Located in the Chaoyang district near Capital International Airport and the 798 Art Zone, the hotel restaurant is led by chef Liu Zheng.

Chinese philosophy has long maintained that food and medicine share the same roots, but Liu takes it to another level, making some bold assertions with his dishes.

Ailments such as lung and kidney failure, poor appetite or eyesight, and bad skin are among the alleged benefits from eating Liu's meticulously prepared dishes.

Or perhaps they're just excuses to enjoy the food.

The stewed ginseng soup with aweto, for example, will apparently help your pathways that lead to the lung and kidneys.

Liu said his signature dish helps to relieve shortness of breath, eliminate phlegm and stop bleeding. The aweto, a type of fungus often used in traditional Chinese medicine, gave the soup a sweetness and heartiness.

"The soup is specially designed for those who get sick or tired," Liu said. "If you have a poor appetite, are feeling weak, perspiring too much or have recently become emaciated, chewing the aweto and ginseng carefully can increase the curative effect."

A small sea cucumber is added to the soup, Liu said, because it can help elderly people who have high blood pressure or coronary heart disease. And believe it or not, eating the little sea slug can apparently help with hepatitis.

The pan-fried goose liver with grape salad is another dish with potentially restorative powers.

"Goose liver is a powerhouse of vitamins. It is much higher in vitamin A, a vitamin vital for good eyesight, than that milk, eggs, meat and fish."

"And it is also a particularly good source of vitamin B12, a compound needed for red blood cell production and for maintaining a healthy immune system," Liu said.

The use of grapes in the dish provides a crisp balance to the oily goose livers. The fruit is first immersed in cooking wine for hours to enhance the sweetness and fragrance.

For vegetable lovers, Liu has created a warm spring dish of steamed red beans, lily bulbs and broccoli. The fantastic combination is not only colorful, but gives a nuanced punch of sweetness, bitterness and salt.

Liu said the dish provides an abundance of vitamins A, B, C and E. The red beans are cooked so soft that they melt in your mouth.

"(The broccoli's) characteristically bitter taste can put some people off, so I mix it with red beans to add sweetness, and lily bulbs to mediate the contrasting colors of red and green," the chef said.

Lastly, Liu has come up with his own take on shark fin soup, called "shark fin in pasty chicken soup".

In Liu's version, the shark fins give texture to the delicate, flavorful soup. Liu said he stewed an aged hen for hours to make the soup dense.

The head chef said all three dishes are his personal favorites, especially the broccoli dish, which he says can prevent heart attacks and fight cancer. Whether that and Liu's other health claims are true, there is no doubt the dishes offer customers a chance to try unique takes on Chinese food with traditional ingredients.