Meet the Taikooli Resto That Made the Asia's 50 Best List

The Asia's 50 Best Restaurants list just dropped on Mar 29 (read the full list via QR code at the bottom of this article), and even though most of the China-based restaurants on the list are in Shanghai, two Beijing-based restaurants managed to pull through: Xin Rong Ji at #68 and Refer at #67.

The standout here, though, is Refer. Not only did it place higher on the list than Xin Rong Ji, a notable three-starred Taizhou-style restaurant, but it's the first ever Western restaurant in Beijing on the list since its inception 10 years ago.

This fine dining establishment, located in Sanlitun’s Taikooli North, is accessed by a non-descript elevator across from Alexander Wang that whisks you to the building’s 5th floor (reserved guest access only) – you are then lead into a luxurious Chinese, Nordic and Japanese-inspired lounge to await your culinary journey.

Owner and head chef Talib Hudda

Refer, helmed by Canadian expat Talib Hudda – formerly of The Georg and Sureño (The Opposite House) – and his wife, a Beijing native, is like a study in minimalism. Upon entering from the elevator, guests exit into a grey spackled space bathed in natural light bounding off white art deco walls.

After a welcome drink, they're taken to the main dining area, where an 18-course meal is served using seasonal, locally and sustainably sourced ingredients, most of which are prepared in an open kitchen that looks more like it's someone's personal home than a restaurant.

When I arrived in the morning, things had kicked off in Refer's open kitchen, with the ovens baking up one menu staple, the bread

Refer is based on experience Hudda has garnered over his 20 years of experience in fine dining establishments – some of them Michelin-starred – the world over.  But if you ask him how the path to #67 began, it's because of a plate.

"I had a friend in Shenyang, so we had a place there, and one day we went to an art gallery and there was this piece from an artist from Japan, and I touched it, and I said, 'This is it, we can open a restaurant based on this!'" Hudda tells me when meeting him at the restaurant on a Thursday morning.

Refer specializes in simple yet sophisticated dishes like this: Sichuan albino trout, fresh smoked hazelnut cheese, trout roe and sunchoke

While the restaurant itself had been in the planning phase since around 2017, Hudda explains they didn't have an aesthetic concept in mind until he touched this one plate. It had finally become something they knew they could do.

The original plate itself was used as a template for the plates used at Refer today, which Hudda shows me. It's thin and light, without curved edges, tying in to the minimalist nature of the rest of the space.

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From this plate, a mindset was born. Hudda explains the original artist behind the plate used 12 different kinds of porcelain, some from Canada, some from Korea, some from Japan, blended to create something never made before. This idea of using different things to create something new, but with a reference to something familiar, is what drives the culinary experience here.

Green pea miso and pistachio with fresh sweet peas and wild sour herbs

"Culinary-wise, we're a reference point, so we want to use references – whether it be Asian, a little bit of Indian, French, as a background," Hudda explains to me. "We use these as different points of culinary technique, and the name of the restaurant – Refer – comes from the fact that each dish is a reference point for the whole menu."

The overarching culinary style is Nordic, with Hudda and the team at Refer doing things with a mind for preservation, fermentation, and sourcing. The menu itself changes every three months, not only based on the availability of seasonal ingredients, but how long some items remain in stock. "We made a hazelnut oil with locally sourced hazelnuts recently, but it ran out so fast we had to update the menu," Hudda laughs.

With only a few tables, the restaurant is not only minimalist, but intimate as well

There are a few staples on the menu. The bread for one, I smell it being baked fresh in an oven through the open kitchen. Another is the Blue Lobster dish with glutinous rice cake and a dashi beurre blanc – which has been on the menu since day one.

Placing at #67 on the Asia Best Restaurants list has led to one notable change – this already difficult to book restaurant just got more difficult. When I went to speak with Hudda, he told me that they are normally booked out a week in advance – after the announcement we can assume that that wait time will only increase.

Cuttlefish, BBQ duck garum, rye bread and sesame with smoked hickory

Yet for a restaurant that serves eight tables a night with a seasonal changing menu and a ticket that's worth the RMB 2588+ price tag – it's gonna have to be a dinner experience to remember, and a daily challenge for Hudda and his team to adventurously take diners away from their worldly troubles.

But this, coupled with the idea Refer's work is being noticed, doesn't have Hudda wanting to push for more and open more "Refers", but rather to keep doing what the restaurant is doing, and do it well. "I'm gonna make sure we keep doing what we do, and see if people get the idea. If we get there, great; if not, it won't discourage me to stop pushing what Refer and the team can do."

Back to the bread, namely gluten-free bread, Yangzhou milk bread with caramelized onion, whole wheat sourdough and a plethora of toppings

Refer started in the midst of Covid, and although its 2020 opening was delayed, they've managed to keep going; riding through various starts and stops, lockdowns and the like. If anything, the revelation that Refer is one of Asia's Best Restaurants means one thing – the concept Hudda and his team have created, which started from nothing more than an idea and a plate, is the right idea.

To read the full 50 Best Restaurants list, scan the QR code below:

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Images courtesy of Refer