With the bitter winter rolling in, any restaurant offering hearty American fare to the laowai-laden Sanlitun area is always going to do very, very well indeed. But don’t think for a second that The Big Smoke is a cynical attempt to exploit homesick Westerners – it offers seriously tasty Southern US-style comfort food in cosy surroundings.

In early autumn, the outdoor tables and airy, café-style entrance were the place to be, with cheery sunlight proving as uplifting as the food. But these days we imagine you want to get as far away from the outdoors as possible, so head straight through the café, take a left and you’ll realise why The Big Smoke is so called: it is deceptively huge.

Wandering down the (admittedly slightly dark and eerie) corridor, you’ll come across three dining rooms. The first has a 12-seater mini-banqueting table; the second is a more refined joint for those who want to eat in style; the third is low-lit and cosy for romantic tête-à-têtes. There’s also a bar area but it’s uncomfortably small – possibly a last-ditch attempt to make something of a tiny room. We can’t blame them for trying, because the great cocktails deserve their own space to be enjoyed in. But it’s pretty much impossible to get a crowd of friends in there unless you want to swig your drinks with your elbow in someone’s nose. Well, maybe you do. We’re not judging.

But you’re not here for the location – you’re here for the fabulous food. The slim lunch menu – which the management was planning to beef up at the time of writing – is available from 11am-3pm and offers such delights as a sweet, coleslaw-filled pulled chicken sandwich and a hefty blue-cheese burger with a breaded portobello mushroom almost as thick as the patty itself. Both are moist, juicy and outrageously good value when compared with similarly priced equivalents elsewhere in Sanlitun.

Address: First Floor, Lee World Building (near Frost Nails), 57 Xingfucun Zhong Lu, Chaoyang District 朝阳区幸福村中路 57号楼利世楼

Source: timeoutbeijing.com