Yuxiang Kitchen, Shanghai (渝乡人家）

Yuxiang Kitchen Himalayas branch

Fei was supposed to join us since she was the one who recommended that we try this Sichuanese restaurant 渝乡人家 that just opened behind the Jumeirah Himalayas Hotel in Pudong, but she felt queasy and had to give it a miss. So Judy and I went with the Teenager who surprisingly didn't sulk for once and actually seemed to enjoy his meal.

I am getting used to eating Sichuanese, in fact I sometimes have cravings for the numbing heat and spice of the cuisine. The oil that the food tends to be steeped in is a bit off-putting, but once you start fishing the stuff out, you will forget that you even minded that in the first place. Like my driver said, it can be addictive, so much so that many locals in Shanghai are giving up their sweet cuisine for the fiery one of their Sichuanese comrades - according to him.

Yuxiang Kitchen is actually a chain with branches all over Shanghai. The restaurant in the J Hotel being new, the decor was refined and we had the privilege of eating off new plates and sitting on new chairs.

Forget this beef skewer dish : dry, tough, stringy, raw spice taste

The service was reasonably attentive (not many clients that day) though I wouldn't listen to their recommendations too much, the beef skewers our waitress mentioned we should try was dry and stringy, a mistake.

Bullfrog in chilli oil - yummy and very oily

Chicken in chilli oil - quite nice but could be meatier

But the rest of our orders turned out quite well, though improvements can still be made. I loved the bullfrog dish but the pieces of frog were weirdly chopped, not easy to consume. There was much more eggplant than fish in the fish and eggplant dish, maybe we should have gone for the spicy fried fish instead.

Fried pig's intestines - nice and crunchy on the outside but to be consumed quickly

Eggplant and fish - a bit of a rip off

Finally I actually enjoyed the cold noodles more than I expected to. It had a good mix of sesame oil, peanut paste, soy sauce, vinegar and chilli. Quite yummy, much better than the Ding Tai Fung version, actually.

Cold noodles - very nice

Yuxiang Kitchen Himalayas Pudong Branch

1188 Fangdian Lu

Tel : 021 6047 9797