Dim Sum at the Four Seasons

Today we had dim sum at the Four Seasons Hotel. Six of us went - Kira, myself; Kellog and Janice from Fudan; Vicky and her husband John from the weblogger meetup earlier in the week.

They have a standard 'eat all you can' deal on weekends - 108 rmb for dim sum. that's about 7 pounds. (the catch - there's a 15% service charge, and their delicious fruit juices cost 40 rmb each. but tea is free). Our meal came to just under 200 rmb each in total (13 pounds?)

If it isn't worth it, I dunno what is. The place is opulent as heck. The restaurant was far from busy (early saturday lunch sitting). We had jade placemats and jade chopstick holders. Because the manager knew Kira, he kindly offered to choose the food for us. We had a short wait, and then the food pretty much arrived all at once.

The best dish was some sort of crab filled crispy pastry. That cost 30rmb extra, but it was delicious. The rest was good, but not really quality to write home about. To give you an idea o the quantity though.... as well as lots of dim sum, we had congee, duck ho fun noodles, desserts, fruit and petit fours. There really was no danger of not being absolutely stuffed. The staff positively encouraged us to eat more - they didn't want to hold back on their 'eat all you can' offer.

My verdict - if you want luxury surroundings and service, and the ability to order food without worrying about what the bill might come to, then this is great.

Another perspective on the lunch. Some other friends we met this week brought their family to lunch at the same time. They ordered a la carte - peking duck and the like. Sadly they weren't happy when it came to the bill, especially when they realised that they could buy a crate of soft drinks for the price of a single coca cola at the restaurant. They were actually pretty angry, and blamed my cousin Kira. I think that's stupid - it has nothing to do with Kira. If they have complaints they should go to the hotel, rather than harrass my cousin. Oh well - we won't keep in touch with them.

I chatted to the manager afterwards - Mr Li Jihe. Superb guy. He studied English at Fudan University a while back, and has spent 15 years in the states (Chicago I believe). He says he'd earn more in the States, but in Shanghai he can be close to his family and live a comfortable life. We were a little embarrassed about the complaints made by our other dining group, but Mr Li was philosophical about it. He said that it certainly wasn't the first time, and that there many people that expected the drinks to be priced as well as the lunch special.

Mr Li gave me some hints and tips - where there nearest Carrefour hypermarket was to the University, for me to buy linen and such like (I'd post the address, but it's in Chinese and I don't know how to write Chinese on the computer yet), and also of an interesting place to buy bicycles. He told me of a place in Hong Kou district near the Uni, where there was a market for buying bikes. The kind of market where there aren't really bikes on display as such, just people with coats on. He suggested that in this place you could buy 500rmb bikes for less than 100rmb (30 pounds down to 7 pounds). The bikes were probably of distinctly dubious origin, but when you accept that your bike will be stolen anyway, then possibly you can begin to regard it as a sort of short term leasing plan.