King's Joy

King's Joy, Beijing: The Verdict

At the ¥¥¥¥ price tier, King's Joy asks you to spend serious money on a vegetarian tasting menu in a hutong courtyard near the Guozijian. What you get back is a 2-Michelin-Star, 1 Green Star experience that ranks among the most technically accomplished plant-based restaurants in Asia, rated #194 on Opinionated About Dining's 2025 Asia list and awarded 77 points by La Liste in 2026. If vegetarian fine dining is what you are after, this is the clearest yes in Beijing. If you need meat on the table, go elsewhere; this kitchen does not compromise its format.

Portrait: What King's Joy Actually Is

King's Joy sits on Wudaoying Hutong in Dongcheng, one of Beijing's better-preserved historic lanes running close to the Lama Temple and the old Imperial Academy. The address matters: this is not a restaurant that landed in a hotel corridor or a mall complex. It is rooted in a neighbourhood that still carries the texture of old Beijing, the courtyard setting; bamboo-shaded, according to the venue's own highlights, reinforces that the meal you are about to eat is deliberate, place-specific, unhurried. For a special occasion dinner or a serious business meal where atmosphere carries weight, the setting does real work before the first course arrives.

The cooking is led by Gary Yin, a third-generation chef, the kitchen's signature move is mushrooms. The kitchen applies a broad range of culinary techniques to seasonal vegetable ingredients, using mushrooms as a central protagonist rather than a supporting element. The result, recognised by the World's Leading Wine Lists accreditation panel that awarded King's Joy a 2-Star accreditation, is genuine variety in taste and texture, the kind of range that makes a fully vegetarian menu feel complete rather than restricted. This is the technical argument for the price: the kitchen is working as hard as any meat-forward operation to generate contrast and depth from plant-based ingredients alone.

Michelin awarded 2 Stars in both 2024 and 2025, which means the quality is not a recent spike, it has held across back-to-back cycles. The Green Star sits alongside those, recognising the restaurant's commitment to sustainability within its vegetarian framework. For diners who track credentials before booking, that combination, two consecutive 2-Star awards plus a Green Star, a La Liste top-100-range score, Les Grandes Tables du Monde membership, a strong OAD ranking, is an unusually dense cluster of external validation for a single Beijing restaurant.

The neighbourhood anchor here is worth taking seriously. Wudaoying Hutong sits between the Lama Temple and Guozijian Street, a part of Dongcheng that draws visitors who want historical Beijing rather than the Sanlitun dining strip. If you are staying in central Beijing or visiting the area's temples and museums, King's Joy functions as both a dining destination and a reason to spend more time in this specific part of the city. For visitors comparing how to allocate a fine dining budget in Beijing, the setting gives King's Joy an experiential dimension that hotel restaurants at the same price tier cannot replicate. Compare this to Jingji (Beijing Cuisine) or Xin Rong Ji (Xinyuan South Road), both strong ¥¥¥¥ options, King's Joy's courtyard setting and hutong location are genuinely differentiated assets.

For context on how King's Joy sits within the wider China fine dining tier, consider that comparable vegetarian-forward multi-star restaurants are rare at this level. Ru Yuan in Hangzhou and 102 House in Shanghai operate in comparable prestige brackets, as do meat-forward benchmarks like Chef Tam's Seasons in Macau and Imperial Treasure Fine Chinese Cuisine in Guangzhou. Within Beijing specifically, King's Joy occupies a category of its own for plant-based cooking at Michelin 2-Star level. Lamdre is the only other ¥¥¥¥ vegetarian option worth comparing directly, King's Joy's award density gives it the stronger external case. For non-vegetarian ¥¥¥¥ alternatives, Chao Shang Chao (Chaoyang) and Lu Shang Lu cover Chao Zhou and Shandong traditions respectively at comparable spend.

If you are planning a Beijing trip around serious dining, our full Beijing restaurants guide covers the full range of options. For where to stay, check our Beijing hotels guide. The Beijing bars guide, wineries guide, and experiences guide round out planning for the broader trip.

Booking King's Joy

Booking difficulty is rated Near Impossible. At 2 Michelin Stars with an internationally recognised profile, King's Joy draws demand from both local and international diners. Reserve as far in advance as your plans allow, weeks rather than days. Walk-in availability at this level is not a realistic option. Contact the restaurant directly or use a hotel concierge if you are staying at a property with strong local connections. Dai Yuet Heen in Nanjing and Xin Rong Ji in Chengdu operate at similarly high demand levels and require the same lead time, so if King's Joy is unavailable, plan your fallback early.

Quick reference: 2 Michelin Stars (2024, 2025) + 1 Green Star | ¥¥¥¥ | Vegetarian tasting menu | Dongcheng hutong setting | Booking: Near Impossible, reserve weeks in advance.

How It Compares