The Place
Just when Shanghai had us convinced that fancy interiors or bizarre foods were the secret to viral popularity, something comes along and proves us wrong: Cantonese-style hot pot, Lou Shang.
To even entertain the idea of eating here without a reservation, you must queue three hours. Even with our 9pm mid-week res, we waited over an hour. Considering that Lou Shang, with its Pepto-Bismol-colored tablecloths and cobbled together decor, is neither beautiful nor good value (an extraordinary price of RMB600 per head), this is unusual.
Lou Shang’s signature hot pot broth is why they wait. Corn yellow and thick and creamy as tonkotsu ramen, it’s made from chicken, abalone and fish maw (swim bladder) plus an entire steamed chicken surgically snipped into pieces. It tastes like the most intense chicken soup imaginable, with the texture of satin. At RMB288, it’s not so much hot pot as liquid gold.
The Food
After being handed a preliminary bowl of this delicious elixir, rich enough to be a meal by itself, our spiky-haired, velvet tuxedo-clad waiter begins dropping slices of fat-streaked rib-eye steak (RMB288) into the silver bucket of broth to cook in what is basically molten foie gras.
These beef slices then get dipped in your own custom sauce – made from a personal tableside ingredient station. No communal sauce bar at this hot pot joint.
Next, the waiter drops a plate of heinously expensive shrimp (RMB298) into our bucket. Cooked for just seconds, they are fabulous, fresh and meaty with a satisfyingly snappy bite. To be honest though, you could probably drop a used jockstrap in and it would come out delicious.
After a pair of live abalone (RMB76) that shrivel painfully in the scalding liquid, bouncy handmade octopus balls and fried tofu skins, we hit the wall. The broth, which has intensified over the course of the meal into a menacing ambrosial magma, is way too much for us to handle.
Right when the food coma kicks in, a forgotten plate of salt and pepper-fried corn (RMB36) arrives. Grimacing, we eat them all anyway because they are excellent, and besides, who knows when we’ll be here again?
Food verdict: 2.5/3
The Vibe
Obviously, Lou Shang is no ordinary hot pot. For starters, the whole meal is cooked for you. Secondly, you’ll be offered premium wines to go with your meal – and milk tea in wine glasses for the sober. The crowd is a well-heeled set of locals in their late 20s and early 30s, plus the odd table of bored Shanghainese teenagers with way too much pocket money.
A meal here sets you back as much as dinner on the Bund, and will take up your whole evening. But if you can handle the rich flavors and the tedious waiting game, Lou Shang is the crème de la crème of hot pots.
Vibe verdict: 1.5/2
Total Verdict: 4/5
Price: RMB500-800 per person
Who’s going: rich locals with lots of patience
Good for: splurges, late night
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