Some classics and some new ones this month for SmartBeijing's first round-up of places to gorge yourself on the weekend... ***

Mesa & Manifesto

Offering easy breezy elegance in a mall lifestyle hub in Sanlitun Village is Shanghai-import Mesa & Manifesto, serving up finely wrought but casual a la carte Western fine dining for brunch. It's a simple but complete one-page menu, delineated by breakfast platter options (68rmb - 128rmb) and hearty brunch fixes (72rmb - 88rmb), along with staple sides like pastry baskets and savory items. Pictured above is the "champagne scrambled eggs, with asparagus, tomato, & smoked salmon, served with grilled brioche" (78rmb), rounded out with suggestions from my own brain: powdered sugar croissants (48rmb) and a punchy, punchy, punchy Bloody Mary (60rmb). You know yah bwoi. C.R.E.A.M. In Shanghai, in days of yore, Mesa's brunch was the calendar event for day-boozing young professionals and British vampires, but Beijing's version is more relaxed and tempered. Sharing the airy and bright environment with yours truly was a group of tastefully dressed girls out on the run and a secret couple, smiling and slinking into their drinks. That's it. Very pleasant. It's a warm, wooden, flowery, comfortable, big wine glasses environment. Great service, and plenty of room to move around in on their food and cocktails menu. -MS Sat-Sun: 10:00am-4pm For a full brunch listing click here.

Senses at Westin Financial Street

The new "Memorable Moments" Saturday brunch at the Westin's posh Financial Street location is your textbook high-end hotel buffet, tilting towards excess with an exhaustive spread of world cuisines, and local and far-flung delicacies. It's short on simple eggs and bacon but big on pretty much everything else. There's a spread of traditional Chinese classics up front -- jianbing, roujiamou, jiaozi, kaoya -- and the selection gets more international as you move inward through the buffet's labyrinthine construction. They have a decadent seafood section with fresh oysters, crab legs, and jumbo shrimp on ice. They have expensive cheeses. They have a sushi chef making fresh rolls to order. They have pork, chicken, beef, lamb, and vegetarian mains. They have a full table of dessert options, including a chocolate fountain. They even have a kids section with popcorn and small, grilled finger sandwiches. That one's right next to the room with the ball pit where all the kiddies can be seen enjoying themselves while the adults enjoy their meals in the adjacent dining room. They have, they have, they have. At 328rmb +15% a head, this falls on the pricier end, but it really is a family-oriented thing. Kids under 12 eat free with two paying adults, and senior citizens over 70 get 50% off. And with all the varieties of food on offer, there's definitely something for everyone. -JF Saturday only: 11:30am-2:30pm For a full brunch listing, click here

Chapter

The new frah-frah-frah hotel brunch venue on the scene is Conrad Hilton's all-day dining venue Chapter, which is an a la carte and buffet combo with Mumm Champagne to match. Set-up is thus: it's three tiers of damage depending on the booze you want: 398rmb + 10% for standard brunch; 458 +10% for standard brunch plus one glass of champagne; 558rmb + 10% if you go all-in with unlimited champagne. As you're seated, you choose your main course, which is from a list of six options only, delineated by cuisine origin: Chinese, Japanese, or Western -- three central chapters in the book, The Brunch of Man. As your mains are ferried to your table, the buffet is yours for the taking, and it also features selections from the aforementioned cuisines in a fusion -- well, more of a melange -- of idiosyncratically sparse but wide-reaching selection of dishes. On offer is a grab bag of sweet and sour pork, pretzels, quiche, cheese, sushi, pastry, amongst the tomes. On top of that they're serving mobile stations featuring smoked salmon, Beijing duck, pizza, and a few others that I can't remember. Environment is art deco library, with towering stacks of fake books lending a weighty but hollow significance to the proceedings. Perusing the literary offerings, we settled on a stage prop copy of The Count of Mont Cristo [sic], which lent a suitable metaphor of absent promise to the occasion. Chapter's brunch is in its infancy -- only a week or two old -- and significantly rough around the edges. Puckered sushi, a truly sub-par Gong Bao main, burnt pizza, and some spotty service that had us waving our arms around in the air all afternoon marred the experience of what could be a unique and novel restaurant (boom, pun) on the hotel brunch circuit. We'd give it a few weeks to find its feet. -MS Sunday only 12pm-3:30pm For a full brunch listing click here.

Mao Mao Chong

Mao Mao Chong, long known for its first-rate cocktails and laidback hutong vibe, has rolled out a daily brunch for those with non-traditional weekends. They're only off on Monday, aka "the barman's Sabbath." The main attraction is the breakfast pizza (35rmb), pictured above, which comes topped with ricotta and two fried eggs. Big enough to share. You can add bacon slices on top for an extra 5rmb if you want to really get crazy with it. On the pizza tip you can also go with a spinach and ricotta calzone for 30rmb. Other, healthier options include yogurt with homemade muesli and fresh, seasonal fruit (25rmb), spiced fruit toast (20rmb), and a puff pastry concoction with pork, carrot, onion, and herbs (40rmb). And, of course, there's booze. Front and center are the Bloody Maos: creative spins on everyone's favorite tomato-based hangover panacea. They have four varieties, including a more or less traditional chili + basil + vodka concoction, a rambunctious lil' thyme + basil + tequila mashup, and a dignified thyme + basil + chili + gin number. For my money, though, the standout is the sake and wasabi guy. Real nasal douche, that one. The Bloody Maos clock in at 35rmb a pop. If you're beyond hope you can order the Wake Up Call: coffee tequila, kaffir lime vodka, and pineapple juice. Yechh. Good luck with that. All told, you've got high quality eats and drinks, great value for money, and a nice, low-key ambience, despite the fact that Mao Mao Chong is located directly across the street from the police station where I get my residence permit. Hey guys, sorry, I'll check back in with you soon. -JF Tue-Sun: 12-3pm For a full brunch listing, click here. ***