Yu Weng Tan Kao Yu
12 Yun Nan Road
Shanghai, China
??—

All I know is that the last word in this restaurant’s name Yu Weng Tan Kao Yu is “Yu”, which is “fish”. It’s a good sign for me, because, oddly, I’m finding that a LOT of food in Shanghai is vegetarian. I suppose meat is more expensive and requires refrigeration (well, you’d hope), so it doesn’t feature prominently on menus and comes in small quantities if they do. My lunch team brought me here on my 2nd day in Shanghai. Yes, I have a lunch team! There’s around 15 of us and these guys are complete food-nuts. They LOVE their food and know exactly where to get the best food. I can tell I’m gonna love them already 😉

What I’ve also found out is Shanghainese do this particular fish this, which is what this restaurant is famous for – it’s a whole fish that’s steamed ’til it’s meltingly tender, then popped into a large metal tray and a slightly spicy sauce is poured over it, containing a myriad of veggies. Flames are then lit under the tray to keep it all steaming hot and to cook the veggies til they’re super soft.

IT IS DELICIOUS. And at just ?77 (US$11) for the entire thing, it’s pretty impressive. The fish is absolutely tender and needs to be very gently picked up with your chopsticks, the meat all moist and smooth and tasty. The cocktail of veggies include cherry tomatoes, onion, garlic, coriander, quails eggs, capsicum, etc, etc.. and it’s so fun digging around picking out your favourites, slurping it all up. The broth is slightly spicy but nothing too crazy – thankfully because we’ve ordered the “medium spice” version.

Best slurped up with a big bowl of steaming hot white rice. Or better yet, two bowls. And that is ALL you need to fill you up for a good meal. 1 dish is more than enough to feed 3 people, so you’re looking at about US$4.00pp for a hearty, filling, seafood meal. I’m in disbelief!!

Yu Weng Tan Kao Yu – anyone care to translate this for us?

The clean (thankfully) interior

The stuff’s heated to 103 celcius then shrink-wrapped. Sanitary!!

Amazing, amazing fish and veggies in a metal tray, with fire lit underneath

The aftermath. 3 trays for 10 people. We paid US$3.50pp for our meal (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)