Earlier in the year this café threw open its doors-- serving breakfasts and excellent German breads and desserts, but has now expanded its repertoire to include simple lunches and dinners.
Despite the café name, the menu, which changes every week. It is typed simply on a piece of A-4 paper, reflecting the straightforward fare it contains--soups, salads, sandwiches, and a few formal dishes, such as pork knuckle, home-made noodles and baked salmon.
The home-made tomato soup (22RMB), accompanied by a little side dish of pesto sauce and a bowl of plain toasted croutons, is impressive. The cream is unseen, hidden at the bottom of the dark broth, but it reveals itself as soon as you start to stir. The amount of cream is just enough to enhance the flavor without overdosing the soup, a common mistake in too many restaurants.
The cold sausage salad with pan-fried potatoes (58RMB) is novel and worth trying. The pan-fried potatoes come golden crispy and moist. The sausage served in this dish is not a whole link sausage, but rather a thinly sliced cold-cut mixed with onions in a light dressing.
Another excellent choice is the potato rösti (58RMB), tomatoes and ham covered with melted emmental cheese sitting on a bed of crispy hash browns.
The only disappointment comes in the form of the chicken baguette with bacon, lettuce and tomato. The breast meat is bland, and the baguette is surprisingly dry, quite contrary to the other breads sold here, which are quite moist and chewy. The breads at Café Constance--rye, whole wheat, farmer's bread, brown, white, pretzels and more--are probably the best in town. The bakery also carries a good number of German Danish pastries, strudels, cookies, cakes and nine different flavors of home-made ice cream.
Attentive service and comfortable and clean environment make Café Constance a good spot for lunch or a casual dinner, while wireless Internet means that it’s also a good place to work with a cup of coffee and a dessert.
Café Constance is located on Chaoyang Gongyuan Street, Beijing's newest restaurant street, which is also known as Lucky Street.
The home-made tomato soup (22RMB), accompanied by a little side dish of pesto sauce and a bowl of plain toasted croutons, is impressive. The cream is unseen, hidden at the bottom of the dark broth, but it reveals itself as soon as you start to stir. The amount of cream is just enough to enhance the flavor without overdosing the soup, a common mistake in too many restaurants.
Lucky Street B5&C5, 29 Zaoying Lu, Chaoyang district (tel 5867 0201). Open 9am-9pm. Closed Mondays Meal for two 150RMB.
朝阳区枣营路29号 好运街 B5&C5