Like a hidden retreat as soon as reserved for China’s historic emperors, past the watch of males in black guarding the doorway reverse Beijing’s historic Lama Temple, a slender stone path leads quietly right into a courtyard.
Mist drifts softly alongside the walkway. At its finish, a girl draped in a plain cloak over a standard Chinese gown waits beside a limewashed wall that shields the courtyard from the bustling streets of outdated Beijing. With a delicate gesture, she invitations company to step into the eating vacation spot.
It is just not the form of restaurant one would go to daily. It’s a spot earmarked for particular events: proposals, anniversaries or internet hosting.
However, there’s one form of visitor who is just not ready to benefit from the elegant institution, even on particular events, even when they’re paying for the meal themselves: Chinese officials.
Under authorities orders, officials have been banned from consuming on the restaurant since final yr, a Chinese supply aware of the matter advised NCS.
The venue known as King’s Joy. The mixture of the characters in Chinese refers to the wealthy cultural heritage of Beijing, capital of 4 imperial dynasties. Reservations right here have change into extremely wanted, with rich and well-known Chinese competing with international guests for tables. Increasingly, China’s rising center class can also be attempting to get in on the motion.
King’s Joy is known for its totally vegetarian menu made from elements sourced solely from China. These are ready utilizing humble cooking strategies, then plated elegantly amid classical environment to create a Zen setting.
Inside, a refined black marble flooring stretches throughout the middle of the room like a deep lake. Tables are organized round its edge and a harpist performs at its heart. In daylight, the shifting seasons and altering mild of the restaurant’s courtyard are seen by way of its home windows. When night falls, the inside is lit by softly glowing silk chandeliers and the glint of candlelight.
Saying that King’s Joy has been successful is an understatement. It is the one Chinese restaurant on the earth that has received each three Michelin stars and Michelin’s Green Star for sustainable practices. It has been referred to as “the world standard of vegetarian dining” by the World’s 50 Best restaurant ranking checklist. Its working mannequin was made right into a case examine at Harvard Business School in 2019.
It appears counterintuitive that officials are not allowed to dine at such a high-profile restaurant, particularly one that has been profitable at selling Chinese meals at a time when Beijing is eager to promote its mushy energy overseas.
Since final yr, King’s Joy is certainly one of a number of dozen institutions in Beijing that officials are not allowed to go to, in accordance to a Chinese supply. The checklist is just not made public. There isn’t any official rationalization of the ban.
One attainable cause might be the price: a meal at King’s Joy begins at $250 per individual, placing it at odds with Chinese chief Xi Jinping’s signature, unrelenting anti-corruption drive.
Xi has made lavish banquets and extreme ingesting a important goal of his years-long battle on graft, saying that such practices could lead to ethical decay inside the Communist Party.
The common month-to-month wage for presidency staff in Beijing is round $1,600, China’s statistics bureau reported in 2025. That comparatively modest revenue would be at odds with visits to high-end locations and will give the impression that public funds have been being misused, or officials had acquired or have been participating in bribery.
The ban in all probability isn’t a shock to these it impacts. Numerous luxurious personal golf equipment have been ordered to shut in 2014 as Beijing ramped up its anti-corruption drive to curb officials’ as soon as lavish existence.
Xi is thought for preferring easy, selfmade meals on his journeys round China. In 2013, he was photographed lining up for a tray of steamed buns at a roadside restaurant in Beijing, a picture fastidiously curated to present his closeness to extraordinary individuals.
Gary Yin, the chief chef of King’s Joy, advised NCS that he has heard rumors of the ban however has not noticed any proof of it himself.
A restaurant and a vacationer attraction
King’s Joy sits inside Beijing’s outdated imperial heart, about 4 miles from the Forbidden City. It can also be simply a number of subway stops away from the place many central authorities ministries and international embassies have their places of work.
While individuals all over the world embrace vegetarian diets for a wide range of causes, vegetarianism has an extended and attention-grabbing historical past in China. For centuries, it was related to Buddhist apply and frugal dwelling. But chef Yin’s means to take easy, humble dishes and switch them into an expensive expertise has received him many followers. “We chose to pursue high-end dining because Beijing is such an influential city — culturally, politically and historically,” said Yin.
“Being located within the old imperial heart of the capital also gives us the opportunity to influence influential people and encourage them to speak on behalf of vegetarianism and sustainable dining,” he added.
“If government officials recognize and support these ideas, that could help advance legislation in areas such as animal welfare, the promotion of vegetables and support for cleaner, organic agricultural practices.”
Yin’s father, David Yin, was a lifelong supporter of vegetarianism. He based King’s Joy in 2010 and named it for a restaurant his household used to run in Taipei.
Originally from Beijing, the Yins moved to Taiwan in 1966, opening a restaurant that was well-known for serving imperial-style pastries. Its pea pudding was said to be a favourite of Empress Dowager Cixi within the late Qing dynasty.
The Yin household later moved to Canada in 1995, returning to Beijing 15 years later to arrange the restaurant by the Lama Temple.
These days, Gary is accountable for the restaurant whereas his sister Mia is the pastry chef.
Since opening its doorways in 2012, King’s Joy has change into the gold customary of vegetarian tremendous eating in China and been frequented by many celebrities, from Rupert Murdoch to Ashin, lead singer of the Taiwanese band Mayday. Foreign figureheads, corresponding to Italian President Sergio Mattarella and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, have dined there throughout state visits.
Bernhard Schwartländer, the previous assistant director normal on the World Health Organization and its consultant to China, advised NCS that he has been to King’s Joy a number of instances. “They have mastered the art of preparing food that doesn’t contain any meat or fish products. It’s a mixture of being very light, very fresh, but also very, very, very tasteful,” he said. “The restaurant itself, of course, is an oasis of beauty. The service is exceptional.”
King’s Joy has additionally change into a novel cultural landmark for a lot of first-time Western vacationers visiting China. While they’re undoubtedly drawn by its fame, the vegetarian menu can even be considered as reassuring by some international guests involved about meals security and unfamiliar culinary types.
According to Yin, the overwhelming majority of King’s Joy diners aren’t vegetarians.
The restaurant serves a set meal with particular person plates somewhat than the big, shared platters that can be frequent elsewhere in China. Menus are accessible in Chinese and English and most restaurant staffers communicate each fluently.
King’s Joy has a seasonal menu that rotates each two weeks. In China, that doesn’t simply imply spring, summer season, fall and winter — the yr is split into 24 photo voltaic intervals with poetic names like “rainwater” and “white dew.” Depending on the time of go to, diners might strive Manchurian rice silk with black truffle and lily bulbs, soup made with bamboo pith, or osmanthus milk pudding. Lesser-known Chinese elements like gorgon fruit — a spherical and reddish brown seed — make appearances on the menu too. The restaurant additionally provides pairings with selfmade fermented drinks together with tea or wine.
Yin doesn’t suppose that vegetarian meals ought to be an afterthought in China.
“There is already such a deep foundation of cooking techniques, flavor development, and culinary sophistication,” he says. “And but many eating places nonetheless don’t deal with greens because the true centerpiece of a dish. It is a pity.
“Instead, countries like Thailand, India and even many Western countries whose cuisines are traditionally far less centered around vegetables have developed vibrant vegetarian dining cultures. In a country like China, being able to enjoy truly delicious vegetarian cuisine should really be something natural and expected.”
What’s modified isn’t the existence of vegetarian meals in China — it’s the very fact that it may well be upscale and costly.
These days, about 4% of the Chinese inhabitants identifies as vegetarian, in accordance to a state-run media examine from 2024. Chinese Dietary Guidelines, an official set of diet and wholesome consuming strategies, started together with tips for vegetarians in 2016.
Fuchsia Dunlop, a British writer and chef specializing in Chinese delicacies, said presenting vegetarian meals for mainstream diners somewhat than Buddhists was nonetheless a radical transfer in China.
“The other radical thing is that they’re very expensive,” she said. “It’s very radical to ask individuals to pay some huge cash for vegetable elements.
“And I think that what’s happening now is that people are interested in vegetarian food as a more lifestyle choice, not a religious one. It [gives] a kind of freedom for vegetarian food.”