, but we seldom found the opportunity to ask for water to be brought to the table (so it never was) and our teapot spent most of the evening un-refilled. The kitchen also forgot to prepare a dish for us. I should also mention two of our dinner companions ordered a 2-course Peking duck to share. When a waitress arrived to prepare the pancakes, she plated four pancakes and plonked the remaining duck skin, Hoisin sauce, etc, on the table and said "you can make eight more"! I realise that Peking Duck is meant to serve more than two, and in fairness the waitresses' tone was not aggressive, but that seemed highly unprofessional, especially so in hindsight! Considering the food and service in light of the price I can only rate them as poor/fair. However the decor of the restaurant is very pleasant. Nevertheless, I won't be going back there to eat - there are much better-value propositions elsewhere.

Northern Chinese dishes are this restaurant's speciality, although it has a large selection of the Cantonese dishes that most Australians are more used to. The staff may be surprised if you specifically ask for help choosing northern specialities, but they will soon understand. On Friday 23 Sept 2011 we had. Shredded cabbage, rice vermicelli, dried chillies and peanuts in a vinegar dressing. Boiled chicken, cold, with an oil and chilli sauce. Pork shoulder, braised in soy sauce, glazed like polished mahogany. Eggplant braised with potatoes. A bottle of wine and two of Tsing Dao $120. Be careful: the dishes on the menu as entrées are cheaper but they are actually quite large. We ordered steamed rice and it was good rice, but we realised later that they also served Chinese bread, which we will order next time instead of rice. Previously we have had Yum Cha there. Chicken's feet was in a sauce we haven't tried before and the dumplings were in fine pastry.

The service, food and atomsphere is relaxed and enjoyable and excellent. Will be going there for my next B'Day!

Biggest rip off. I got the satay chicken which didn't have a hint of peanut in it and my girlfriend basically got fried chicken feet (not what she was expecting) with so many bones that it was inedible. All for a ridiculous price. I do not recommend this restaurant at all.