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November 6, 2014

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Home » City specials » Hangzhou

Cluster of new restaurants bring diversity

By Xu Wenwen and Xu Jing | November 6, 2014, Thursday | Print Edition

RESTAURANT owners prefer to establish their stores on busy streets, with windows opening to views and doors facing bustling corners. But good locations can be hard to come by, so nestling in a building or at a hidden corner is common.

Because such restaurants attract fewer walk-in customers, the trick is to win more loyal patrons. That is made easier in this information age, because people love to search for delicacies via their smartphones on the Internet. That, in turn, spreads the information quickly by word of mouth.

A Hangzhou office building facing a small lane with a dead end has rather suddenly become a rendezvous of gourmands, as four new restaurants have located there. Each has its own characteristic: a theater-atmosphere Western restaurant, a romantic restaurant/bar/cafe, a Cantonese restaurant offering soups and hotpot, and a clean and bright authentic Sichuan restaurant.

The combination makes the office building in the shade a good spot for a working lunch or dinner party. Here is an introduction to the four new popular restaurants.

 

Wenhuo Cuisine

Only Cantonese people simmer soup for six hours. The soup remains clean in appearance yet rich in flavor, with a perceived concentration of the nutrition. Wenhuo Cuisine provides authentic Cantonese soups, and its name, meaning soft fire, is the common way to make soup and congee in Cantonese cuisine.

Two soups are recommended. Chicken and cordyceps (a kind of herb) soup, and fish maw and Parastichopus californicus (a kind of trepang) soup. These are tonics to help people with diabetes become invigorated, a common feature of Cantonese soups.

If you want to eat the food cooked into the soup, like the chicken and fish maw — which are already moved from the soup but placed in another dish — the restaurant serves you sauces.

A highlight here is sauces based on your zodiac sign. Leo, for example, gets a spicy sauce, and Libra sauce is designed as a balance of five tastes. Gemini gets two kinds of sauce.

The restaurant offers other healthy food, as well. A slight fried tofu is recommended. The tofu is made from peanuts and black soybeans, and the milk tea is made from seven kinds of tea leaves and pure milk, featuring strong tea taste and scent.

Address: 3/F, Xin Shi Ji Mansion, 15 Miduqiao Rd

Tel: (0571) 8721-5630

 

Fortune Restaurant

Fortune God statue welcomes customers at the door, Fortune god posts smiles on the walls, and Fortune god cosplayers circulate from table to give out coupons. Fortune god and the spicy foods are the soul of this restaurant with a bright red decor.

Built in a traditional Chinese architectural style, the new eatery looks fashionable with its nice interior design, and it is getting more and more popular among Hangzhou spicy food fans for its authentic Sichuan cuisine.

A classical Sichuan dish is pepper fish, and the restaurant’s top dish is the pepper shrimp, crab, fish and frog, which comes in a basin-size bowl. The shimmering dark-red chili oil waters the mouths of spicy food fans but can be too much for the uninitiated.

The restaurant also serves spicy and savory shrimp, crab and frog, which has a strong savory smell from being sauteed with sauce made from dozens of spices and herbs.

Address: 3/F, Xin Shi Ji Mansion, 15 Miduqiao Rd

Tel: (0571) 5605-3988

 

Uncle Martin

The 1,000-square-meter Western restaurant is decorated with thick velvet red curtains and white-and-black floor tiles. It changes into a jazz bar after 8:30pm. Despite the fancy decoration, the menu is simple. It lists two kinds of set meals. One costs 198 yuan, and one costs 298 yuan. Both include everything from salad and starter to dessert and coffee.

Behind the menu lies a big name: Chef She Jingrui used to work as the executive chef of La Villa Rouge on Hengshan Road in Shanghai and as the sous chef of Sens&Bund on Shanghai’s Bund.

No wonder the goose liver is praised as soft while solid, and the steaks are juicy and tender. Ask the waiter for today’s menu and then organize your set because it changes with the seasons.

Address: 2/F, Xin Shi Ji Mansion, 15 Miduqiao Rd

Tel: (0571) 8886-4477

 

Mr King

Offering lunch and dinner, serving afternoon tea, and functioning as a bar at night, Mr King aims to be a place where people can spend much time. The dim light, soft sofa and relaxing music add to the laid-back atmosphere.

Menus change over time. Main courses and snacks from 17 Eastern and Western countries fit every kind of customer. A must-order is the pizza, with four kinds of toppings, and a very thin and crispy bottom which is so thin that eaters can melt it with their tongues and then roll it with the toppings, so as to be fully immersed in the ingredients.

Chocolate cakes are offered during afternoon tea time. At night when people are enjoying music and alcohol, tapas and snacks are ready.

Address: 1/F, Xin Shi Ji Mansion, 15 Miduqiao Rd

Tel: (0571) 8792-5588

Hangzhou


 

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