Having a few days to spare after meeting my North Korean friends, I had hankering for Russian food. This led to Mango Restaurant near the embassy of the Russian federation.
Those familiar with the Chinese scene will know that this is near San Li Tun – and of course Heaven Supermarket, as well as a whole heap of embassies, including the DPRK.
Russia Town Beijing
It was over 15 years ago that I discovered Russia town in Beijing. What is Russia town you ask? Well it is like a China Town, that you might find in Bangkok for example, BUT it has Russians.
Here you will find all the writing in Russian, restaurants that cater to them, as well as Chinese people assuming you are Russian – if you are white of course The area is surreal to say the least.
Why does it exist? Quite simply because of the deep cultural and business ties, ties that survived the Sino-Soviet split (link) and existed before the current “friendliness”.
Russia town is found on Yabou Road and extends along to Ritan Road and the Russian and North Korean embassies.
Mango Restaurant Club AKA Golden Mango Russian Restaurant
Located on the aforementioned Ritan Road this restaurant and bar/club is known as THE Russian place to be in Beijing. This is no mean feat when you are this close to the Russian embassy.
The restaurant itself is opposite a bunch of seedy looking bars, as well as being closest to the embassy of the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, a place I am known to frequent.
It sits though alone and looks more like a club than bar from the outside. On entry though it looks, feels and even smells lick the Russian place you were looking for. Vodka anyone?
Mango Restaurant Club Ambience
I’ll finish with food and drinks as it is the ambience that hits you first. This is clearly a club and bar first and a restaurants second with there being a huge dance floor in the middle and a busy bar undoubtedly frequented by the off freelancer.
In fact talking of freelancers I was approached the second I left the bar (in Russian) by a Chinese lady that looked like she might have remembered Pu Yi she was that old. Relations were offered for around $150, I gracefully declined while also wondering just how bad inflation was….
Anyways back to Mango Restaurant! The place also looked prime for live music, which according to the signs happens. Food wise there were booths that worked well, as well as private rooms for groups. In some ways it even reminded me of the Diplo in North Korea.
Mango Restaurant Club food and drinks
The menu at Mango Restaurant was fabulous and had everything I would have expected from Russian classics like borsch and Russian salad to caviar, fois gras (the Russians love it), BBQ dishes from Central Asia, snacks the Caucuses and much more.
The only problem? Most of it they just simply did not even have, such as borsch. To me this was a real crime. In the end I managed to get salted salmon, Russian salad and herring with potatoes.
I have to say that these were all good, but in reality you cannot get a potato salad/Russian salad wrong, nor salmon. The herring was gotten solely to miss with vodka.
Which leads us to the drinks.! Most of my night was taken up with Long Island Iced Tea for about $7, although I did have some vodka with herring. The vodka through at $4 a glass was a bit much for a Russian restaurant in my mind.
I did though get to do a lot of people watching, which included a large Russian lady throwing herself at the waiters and a big Russian guy getting into a fist fight with his tiny Chinese girlfriend. Overall I guess it was a classic night at Golden Mango Russian Restaurant.
You can find Golden Mango Russian Restaurant address here;
6 Ritan North Rd,
Chaoyang,
Beijing,
Peoples Republic of China,
100020
So, while Mango Restaurant might not be the best Russian food in Beijing, nor even by the embassy, you will get vodka, perhaps witness a fight and get approached by an elderly prostitute. Alas you can no longer finish at Maggie’s, with that institution having fallen foul of the new puritanical Chinese ideology.