I want to visit the world's oldest restaurant
March 8, 2007 6:51 PM   Subscribe

Eight-Hundred-And-Fifty-Four-Year-Old-Restaurant-Filter: I would love to plan a trip to (or at least verify the existence of) the oldest restaurant in the world, supposedly founded 1153 AD. It is called Ma Yu Ching's Bucket Chicken House, and it is located in Kaifang, China. Anybody able to help?

The only evidence I have found for its existence (besides a badly sourced Wikipedia article) is Peter James and Nick Thorpe's Ancient Inventions, which in turn references K. C. Chang's Food in Chinese Culture, Yale Press, 1977.

I would love to know if it really exists, where it is located in Kaifang, and, even better, to know what is on the menu, and if it is any good...
posted by blahblahblah to Food & Drink (6 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
Huh. Well, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, the oldest is Cafe Botin in Spain. Of the few things I found about Ma Yu Ching's, I read a notation that it only offers takeout food so that may be why Guinness doesn't count it? Hmmm.

It'll be cool if some Mefite can chime up and say they've been to it. I'm really curious now!:)
posted by miss lynnster at 7:58 PM on March 8, 2007


I have a little pitcher from Casa Botin that says 1725 on it. I think my parents went there in the 1970s.
posted by Frank Grimes at 8:11 PM on March 8, 2007


I walked past in Madrid, but did not eat there.
posted by Frank Grimes at 8:11 PM on March 8, 2007


Best answer: Never been to Kaifeng (note the spelling - simplified characters: 开封), but Googling around with the Chinese for the city, "oldest restaurant," "Song Dynasty," the likeliest character for the surname Ma and the like I came across this.
The hanyu pinyin romanisation of the name is Ma Yuxing, which made Googling a bit easier in English, and there's sites like this; I'm sure you can find more. Reading Chinese pages, it seems a contemporary restaurant going by the name does exist (Google search for Kaifeng and Ma Yuxing in Chinese), but the present iteration only dates back to the Qing, it seems.
HTH
posted by Abiezer at 8:23 PM on March 8, 2007 [1 favorite]


I ate at Cafe Botin in when I lived in Spain.... (A Hemingway favorite they claim). Actually, for such a touristy place, the food was not bad... Although there is much better food elsewhere. (Track down Ricardo's for a great Spanish meal.)

Anyway, they always claim it to be the oldest restaurant...... Who knows if its true.
posted by verevi at 11:43 PM on March 8, 2007


Your question reminded me of The Brazen Head, a pub in Dublin that allegedly dates back to almost exactly the same time - 1198. I bet they've been serving stale pretzels the whole time, too, so maybe it qualifies as a restaurant.
posted by wzcx at 10:17 PM on March 9, 2007


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