While it may be shunted into obscurity due to its out-of-the-way location, lunch hours at this restaurant are packed with diners sipping anxiously on the restaurant's signature herbal tea blend and snacking on delicious liang ban cucumbers (6 yuan)--deliciously laden with chilis and cilantro--as they await their chosen courses.
The menu is Chinese only but you can let the pictures guide you to the aiban dofu (spicy Japanese tofu, 26 yuan) lightly deep-fried and sprinkled with pork, a light helping of chilis and diced green bean, or the tea mushroom hot pot (cha gu hua guo, 39 yuan), a delight for mogu lovers. Highlights include the kowei qiezi (22 yuan), a baked eggplant dish swimming in a pepper sauce. You'll want to lick it off the plate but may have to settle for scooping it onto your rice instead.
The two-color fish head (48 yuan) is spicy and salty enough to get those salivary glands working, offering two distinct flavors of chopped pepper bliss.
Ask for some noodles to mix with the sauce afterward to make sure you're able to slurp up every last tongue-tingling drop.
Xiang Qia Bu Luo
Add: 120 Fujian Zhong Lu
Tel: 6326-5402
(cityweekend.com.cn)
