Maple House@The Grand Hyatt Xi’an 亚洲烧烤 (西安君悦酒店)

Article By Mike Leaner

5F, Grand Hyatt Xi’an, No.12 Jinye Road, High Tech Zone.
锦业路12号西安君悦酒店5层
(029) 8751 5185
11:30am – 2:00pm
5:30pm – 10:00pm

Average Price per Person /人均消费: 200RMB

PROS: Elegant ambiance, good food
CONS: If you don’t live in Gaoxin, location is a bit out of the way for you

It’s always a treat to dine at one of Xi’an’s surprisingly many five-star hotels, so it was very exciting for me to be invited to the Grand Hyatt this month to try the menu of Andrew Park, the new head chef of their Maple House restaurant.

You’ll find Maple House on the 5th Floor of the hotel. The restaurant proper is bright and spacious, dotted with tables and each has their own built-in grill for Korean barbecue. However, due to my status as a famous and excellent reviewer, I got to have my Maple House experience out on the terrace in one of their self-contained private dining rooms, which are great for intimate special occasions with a few friends or family. It really shouldn’t be shocking that five-star hotels have five-star facilities, so know it’s a very nice, very tastefully decorated place, and let’s move on to the real reason we’re all here: the food.

Chef Park’s menu for the night was a kaleidoscope of cuisine, a celebration of both his Korean origins and his time spent working in other countries, such as Japan. It started out with kimchi and other Korean snacks, then pivoted straight into “Korean-style sashimi.” The march of food continued ever-forward with pumpkin porridge, a crab and asparagus roll, foie gras, pan-fried fish, Korean barbecue, bibimbap and sticking the landing with a dessert course of wine-poached pear, black rice ice cream and Korean rice cake. Not everything in this cavalcade of dishes was a triumph (and those that weren’t will remain a work in progress), but when it was good it was damn good. My personal highlights were the crab and asparagus roll and the bibimbap, both impeccably presented and light and delicious.

If you take the trip to Maple House, it’s not guaranteed that you’ll end up with such an encyclopedic set meal, but this little food tour through Chef Park’s brain was a great look at what the restaurant has to offer. I’m confident that anything you order from Maple House will be served with great care and bursting with flavor. You’ll be seeing stars. Five stars, at least.

Mike Leaner likes to get dirty but not for free. He can be reached at reviews@xianease.com

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