Yet another hot pot place, as if Beijing is not already flooded with these steamy eateries. But Fu Quan Fang's focus is on the neuvo hot pot where the soup base and the cuts (not slice) of meat are a total break away from the traditional hot pot.

A large fish tank with tiger garoupa, shrimps, clams, and whelks greets you at the entrance. Two huge benches made from well-treated old wood sit at the entrance ready to facilitate people if the place is a full. And if not, they are great as part of the restaurant's décor.

There are four kinds of soup base offered at Fu Quan Fang. The house superior soup base (68RMB) is made from duck and meat stock; shanzhen tangdi, or ‘mountain treasured’ (48RMB), consists of assorted mushrooms, wolfberries, scallion and ginger; tomyamkung (36RMB), a corrupt version of Thai soup, consists of coriander roots, lemon grass, lemon, and kafir leaves; and sate (36RMB) is a popular condiment widely used in the south in stir-frying dishes such as beef and broccoli. It is known as shadie jiang in Cantonese, or shacha jiang in Fujian and Taiwan, and it is said that the development of this condiment was influenced by the rich and aromatic flavouring of Indonesian sate, or meat skewers.

The yuanyang soup base (66RMB) entitles you to two different types of soup base listed on the menu. A split ying yang shaped pot holds the two different broths. The mountain treasure broth is mellow and sweet tasting while tomyangkung’s aromatic lemon grass and kafir leaves is quite intoxicating and enticing. Unfortunately, it is better for the nose than the taste buds. The base does not have the pungent taste that you would expect in tomyangkung. We ended up cooking the food in the mushroom-flavoured broth, using the tomyangkung as a sort of aromatherapy.

We ordered tese sibao wan (48RMB), the special four combo meatballs—beef, shrimp, cuttle fish and fish. They are too light, because the cornstarch proportion exceeds the main ingredient. The dumplings (18RMB/8 pcs) stuffed with corn and pork are actually frozen Wanzhai packaged dumplings, manufactured in Hong Kong. Packaged frozen dumplings in a classy venue?

The sesame paste-based and soya dipping sauces (6RMB) come with several condiments—finely chopped scallion, coriander leaves, fresh Thai chilies, toasted sesame seeds and garlic chips. The sesame paste was mediocre.

The hand-cut superior beef (88RMB) is the only satisfying thing. The meat is cut about one-quarter of an inch, a bit thicker than the meat in Korean BBQ restaurants, very tender and delicious dipped in the soy sauce.

Red bean shaved ice (28RMB) brings our meal to an end. Some of the beans are hard, evidence of hasty cooking. And the condensed milk has been mixed with regular milk that made it a bit too watery and tasteless.

Despite the impressive décor, with its tasteful combination of modern and old materials, the food was disappointing. Once again, taste takes second place to interior design.

Xinfu Yicun, Chunxiu Lu, Chaoyang district (tel 6413 0990) Open 11am-11pm. Meal for two 200RMB

福泉坊 朝阳区春秀路幸福一村