As Beijing strides towards becoming a modern metropolis, the capital's restaurant scene is undergoing a metamorphosis. Streets that once housed hole-in-the-wall noodle restaurants and back-alley dumpling joints now flaunt neon-lit Chinese restaurants and big bold Western chains.

One man most in the know about the Beijing restaurant scene's ebb and flow is veteran food blogger Jim Boyce.

Author of bar and restaurant blog Beijing Boyce and wine blog The Grape Wall of China, Boyce has established himself as one of the most respected voices among the city's foodies, publishing daily posts on where to eat, what to eat and which wine goes best with it.

"Beijing has seen big growth in the number of options it has available. It's hard to keep up. People are always looking for new places to try," he said.

The "somewhat young China hand", as he refers to himself on Beijing Boyce, first came to China in 2004 to work in the communications department for a nonprofit organization. After wining and dining in the city's fledgling food scene for a year with friends from all walks of life, Boyce had accumulated a rare knowledge on the best and worst of Beijing.

In 2005, he decided to share his culinary expertise with colleagues and community leaders by publishing a weekly e-newsletter detailing his experiences.

"I started to write about bars and, to a degree, restaurants, because I go out a lot, like to write and want to share info with other people," he said.

After seeing how little information there was in English regarding restaurants, the Canadian decided to increase his efforts by creating his daily bar and restaurant blog a year after starting the letter. It has since become the go-to online guide for Beijing restaurant-goers and has earned Boyce an influential role as one of the top voices on where to break bread, and is one of the few places to provide the straightest news about the highs and lows of any taproom.

"I want a forum where people can talk about food and beverage from a consumer perspective. There are lots of blogs out there by professionals, but not so many by consumers," he said.

Boyce attributes the blog's success to the fact that its readers, the precise number of whom Boyce doesn't care to know, are some of Beijing's top executives, journalists and decision-makers.

"For me the key thing is not how many readers, but the kind of readers I have. The success to having a good blog is assuming your audience is smart, and my readers are," he said.

"If you write something and 1,000 people read it, at least one is going to know if it's rubbish."

But what really defines Boyce's blog is that he does it as a hobby and a service, generating no revenue from his work.

"I want it to be a place where people could come and get information where there's no money backing it," he said. "I still pay for my drinks."

Visiting about 30 to 40 restaurants a week and shelling out more than 6,000 yuan a month, all of which comes out of his own pocket, Boyce said he refuses to take free items from the bar or restaurant he is reviewing because he feels it taints his ability to give an honest impression.

"My readers accept that I only write what I want to write. If I were to take handouts I don't think I would be able to do that," he said.

China Daily

(China Daily 05/09/2011)