And there's good reason for that: The place, which is so crowded of fully stocked bookshelves that its dining areas resemble studies, has partnered up with a cultural company to promote traditional Chinese culture with their publications. Some books representative of those found on the shelves here include Book of Changes and a pinyin edition of Lao Zi's Dao De Jing.

The building is a typical courtyard home, with a small yard and two big rooms renovated into dining areas. But, generally speaking, the eatery is decorated according to a pleasant and fashionable traditional Chinese style.

One of the rooms was created by covering an outdoors area with a glass ceiling. It's brighter but chillier than the darker and warmer room adjacent to it.

But the courtyard environment and bookshelves work together to create a space where it's easy to take your mind off the rat race and relax.

Baihe's menu is particularly beautiful in appearance. It features colored illustrations of the dishes with descriptions in both Chinese and English. It lists plenty of veggie dishes as well as a slew of imitation meat meals, which are made with bean protein and konjak - a gelatinous foodstuff derived from a root.

The restaurant offers some standard imitation meat fare -boiled fish chips in spicy soup, dry braised sea cucumber and fried dice chicken with sauce - in addition to some house specialties, such as mutton shashlik, smoked bamboo shoots, braised mushrooms with cayenne pepper in a pot, placket bean curd and Buddha jumping off the wall soup.

The restaurant also offers a variety of curries and teas, and doubles as a grocer of organic foodstuffs.

Those looking to play it safe can order mashed pumpkin soup (一品南瓜盅), fried preserved sausage with sweet beans (臘腸炒荷蘭豆), spicy braised short ribs with black bean sauce (豉椒排骨) and vegetal chicken leg (素雞腿).

Their mashed Chinese yam soup and assorted garden delicacies wrapped in lotus leaf are both well presented but bland tasting.

Diners should take note: Plates here are a bit pricey but the servings are bountiful.

Average spending is 50 yuan per person. Parking is a bit tricky, as one side of the already-narrow hutong is usually lined with parked cars.

Story and photos by Ye Jun

A23 Caoyuan Hutong, Dongzhimennei Beixiaojie, Dongcheng District. 6405-2082. 東城區北小街草園胡同甲23號

(China Daily January 21, 2008)