This Chinese restaurant offers discount only to intellectuals

New Delhi: A restaurant in China offers discounts only to customers who have published articles in the world's leading academic journals.

The Chinese grillroom, called Liuyedao, was set up by a group of Chinese doctors who graduated from elite universities.

Ever since the promotion started, there have been long queues to get a seat at the restaurant.

"More than 100 doctors visited our grillroom every noon and evening after the discount notice was issued in September," said manager Tong Baoding.

"Doctors outside Beijing have even flown here to eat barbecue."

Tong has a notebook which he uses to record the details of academic papers his customers have published in. It now fills more than 65 pages.

Wang Jian, a surgeon based in eastern China's Jiangsu province, and his doctor friends masterminded the project.

They are all medicine graduates from Tsinghua and Peking universities, China's top universities.

Opened in late April, Liuyedao has gained a reputation for healthy cooking.

It has a policy of only serving food prepared on the day and of not reusing cooking oil.

To many it seems more like a doctor's club than a restaurant.

(With Agency inputs)