And here for Sherpa restaurants that VH has been too

From the outside, Fengdu is an unassuming place, lit truly Hangzhou style, i.e. brilliantly (maybe to keep the staff awake at 3am) and without any thought to aesthetic. (Well, the place is for eating at, not looking at). Of course those bright lights draw ominous attention immediately on entering to the large jugs of snake juice behind the cashier. There is nothing like snake juice to start the evening, or for that matter to finish it off. And it’s supposed to be good for you. The restaurant is only a few shades above grubby, perhaps worn is the apt word. But definitely one of those places I don’t really want to go into the kitchen to help. However, just about everything that comes out of the kitchen is good.

The restaurant is famous for the chicken stock that goes into the chicken noodles and rice soup. There must be a section of the kitchen devoted to boiling carcasses as the stock flows out in huge bowls of noodles, steaming. The stock is so thick and tasty it is almost sticky. Spectacular. Don’t tune up a nose to the rice soup either – normally a rather bland dish, the stock makes it.

The menu is Chinese only. I have offered to translate it, but I think the owners are worried that my fee might be free food for the rest of time. And they might be right about that. There aren’t even any photos. So it’s time to practise language or leave it up the boss and hope. I can hardly walk past the place without rushing in for the Shrimp fried with Meigancai – I have no idea what that is in English – oddly the rich flavours of the dried vegetables mixes perfectly with the shrimp. There is a pretty good Braised pork over spring onion, although it isn’t on the menu. Refried pork is fantastic, the Family fried doufu is not what you might expect, using old doufu instead of the delicious deep-fried crispy silk doufu. (How do they fry that stuff without breaking it?) Deep-fried spicy chicken is a must, along with the bacon and potato fry. And the black fish soup?

Last but not least, give the snake juice the respect it deserves and have some. The boss takes it seriously, makes it himself, and drinks it too. There is more than just snake in there too. I would suggest trying the stuff before looking. For a good warm up, split one serving between two – the stuff should have an ‘inflammable’ warning on the glass. And even if it isn’t good for you in the long term, what the hell, it is very good in the short term.

And you could always pop over to Provence for some coffee after.

Always open
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The restaurant is an old style Chinese building set in a Qingsha Park, sandwiched between Lishui Lu and the Grand Canal. White walls, bamboo tile roofs and all those pert upturned roof corners. Inside this courtyard building is modern. Pale stone walls, lots of glass. On the left is the sushi bar, on the right the bar. Under the temperature controlled wine room and up the glass stairs and you arrive at the main dining room and private rooms, including a large private teppanyaki room kitted with sofas. The restaurant is so perfectly laid out I still cant figure out if this place really is a converted old house, or a purpose built restaurant. The downlighting in the main dining room is a little harsh, but shows of the minimalist place settings. The huge fish tank (decorative for a change) dominates the room.

Hatsune has one of those menus you look through thinking, ‘One of those’ for every item. There were only two of us, so sadly we couldnt do that. Nevertheless, we ended up ordering way too much. Crab Roe Salad, and beef carpaccio came first along with the tuna and salmon sashimi. We got the Motorola Roll – somebody will have to explain why its called Motorola, I thought that was an overpriced cell phone – and deepfried breaded chicken and bacon rolls. Hatsune is famous for its rolls and there are 10 or so of them on the menu. Sadly they are big, and while you might want to order all of them, you cant. Overpriced cellphone or not, Motorola is delicious. Teriyaki salmon, asparagus in butter. And we only dented the menu.

The Japanese made Saki was a little dear for me, so we had a local one, and for a change left the beer in the fridge. Sipping ice cold saki and warm tea seemed to fit perfectly with the food, and dinner stretched on for a long time, in a flash. I’ll be back at Hatsune in no time.

Related links

Hatsune | Sherpa’s Hangzhou

Hatsune | AbsoluteChinaTours

Hatsune | Yoyoor

Hatsune | InHangzhou

Hatsune Shanghai | Best Food in China

Hatsune Beijing | Asiarooms

He is always desperately punctual, so I made an effort to be on time by turning up 10 minutes early. Buona looks like somebody couldn’t make up their mind if they wanted to copy MacDonald’s or Pizza Hut, so hey, lets copy them both.

I text him, “The pizza here had better be good, this joint looks like the bastard child of Ronald MacDonald and Ms Hut.”

“Just arriving, let’s give it a spin.”

Good job I listened.

The place is decked out in plastic chairs, and the colour scheme looks like something out of Gymboree – all sunshine yellow and white and fire engine red, and unbreakable. Not the place for a hangover. And no smoking…

But that 50 cm pizza – yup fifty centimeter pizza – was made with whole wheat dough and was not adulterated with all those healthy things like vegetables. Ours came with pepperoni and parma ham. The 2 of us ate the whole thing. It was pretty bloody good. And the espresso, thick strong. Menu scan

Jamaica has some pretty good eats too – the photo here doesn’t really do it justice, but this Jamaica Club Sandwich is full of cheese, pork loin and bacon, and is oozing with mayo and butter. The bread is fresh and soft with a little chew and a crisp outside. It is definitely worth the trek to Xihu Tiandi just for that. Jamaica has several other tasties on the menu, meatballs, paella pasta and some more sandwiches.

Jamaica does not seem that busy in the afternoons, although the booze on the menu may help fill the place up of an evening. Without the Quaker-ism of Starbucks etcetc, you can smoke eat and drink all at the same time. For now anyway – there is a rumour that China is going non-smoking too.

To find Jamaica, wander into Xihu Tiandi – I prefer the northern most entrance just after the Dahua Hotel and follow the lake bank to the cafe – but there are good signs all over the area.

If somebody ever gets there at night, let me know how busy it is.

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This rather new addition to the bar and restaurant scene has about 10 different names, but Vineyard sounds best, so that’s what it’s going to be on this page. Vineyard is a favourite afternoon hang-out for this office-less wannabe writer. The internet is good, the Illy coffee is really good, and there is a range of enticing stuff on the menu priced from 30Y to 200Y for a massive piece of Australian steak. The place is attached to a wine cellar showing a range of mostly Australian wines and you can drink them for the shop price in Vineyard, which is great.

When Vineyard frst opened it was a little dead, which I enjoyed as I could get on with writing banalities in peace. The owner of the bar (now ex-owner / part-owner?) owns the whole bleeding building of Zhongtian Dasha (中田大厦) and this was supposed to be a place, no doubt, that he could show his girlfriends or business buddies and demonstrate that he really is rich enough to own a place in a seriously good location and do nothing with it. Consequently, it dawdled on for while without any direction or identity.

The place looks pretty swish, designed by some mega-star designer from Oz whose name I cannot remember. Walls are in grey with purply-mauvy abstract pattern art – someone tell me that’s called – and the black wood tables are lined up every morning with a laser beam to make sure there is not the vaguest kink in the aesthetic. The lighting is so complex even the staff havent got their heads around it yet as they demonstrate well at various times of day when the light level has to be made more designer. Again.

The Western grub is always pretty good in a Hangzhou sort of way and one could never argue with the price. Lots of pizzas, sandwiches, steaks, burgers. Somebody with a sweet tooth has stocked a fridge with tonnes of Italian looking cakes and icecream.

So we have a designer looking place with good coffee, pretty good wine, non-designer food at prices for students, not much custom and pretty much no identity whatsoever. And the boss didnt notice or didnt care, or maybe even wanted it that way.

However, he probably didn’t reckon on Wade. Wade is well known in Hanghou and used to look after the laowai in In Club sometime before it became Out Club. Dont ask. Wade is filling the place up, and despite the less than perfect set-up, he has started to create quite a rocking atmosphere, no doubt largely due to his own encompassing joviality. Friday and Saturday evenings are full with party-goers coming to take in the cheap booze, live music and garden. Added to the mix are the guys that run the Hangzhou Expat 2009 page on Facebook. Lots of fun games, prizes and cheap cold beer served by the case load. If you’re after a quieter glass of wine or a seriously iced Aussie beer, maybe pop in during the week…

Day times are far more busy than before, with several people coming to steal MY internet connection.

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The menu is pretty simple, with loads of real fresh looking stuff, good cuts of meat, some pasta; while the owners are French and the restaurant advertised as French, the menu has a more Mediterranean feeling about it.

Provence is run by Eric, a man who likes his wine, no surprise there, and he takes great pride in providing a range of wines unavailable elsewhere in Hangzhou, and all fairly priced, for China at least.

The place is open for lunch as well, with fantastic salads so huge that you might if it should be a part of your diet. Then hang around in the afternoon over some coffee and get online or have a bit more Pastisse – after all you are now in a small slice of France and you had better do like the French…

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