Li's Kitchen (Family Li Imperial Cuisine)

The Room

Family Li Imperial Cuisine opened on Level 6 of the Metropolitan Oriental Plaza in Jiefangbei on 10 January 2025 — and within weeks became the most talked-about restaurant opening in mainland China. The restaurant is the Chongqing expansion of a Beijing institution that traces its family lineage to a Qing-dynasty imperial household chef, and whose recipes reach back through four generations. The Chongqing flagship earned two Michelin stars in the 2025 guide, making it the world's first two-Michelin-star Chinese imperial-cuisine restaurant anywhere.

The cuisine is imperial Chinese in the most serious sense — tangjiao (clear imperial broths), steamed fish courses built around single precisely-aged ingredients, and multi-course tasting menus structured around the Qing-dynasty banquet logic. The signature course, a double-boiled clear broth served over three hours, is regarded as the kitchen's technical marker. The chrysanthemum-petal hairy crab course, the bamboo-fungus steamed chicken, and the imperial-court duck are the other cardinal dishes.

The room is formal — white tablecloths, single-table private dining rooms alongside a main hall, service that moves with slow ceremonial pace. The dress code is stricter than most Chongqing rooms; closed-toe shoes, collared shirts, jacket-appropriate. The main hall seats around sixty; the private rooms accommodate eight to twelve each and are the preferred setting for business dining.

The tasting menu runs ¥2,000-3,500 per person depending on the selection. The wine and tea pairing is one of the most serious in China — the tea programme, in particular, is built around rare single-garden teas that are sourced directly from the producers and are not available outside Li's Kitchen. Reservations require three to four weeks' notice; a Mandarin-speaking contact materially helps.