I thought I would post this since I never see much about mainland China in the sub and, based on my recent experience, there is definitely a scene there.
I was in Chengdu earlier this month. It’s an amazing city in general and it has a thriving fine dining scene, seeing as it is the gastronomical capital of China, of sorts. With 30% of restaurants in China being Sichuanese cuisine (according to some article I read), no wonder Chengdu is sort of the Lyon of China.
Anyway. While there, I visited Yu Zhi Lan, which was given two stars by Michelin. Much has been written about Chef Lan and he is seen as a bit of an institution in China. The FT even called him [the emperor of Chinese gastronomy](https://www.ft.com/content/20f3d64e-27f5-11e4-ae44-00144feabdc0).
So, as you can see, this place is a bit of an institution. Basically, he serves his own version of Sichuanese cuisine elevated to sort of a kaiseki experience, but it is not without controversy, as you can easily find online. The guy prides on not using any canned or artificial flavour, not even MSG, colorants, NOTHING. He does everything from scratch and apparently, he is extremely meticulous about ingredients, cutting the middlemen wherever he can to ensure he has the right stuff.
So, to the food:
Pic 1: A sort of jelly, mochi thing. This is reminiscent of the typical desert you find in Chengdu’s streets. Doesn’t have a lot of flavour. The other thing was a fried sweet potato thing. These snacks were a bit boring. Not bad, but not so interesting.
Pic 2: This was some sort of kung pao lobster. Lobster was perfectly cooked, and the sauce was great. The noodles were accompanied by that sauce that was like all the flavours of Sichuan cuisine combined, which basically means the classic “strange flavour” on Sichuan cuisine. This dish was AMAZING overall. My only thing was that it was served at room temperature or a few degrees lower than room temp. I was surprised by this because this was a dish I think would have been amazing warm, and I wondered if the kitchen had made a mistake. Apparently, this guy makes no mistakes (or at least not often and this was confirmed later since all dishes where at perfect temperature; chef was in house this night and I met him after), so this was just how Chef Lan proposes the dish. Fair.
Pic 3 & 4: The signature appetizer tray of YZL. From upper right, clockwise: pickled chicken feet (AMAZING!), cashes with strange flavour (i don’t like cashews), beef with chili oil (really good!), water bamboo, fresh lily bulb, preserved egg, sour and hot wood ear mushrooms (super good!!).
Pic 5: Another one of Chef Lan’s signatures, the golden silk noodles. The soup was surprisingly rich for a clear broth. The noodles nice and rich as well. the baby cabbage was surprisingly strong in flavour as well. Very nice dish overall. A true 2-star dish.
Pic 6: Caviar and fish jelly. This was a bit too much jelly for me and to be honest it kind of killed the caviar flavour. Not my favourite dish of the night, in fact the least memorable.
Pic 7 & 8: Braised fish maw. This was rather Cantonese. Chef Lan has said that he is not afraid of leaving the classical Sichuan framework and the seafood is the sign (Sichuan is REALLY far from any water). I have found fish maw to be boring in other occasions. This one was as rich as it gets, the sauce super rich and even sticky in a good way. Perfectly executed dish.
Pic 9 & 10: Morels stuff with steak. Amazing dish, probably my favourite. Beautiful morels stuffed by beautifully cooked steak. A very nice combination.
Pic 11: Another more Cantonese dish. Perfectly cooked abalone in a really nice, right, thick sauce. The rice was very nice and a little sticky. Not your regular rice. It had a bit of compoy on top (again, kind of Cantonese).
Pics 12 and 13 show shark fins in hot and sour soup. This was very nice, a Sichuan-heavy dish with a very nice taste.
Pic 14: This steamed fish was in tase and texture similar to the classic miso cod of Nobu. Of course, the taste of the sauce and seasoning was very different due to the chilies, but it was actually not spicy. Very nice cooked.
Pic 15: Birds nest with soup. This was a weird sequence. This was pretty sweet, basically a desert, but followed by another savoury dish after (see next). Peach juice was great and the bird’s nest as well. Kinda classic combination on high end Chinese, I guess.
Pic 16: Pork dumpling. Very nice, very Sichuan, pork dumpling with the oil. Really good!
Pic 17: Wormwood. I don’t know what this was. It was just ok in flavour, similar to cooked quelites of Mexican cuisine. Nothing too special, but it was ok.
Pic 18: A super weird end to the meal. Boiled pumpkin. It was good, and perfectly done, but a super weird way to end the meal, especially as there was an actual deser earlier.
After this I had the chance to say hello to Chef Lan. Really friendly guy, but you can see he might be a bit of a tricky boss, if the stories of his perfectionism are true.
So, overall, an amazing dinner. I loved the pottery, the place, the service etc. You can read more about Chef Lan in the articles, he seems to be quite a character. I like his ideas about the pottery and all that.
Was it worth it? Well, this is where the controversial reviews come in. The place is EXPENSIVE. At 330 USD this would be expensive in London or Tokyo and is EXTREMELY expensive in China/Chengdu. The quality, high-end ingredients, signature are all there, and this place in London, Dubai, Tokyo, or Los Angeles, wouldn’t be out of place charging 330 USD, but in China (let alone Chengdu, or more precisely not-Shanghai) it is definitely out of place.
Ultimately this is a place where you go to try Chef Lan’s proposal and vision and not a place that you go to get served what YOU want to eat (the day after I visited Andre Chiang’s the bridge which fits the latter description and was also amazing). If you ask me, a visit to Chengdu is definitely worth it cause it’s an amazing city and there’s so much good food, but a trip just for YZL would be too much, of course, unless you leave nearby like HKG or whatever. However, he does have a branch in Shanghai (think this one is temporarily closed?) and one in Guangzhou that are definitely worth a try if you want to try Chef Lan’s vision.
Price being said, I enjoyed my meal in YZL a lot and in ten years I will remember more or less every single dish, and I will have forgotten how much I paid. In that sense, it was very much worth it.
1 Comment
Hello everyone.
I thought I would post this since I never see much about mainland China in the sub and, based on my recent experience, there is definitely a scene there.
I was in Chengdu earlier this month. It’s an amazing city in general and it has a thriving fine dining scene, seeing as it is the gastronomical capital of China, of sorts. With 30% of restaurants in China being Sichuanese cuisine (according to some article I read), no wonder Chengdu is sort of the Lyon of China.
Anyway. While there, I visited Yu Zhi Lan, which was given two stars by Michelin. Much has been written about Chef Lan and he is seen as a bit of an institution in China. The FT even called him [the emperor of Chinese gastronomy](https://www.ft.com/content/20f3d64e-27f5-11e4-ae44-00144feabdc0).
[Another article](https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202211/24/WS637edaf6a31049175432ba5c.html), and [one more](https://www.shine.cn/feature/taste/1905134591/), so I was REALLY looking forward to try this place, as I love Sichuanese cuisine, and I love excentric chefs and their proposals.
So, as you can see, this place is a bit of an institution. Basically, he serves his own version of Sichuanese cuisine elevated to sort of a kaiseki experience, but it is not without controversy, as you can easily find online. The guy prides on not using any canned or artificial flavour, not even MSG, colorants, NOTHING. He does everything from scratch and apparently, he is extremely meticulous about ingredients, cutting the middlemen wherever he can to ensure he has the right stuff.
So, to the food:
Pic 1: A sort of jelly, mochi thing. This is reminiscent of the typical desert you find in Chengdu’s streets. Doesn’t have a lot of flavour. The other thing was a fried sweet potato thing. These snacks were a bit boring. Not bad, but not so interesting.
Pic 2: This was some sort of kung pao lobster. Lobster was perfectly cooked, and the sauce was great. The noodles were accompanied by that sauce that was like all the flavours of Sichuan cuisine combined, which basically means the classic “strange flavour” on Sichuan cuisine. This dish was AMAZING overall. My only thing was that it was served at room temperature or a few degrees lower than room temp. I was surprised by this because this was a dish I think would have been amazing warm, and I wondered if the kitchen had made a mistake. Apparently, this guy makes no mistakes (or at least not often and this was confirmed later since all dishes where at perfect temperature; chef was in house this night and I met him after), so this was just how Chef Lan proposes the dish. Fair.
Pic 3 & 4: The signature appetizer tray of YZL. From upper right, clockwise: pickled chicken feet (AMAZING!), cashes with strange flavour (i don’t like cashews), beef with chili oil (really good!), water bamboo, fresh lily bulb, preserved egg, sour and hot wood ear mushrooms (super good!!).
Pic 5: Another one of Chef Lan’s signatures, the golden silk noodles. The soup was surprisingly rich for a clear broth. The noodles nice and rich as well. the baby cabbage was surprisingly strong in flavour as well. Very nice dish overall. A true 2-star dish.
Pic 6: Caviar and fish jelly. This was a bit too much jelly for me and to be honest it kind of killed the caviar flavour. Not my favourite dish of the night, in fact the least memorable.
Pic 7 & 8: Braised fish maw. This was rather Cantonese. Chef Lan has said that he is not afraid of leaving the classical Sichuan framework and the seafood is the sign (Sichuan is REALLY far from any water). I have found fish maw to be boring in other occasions. This one was as rich as it gets, the sauce super rich and even sticky in a good way. Perfectly executed dish.
Pic 9 & 10: Morels stuff with steak. Amazing dish, probably my favourite. Beautiful morels stuffed by beautifully cooked steak. A very nice combination.
Pic 11: Another more Cantonese dish. Perfectly cooked abalone in a really nice, right, thick sauce. The rice was very nice and a little sticky. Not your regular rice. It had a bit of compoy on top (again, kind of Cantonese).
Pics 12 and 13 show shark fins in hot and sour soup. This was very nice, a Sichuan-heavy dish with a very nice taste.
Pic 14: This steamed fish was in tase and texture similar to the classic miso cod of Nobu. Of course, the taste of the sauce and seasoning was very different due to the chilies, but it was actually not spicy. Very nice cooked.
Pic 15: Birds nest with soup. This was a weird sequence. This was pretty sweet, basically a desert, but followed by another savoury dish after (see next). Peach juice was great and the bird’s nest as well. Kinda classic combination on high end Chinese, I guess.
Pic 16: Pork dumpling. Very nice, very Sichuan, pork dumpling with the oil. Really good!
Pic 17: Wormwood. I don’t know what this was. It was just ok in flavour, similar to cooked quelites of Mexican cuisine. Nothing too special, but it was ok.
Pic 18: A super weird end to the meal. Boiled pumpkin. It was good, and perfectly done, but a super weird way to end the meal, especially as there was an actual deser earlier.
After this I had the chance to say hello to Chef Lan. Really friendly guy, but you can see he might be a bit of a tricky boss, if the stories of his perfectionism are true.
So, overall, an amazing dinner. I loved the pottery, the place, the service etc. You can read more about Chef Lan in the articles, he seems to be quite a character. I like his ideas about the pottery and all that.
Was it worth it? Well, this is where the controversial reviews come in. The place is EXPENSIVE. At 330 USD this would be expensive in London or Tokyo and is EXTREMELY expensive in China/Chengdu. The quality, high-end ingredients, signature are all there, and this place in London, Dubai, Tokyo, or Los Angeles, wouldn’t be out of place charging 330 USD, but in China (let alone Chengdu, or more precisely not-Shanghai) it is definitely out of place.
Ultimately this is a place where you go to try Chef Lan’s proposal and vision and not a place that you go to get served what YOU want to eat (the day after I visited Andre Chiang’s the bridge which fits the latter description and was also amazing). If you ask me, a visit to Chengdu is definitely worth it cause it’s an amazing city and there’s so much good food, but a trip just for YZL would be too much, of course, unless you leave nearby like HKG or whatever. However, he does have a branch in Shanghai (think this one is temporarily closed?) and one in Guangzhou that are definitely worth a try if you want to try Chef Lan’s vision.
Price being said, I enjoyed my meal in YZL a lot and in ten years I will remember more or less every single dish, and I will have forgotten how much I paid. In that sense, it was very much worth it.