The Verdict
Teochew cuisine — named for the Chaoshan region of northeastern Guangdong, stretching down toward Hong Kong — is one of the oldest and most refined cooking traditions in China. It is built around braising, steaming, and brine-marinating, a philosophy of patient transformation that requires exceptional ingredients and extraordinary technique. For decades, it was a cuisine known mainly to the Teochew diaspora of Southeast Asia, to Hong Kong's wealthiest families, and to food scholars who argued quietly that it deserved more attention than it received.
Chao Shang Chao made the argument loudly. The CP Center restaurant, occupying the fourth floor of one of Chaoyang's commercial landmarks, received three Michelin stars in the 2024 Beijing Guide and held them through 2026 under Chef Yat Fung Cheung — a Teochew master whose thirty years of kitchen experience is evident in every course of the tasting menu.
The 1,888 CNY tasting menu unfolds over ten to twelve courses. It begins quietly — brine-marinated duck tongue, oyster with pickled vegetable, a cold plate of precisely controlled textures — and escalates into the kitchen's more ambitious statements: braised whole goose glazed in its own reduced cooking liquor, a steamed fish preparation of such delicacy that the flesh yields to chopsticks with no resistance, abalone braised in a stock that has been reducing for days. The wine pairing at 498 CNY adds a coherent European dimension without disrupting the meal's essentially Chinese logic.
The dining room reflects the cooking's confidence: dark wood, controlled lighting, a deliberate absence of decorative distraction. The space says nothing except that you are about to eat something serious. Service operates in near-silence and reads the table's mood with uncanny accuracy — the staff who pours tea has probably poured it a thousand times at a Michelin three-star level.
In 2025, Chef Cheung was named Beijing's inaugural MICHELIN Mentor Chef — a recognition of his role in training the next generation of Teochew cooks. This is not just a restaurant producing excellent food. It is an institution transmitting a cuisine.
Best Occasion Fit
Solo Dining: The tasting menu structure is designed for the attentive solo diner. The chef's kitchen sends courses at its own pace, each one demanding thought. Staff engage openly with diners who show genuine curiosity. There is no better way to spend four hours alone in Beijing.
Impress Clients: Three stars in a cuisine tradition that your international clients will almost certainly not have encountered. The braised goose alone prompts conversation. Booking this table communicates a level of local knowledge and generosity that no hotel restaurant can replicate.
Close a Deal: The private dining configuration, the absolute discretion of the service, and a room where the world's noise genuinely does not penetrate. Decisions made here feel final.
The Philosophy of Teochew
To understand what Chao Shang Chao is doing, it helps to understand what Teochew cooking is not. It is not the bold, umami-forward intensity of Cantonese roasting. It is not the numbing heat of Sichuan. It is not the vinegar-bright profiles of Shanghainese braising. Teochew cooking is restrained, ingredient-led, and built around time. The brine pot — the lo sui — is the restaurant's most essential tool, a spiced solution maintained and replenished over years, developing increasing complexity with each new ingredient that passes through it.
Chef Cheung works within these parameters and occasionally transcends them. His lobster preparation, available in certain seasonal iterations of the tasting menu, sits outside Teochew tradition but is prepared with the same patience the tradition demands. His congee, which sometimes appears as a late-menu course, is the most technically accomplished version of a dish most diners believe they have already understood.