Restaurants serve up range of new ideas

Semi-cooked dishes have become something of a tradition for restaurants preparing Spring Festival dinners. More eateries specializing in Chinese cuisine entering this market due to the pandemic have been joined by those featuring Western dishes.

Sun Yuan, founder of the Tiago Catering Group, said the decision to launch semi-cooked dishes was aimed at transferring the dining experience from its restaurants to clients' homes.

"We view it as updating our service, as 80 percent of the cooking is completed in our kitchens, and diners only need to spend 10 minutes preparing the food," he said.

The group sells products through its WeChat account, which has more than 100,000 registered members.

"New customers may not trust this product, but we are targeting members who are familiar with our cuisine," he said.

Sun thinks the pandemic's impact on walk-in diners could last until June, and that as eating habits may change as time passes, the group will need to keep updating online products to meet clients' requirements.

Buffet on offer

High-end restaurants in Beijing, including those in five-star hotels, are providing takeout meals in fancy packaging amid the pandemic, with some using creative ways to expand their business.

The San Wu Tang Kitchen, a buffet restaurant in Chaoyang district, is selling all its most popular dishes separately.

Hulu by TRB, also in Chaoyang, has launched a wine service, together with meals, while the sommelier at the Opposite House in Sanlitun has started a course on wine tasting.

Saffron, a Western cuisine restaurant in the capital's Wudaoying Hutong, is livestreaming short videos for diners.

Co-founder Li Yang, 41, said the business formed a WeChat group at the beginning of February, sharing its dishes and cookery instruction videos with users. It runs 14 such groups, which have more than 3,000 users.

Li, and her husband, Li Yaoyang, the restaurant's chef, have livestreamed broadcasts, but the frequency of these has fallen from once a day to once a week.

"Livestreaming can shorten the distance between us and our diners, but it's actually quite exhausting to talk for three hours a day. Also, because more people are returning to work, they have less time to watch livestream shows," Li Yang said.