Refer

French training at a Beijing pass

Talib Hudda sets the meal in motion as Chef at Refer in Chaoyang, Beijing, with the first plates arriving in close sequence before the pace opens out. Talib Hudda brought French cuisine training to the station, a base of structure, technique, and control that reads here through restraint rather than ornament. By 2020, Beijing had become the test of that foundation, and Refer placed him inside a dining room built around a tasting menu rather than a single signature plate. His work at the restaurant draws on the idea of reference: Chinese regional produce held in dialogue with international technique, without treating either side as decoration.

Twenty plates, season by season

The program at Refer moves through a seasonal tasting menu of around 20 small plates, with one account of a 17-course dinner indicating that the count can shift with the season and the service. The kitchen gives early courses momentum, then lets later plates slow the room down. Vegetable courses have been described through charcoal and slow-roast work; seafood arrives with clean texture as its measure; proteins rely on doneness and restrained sauces rather than weight. A winter slate drew its cue from nature, which suits the house method: the menu changes with supply, and the sequence matters as much as the individual plate. Hudda’s signature language elsewhere includes kitumbua and Kao lao lao buckwheat noodles, and that same interest in texture and balance sits comfortably with Refer’s structure, where each course needs to leave enough space for the next one to do its work.

Light held close to the plate

The room sits on the 5th floor of Building N8 in Taikooli North, Sanlitun, inside a modern retail quarter that could easily pull attention outward. Refer turns it back to the table. Restrained contemporary finishes, comfortable seating, and focused table lighting keep the pass and the plate in the foreground. The scale is compact enough for a tasting menu to feel attended rather than announced; conversation can stay at the table while the service rhythm does its work. In a neighborhood better known for movement, multiple cuisines, and late energy, this room asks for a different kind of attention. The luxury is in the control of tempo: quick hands at the start, more space near the end, a plate arriving under a tight pool of light.

A first top 50 place for Beijing

Refer entered Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants at 67th in 2022, then reached 50th in 2023, making it the first Beijing restaurant to enter the top 50 and the 4th highest from mainland China that year. Those numbers matter because they belong to this address, not to a borrowed reputation. For Hudda, the measure remains the nightly sequence: Chinese produce, French-trained discipline, and the changing count of plates at Refer.