Is Beijing's 3 Michelin Star Vegetarian Restaurant Worth It? "King's Joy"

Beijing is home to many great eats. The internet is already filled with many content creators showcasing jianbing guozi and peking roast duck. Expansive and luxurious Chinese buffets also will sometimes be showcased by creators. But Michelin star Chinese food is something that is not covered enough. When I saw that Beijing had a three Michelin star restaurant I knew I had to try it!
King's Joy is a 3 Michelin star vegetarian restaurant and it even once made La Liste's ranking of the world's best restaurants! Being awarded 1 Michelin star a few years ago, King's Joy has continued to improve, being upgraded to two the following year, and recently to three! Is Beijing's Michelin Star restaurant King's Joy worth the hype? Or is it just getting praise because it's in a fancy atmosphere and it's a vegetarian menu?
We'll find out together, as well as find out together what 3 Michelin star Chinese food is like!
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Restaurant Deets:
King's Joy
2 Wudaoying Hu Tong, 国子监 Dongcheng, Beijing, China, 100027

[@RM-fo9qh]

You’re my new favorite channel. Honest, not pretentious, really enjoyable to watch.

[@tedrich2343]

UA, I really love your approach to your reviews. Your "brand" is that you are straight-forward, super-honest, and have no pretensions. I dont care that you are learning about different foods and that if you dont like or understand something, you just admit that. It's refreshing. I also think Tina is a great contributor and you will defer to her and learn from her, as in this video. Finally, you are very talented in describing food, which is not easy to do. And you can do it without saying "umami" in every sentence. Keep up the good work.

[@hu_b]

Well said and good sense of humor too.

[@tedrich2343]

Thanks!

[@BurtAsher]

Also, that he is a bit of a naive schmuck. That is a big part of his appeal as far as I am concerned. He is not going into these restaurants as an expert. He is going in as a middle class Asian-American who never ate any of this stuff growing up. He is always concerned about the price and he is self-deferential and kind

[@DeeDeeHM]

You are so pure and honest about your reviews and sometimes so funny ! Love it. ❤

[@theworld5937]

50% enjoyment is who you are with. 30% food. 10% service. 5% hunger. 5% decor.

[@mood2]

haha. going to 3 star restaurant and saying the food looks like dune worm guts. i love it

[@stephanwalter1467]

It has a green star as well for sustainability food

[@sinbatsiraseranant1241]

Going from 95% steakhouses to a vegetarian restaurant. That's a big change (I think your girlfriend convinced you to go there lol).

[@Onetwothreepeanuts]

I'm surprised his body didn't reject it immediately.

[@dc33333]

Stunning restaurant. Exquisite craftsmanship. Never seen that variety and quality of mushrooms. Thank You UA and Tina!

[@dc33333]

Hi UA/Tina can you do a video on home cooking and food ingredient shopping? Veggies there different than US. Especially during summer months

[@dc33333]

the white fungus mushroom has a very delicate distinct flavor and texture. never seen one with that quality before. Stunning! Salt may obscure the delicate flavor and modify the texture.

[@eunicesakay6116]

This is very helpful. I’m going to Beijing and not really into the street food vibe, so I was looking for something more private dining. Thanks for sharing a very comprehensive review!

[@soupafi]

I can't wait for you to hit 100k subs! Your videos have been improving too. Keep it up!

[@Utoobdewd]

The best review of King's Joy on KZbin!

[@fumeokid]

Haha...tastes 'healthy" sounds like you were not overwhelmed with flavor! The meditation piano music in the background is very soothing. It sounds healthy too!

[@wolflike24124]

40 mins??? This is gonna be a good video! Again love your videos!!

[@shanefahey-m7b]

i love this guys videos. he comes across as really authentic. if you keep going like this massive growth in your channel i predict.

[@alisachamoy225]

You are SO funny! I truly appreciate the honesty of your videos. This restaurant is so beautiful and I liked how they offered you additional food for free (at a michelin starred restaurant!!). I would really love to see you do a review of abcV in NY - I keep vegetarian and it looks amazing and I have wanted to go there for forever.

[@ToppsBaseballRacks]

Entertaining and informative review from across the globe! Your versatility for different levels of cuisines and sense of humor throughout your experiences make these videos very enjoyable to watch. Keep up the great work, UA!

[@cactuskid1492]

Beautiful food and presentation! I really appreciated Tina’s input here…she’s your better half, UA 😂.

[@fernandasegovia5792]

I love the way you describe the dishes ! So refreshing and entertaining , thank you for sharing this new experience

[@davewarner3396]

Love your honesty in the reviews. Refreshing!

[@uaeats]

Thanks!

[@alexcerdenanyc]

@@uaeats Will Tina be debuted in your videos ? I can hear heat her voice but not see lol . Is she shy?

[@-SarahElizabeth-]

@@alexcerdenanycShe doesn’t want to be on camera. ☹️ Glad we can hear her voice though.

[@alanledzep1967]

This was GREAT. Not my style but superb review. (Bonus points, Tina your dress colour is perfect). ❤

[@philliprogers9028]

Thanks!

[@uaeats]

Thank you for your generosity!

[@RS-jh2kl]

​@@uaeatsThank you for the videos UA!

[@bigcue3168]

Why are you paying him to eat?🤷

[@ToppsBaseballRacks]

@@bigcue3168 Because he enjoys the content and isn't cheap?

[@stephenbutler463]

you made me laugh a lot in this review. Keep up the good work UA. Not my sort of restaurant and at that price, NA

[@ChamP10nk1ng]

Ok so #1. That milk pudding looked BEAUTIFUL! Huge fanatic here of a dessert of such sort. #2. The outside of the restaurant looked like a great place to conduct a Mortal Kombat tournament. 😂 #3. Def an eye shocker looking at all these exquisite dishes I've never seen or thought of before even existed. 👍

[@mattyearl8281]

Fabtastic watch UA as always, great to see a different perspective and showing the vegetarian side of things...im a carnivore and always will be but thanks for bringing this to us

[@roboliver9980]

Interesting dishes and surrounds. Definitely worth trying out for the experience.

[@patrickwong4824]

3 Michelin Star vegan, this is going to be very interesting. The nice thing is they don't have to ask about UA’s shellfish allergy or Tina's preference not eat pork.

[@YoMumzinnit]

Lol, so they can’t and choose not to eat food as food reviewers? 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@LordLOC]

@@YoMumzinnit Um, UA is allergic to shellfish and Tina doesn't eat pork. So yes, they don't eat certain foods. It's how allergies and religious or whatever reasons work.

[@buzzfunk]

Damn, your subs moving up. I think i Subs when you were under 10k!

[@-SarahElizabeth-]

Thank you for doing a vegetarian restaurant UA!!!! Great review!

[@swampcat4901]

It was a sweet and chill place. For the Asian flavour this is really good. Fun fact. Since our little son brought his empty plates back and talked to the staff about the taste, they made him a lot of new dishes to try out. Litlle mouse got his dinner for free.' And be informed, you can ask for a waiter to explain the dishes in english XD... 29:23 It´s a filled squash flower (not flour....) P.S. let Tina find you a good buddhist restaurant as comparison next time...

[@eejster0357]

Harpist, handerchief, totally explains the additional.15% service charge. Not my cup of tea if I were to pay but welcome variety to your videos. The Chinese do love the fog effect while dining.

[@nyfunk6981]

Another great review. You should try the full tasting menu at Le Bernardin, it is a much better experience then the lunch menu and would be a more fair comparison to the Ramsey tasting menu

[@christinas8782]

cool video 😊 i’ve eaten some amazing vegetarian food in beijing and shanghai!

[@medannylee1]

This the kind of place that you go to In-and-Out afterwards.

[@Bboydomaz555]

For 3 Michelin Star I better be blown away by all the dishes

[@CrabbinFever]

I have never been to a fancy restaurant but I know from watching Bourdain visit Ramsays in London that amuse bouche is "an amusment of the mouth, something to prepare you for the meal to come"

[@uaeats]

I actually reviewed Restaurant Gordon Ramsay in an earlier vid. You should check it out!

[@andybelt603]

Love your videos! Next time you're in Vegas, you should try Wing Lei at the Wynn, think it was the first Michelin-starred Chinese restaurant in the U.S. when it opened (One Michelin Star at the moment).

[@couloir1]

$140 for a 3 star Michelin restaurant sounds like a bargain.

[@ypw510]

I recall he did the 3-course lunch tasting menu at Le Bernadin for $127, although that didn't include tax or tip.

[@JackSprat201]

Thanks for taking us to yet another interesting restaurant. You always remain resolutely yourself, although this time your description of the appearance, textures and tastes of the food seemed even cheekier and rebellious than ever. Be that as it may, I did not realize you do not read Chinese characters. I know Japanese and Chinese characters are similar but not exactly the same--often the modern simplifications of older characters at not at all the same in the two languages, there are Japanese characters that do not exist in China, and vice versa. I'm often amazed at ramen places here in New York that claim to be Japanese, and use exclusively Chinese characters in the menu. (Although some Japanese think ramen is Chinese, not Japanese food) As far as I can tell, 京北戸are the characters for 北京Beijing reversed, and 戸is typically translated as 'door' but often is a synecdoche that refers to 'house'. Maybe you can ask your companion to explain; nowhere do I see any character 王for 'king' or perhaps 喜for joy. How can they justify this translation of their name?

[@ypw510]

I don't know exactly how it works. However, when I tried to use a translation tool, I got the first character 京 (jing) means capital (city). Of course Beijing mean "northern capital", but apparently 京 by itself is accepted as a shortened version of Beijing. Not sure what the middle character is, as a get a bunch of different answers. The last one is 戸 (yin), which I'm guessing is the family name since the head chef is named Gary Yin. You can also find something on Wictionary. I'd link it but that would just go into purgatory. These three characters have a specific historical meanings. I'd think the use of these characters might be intentional because they can mean different things, including a neighborhood in an ancient capital of China, the head official of that neighrborhood, or official government positions for capital cities.

[@robertkatz5256]

Hi UA really cool 👍🏻. Keep it up you rock

[@jshamby100]

I lived in Beijing 4 years, now in Kunming but experienced fine dining at TRB Hutong in Beijing. You should try while there. They have meat and seafood!!

[@ericarichardson4299]

Haha! Thanks for singing to me😅 my name is Erica

[@MrCloud-ob7sh]

I went on a fancy vegan date one time in Philly. It was great, but we ended the night sharing a cheesesteak from Jim’s. 🤣

[@luap89]

LMAO the Chinese school bit where you have ????? cracked me up ahaha

[@73richg]

That pudding ain’t nothing but Knox 😂

[@davewarner3396]

Not sure where to post this, but how about college town eats. Specifically UF university of Florida. Thx bud

[@acharis]

Great video, UA. Not a big veggie person myself but I would definitely give it a go. Looking forward to your next video from Beijing

[@uaeats]

Thanks! Yeah I'm not usually a vegetarian food kind of person either but I always try to keep an open mind

[@BosheitV]

This restaurant is the type for everyone to leave hungry and then just order pizza for dinner

[@inmyhouse11]

Need a Kings Joy in NJ. Looks amazing

[@TwoPyramid]

Ever go to Veggie Heaven?

[@williamminehan4416]

It looks very extravagant. But I wouldn’t eat that all of vegetables and spent $300 on it anywhere

[@aces7515]

What was in the glass next to the pudding? That was an interesting experience, not for me but thank you. Sue

[@Vinnytint2]

This gives “ one bite “ a whole new meaning 😂

[@Harry_Dong]

Im sure the prices has increased since the last time ive been; but, 140USD was enough money to feed 6 adults to dimsum for 3 hours 😂😂😂

[@ALBERT.GM.WALKER]

You lost me at Vegetarian. Watched the first 10 seconds when I started reading the title. As soon as I saw the V word, I promptly turned off the video.

[@ItsSomeDeadGuy]

Dork behavior

[@ALBERT.GM.WALKER]

@@ItsSomeDeadGuy I hope your day is as pleasant as you are.

[@dickriggles942]

Also, it's ludicrously pretentious. To the point it's absurdly fake and obvious. It's a façade.

[@chrispite9]

You should come to San Francisco and try out 3-Star restaurant Benu as well as some other restaurants in the area !

[@alexchainey.]

Well…. This Restaurant sure has Character.

[@aznexile602]

I've always felt like an outsider being Chinese American when dining at authentic chinese restaurants. I almost feel a little shame asking for ice water!

[@ck5404]

Too close video of your face, spoiling the video 😂😂😂

[@wowokgone4319]

This restaurant is closed to Yonhegong Lama Temple

[@Vinnytint2]

Brought me back to IRON CHEF

[@dlee9743]

This video makes me trust UA's reviews more than ever. Pretty much the exact same reactions I would have going to a vegetarian restaurant, albeit one with 3 Michelin stars. So refreshing that his honesty in food reviews never wavers.

[@kennethwu115]

Nice one UA. I thought you were Korean for some reason.

[@jackm9804]

He looks like Korean with small eyes.

[@K3mbusm]

Yeah, I don't think I'd waste my money on that place, even though I do like some of the ideas. Thanks for another great video review!

[@Michael-v3z1s]

They got good Chinese food there hehe

[@jonathanlu6879]

Love it!

[@andrewchiu6226]

I tend to mistrust Michelin assessments of Chinese restaurants, but I appreciated the mix of influences that executive chef Gary Yin brought here. The presentation reminded me of Kaiseki. There's a few English language KZbin channels featuring the food or the story, but almsot none actually assessing the experience. I was surprised though not to see high concept takes on Chinese Buddhist Vegetarian cuisine (which is great BTW for anybody interest), there didn't seem to be any Seitan or Tofu meat analogue dishes featured for this price fixe.

[@frankgyure3154]

Hi UA. Great video. I have a question but its not about the food. I live in Connecticut USA and have never visited Chini know you have been in Chin before. What are the differences and similarities between living in NJ/NYC area and visiting China. In the USA we have a conception that China is very politically controlled. Thank you.

[@JYLee-rr1sy]

You overlooked the shot glass next to your milk pudding. You were probably either supposed to pour into the pudding or drink with it.

[@davewarner3396]

Hard to imagine YOU doing a vegan review. As the old WENDY'S commercial, WHERES THE BEEF!. LOL

[@uaeats]

Haha definitely different than my usual reviews right?

[@davewarner3396]

Looking forward to seeing the next one

[@mosmarb]

Le Bernardin's reputation is not what it once was, so not too surprising that you preferred Restaurant Gordon Ramsay. RGR is the only 3 star I've been to, but I've been to more than 50 starred restaurants now in total. As a vegetarian, this one is interesting to me - I've been to 5 "pure" vegetarian restaurants with stars, it's an increasing trend.

[@mosmarb]

The "skin" of the "meatball" was a morel mushroom (or part of one at least). Definitely worth seeking out, they are my favourite mushroom, ahead of the likes of maitake and matsutake.

[@jonhill373]

Due to the fact that many times your critiques include too little salt, maybe keeping a small container of salt in your pocket wouldn’t be a bad idea

[@OneStepBehindd]

Awesome take! There are plenty of hidden gems in Beijing way better than these so called Michelle star restaurants.

[@eddie5152]

Loving the travel videos

[@uaeats]

Thanks!

[@shanecucheron2728]

Interesting thank you 🙏

[@theclassicalpost]

$5 Tina made him try this restaurant.

[@kiplingglobal5413]

Great commentary! But not a type of place on my list.

[@zeideerskine3462]

While in China it would be great if you could find restaurants that offer Li ZiQi's recipes.

[@taylork37]

I love you and your reviews because they are honest and unassuming, but maybe you should stick to more simple cuisine. Disliking a majority of dishes at a 3 Michelin star restaurant usually says more about the diner than the restaurant. 😑

[@prithvimanb]

Never expected a vegetarian Michelin star eatery in china ! Alas India! 3k years of vegetarian food culture yet no stars !

[@golfer45nz]

Needs to have meat for me to pay that much hahaha

[@ypw510]

I looked up the chef's bio. Went to high school in British Columbia and college at the University of Toronto. Listened to an interview, and he sounded like he was Chinese-American, which isn't unusual if he grew up in BC.

[@latexdrc]

You mean CRC Canadian Raised Chinese

[@ypw510]

@@latexdrc Hadn't heard that before. However, I found an interview of him. He was born in Taiwan and raised in Canada. His bio says that he went to a private school on the edge of the Vancouver metro area.

[@CountDankula0]

I would rather just have some regular Chinese food like dumplings

[@masoodkhan1096]

How about doing a UA Eats in UAE😉

[@brianshaw373]

I don’t know what she was saying, either. Thank goodness you had the Imperial scroll.

[@MrWhiterunGuard]

Wow amazing, also in regards to picture/video quality instead of a new phone try the Sony ZV-E10 there's a new version coming out soon so you can probably get them for quite cheap. And they take excellent video and especially good for vlogging.

[@danielgarzamusic210]

Is it 275$ for both people ?

[@hpph1744]

No steak :[

[@helenhelen7822]

I’d still be hungry if that’s all I ate. But I like harp and experience

[@rockoutconsiderably]

Take a screenshot of when you held up the "glasses like" food to your eyes and make that your new profile pic. Perfectly sums up the quirkiness and joy of your channel.

[@JT4493]

Let’s give this video some likes why don’t we.

[@Idelia412]

I liked the restaurants in Hong Kong when I traveled there.

[@emazonreviews6269]

0:36-0:42 Tina!!!!

[@unscarred8698]

Morcella is a morel mushroom. Thats why it tasted good

[@rand0m0nium]

Rather eat at Texas Roadhouse than a 3 Michelin star vegetarian restaurant

[@GoldSpoon32]

Rather eat at Texas Roadhouse then any 3 Michelin star restaurant.

[@audionote58]

@@GoldSpoon32If you’ve ever eaten at a good Michelin 3 star restaurant, u wouldn’t make such a comment.

[@jonhill373]

What a cool experience. Well done UA

[@Joe-d3t1t]

Agreed

[@blepnir]

$140 seems like a pretty decent value for the food & merch. Def seems worth visiting once!

[@YoMumzinnit]

3rd world country…. Nah thanks

[@thomasbello221]

Love your videos , but enjoy local eats and street foods versus Michelin restaurants

[@mattyearl8281]

I disagree, I enjoy seeing Michelin star restaurants reviewed

[@frankcush1738]

Damn probably was like 7$ in ingredients. Smh 😢 🤑

[@victorha9923]

Sometimes I think that way, but that's when I forget the skill and time used to make the dish

[@manofreddi4166]

I like your channel and the interesting reviews. It's great that you speak Chinese, however you should also learn to read the characters. Try to learn five new characters every day and in 2 years you'll be able to read and understand almost everything. That will bring you closer to your great Chinese heritage and culture and make it easier when visiting China. My favorite foods are jiaozi (dumplings) and noodles, like zha jiang mian. It would be fun to see some reviews of the good dumpling and noodle places in Beijing. Thanks for sharing your experiences!

[@joenovak6393]

Not for me and a Fast Pass so signing off...Travel safe and will look forward to the next one.

[@RussianAreRealMan]

You can tell when he likes something when he gives that face of a man who really doesn't like it 🤣🤣

[@samuraidoggy]

Food is pretty as fuck, but I am not big into vegetarian meals. I rather have meat/fish just for flavor.