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We first learned of 厉家菜/Lijiacai back in March, when the restaurant’s impending Shanghai branch was the subject of a story in Shanghai Daily. One line in particular caught our attention:
Prices in Shanghai will start, at 1,000 yuan (US$123) per person, with three different banquets available, according to a restaurant spokesperson.
About 900 yuan over our budget. Well, there’s always Yang's Fried Dumplings, where we might not feel like a king after the meal, but neither wil the size of our bill.
Over the past weekend, Shanghaiist spotted Lijiacai again, in yet another publication, SH, formerly 8 Days, this time as the subject of a full length advertorial. Wikipedia.com defines "advertorial" this way:
An advertorial is an advertisement written in the form of an objective opinion editorial, and presented in a printed publication -- usually designed to look like a legitimately and independent news story. ... A major difference between regular editorial and advertorial is that clients usually have content approval of advertorials, a luxury usually not provided with regular editorial.
While the SH story is marked "Advertorial," this practice feels more like a publication taking its loyal readers’ trust out for a ride. Here is a taste of what the unobjective story tells would-be patrons they can look forward to:
Family Li Imperial Cuisine will feature three tasting menus, where talented Beijing chefs painstakingly recreate the food served to the Imperial Court during the Qing Dynasty using the Li’s secret recipes. The restaurant will surround the rarefied cuisine cooked by the Li family with unparalleled service and tranquil settings.
1,000 RMB a person almost sounds like a bargain!
To be fair, we did our own research using, what else, Shanghaiist's favorite Chinese restaurant guide, Dianping.com, and this is what turned up. Lijiacai Beijing received a 16 for food, a 16 for décor and a 17 for service, and the average amount spent is 582 kuai per person, and one reviewer called the food, “oily, unrefined, hardly worthy of an emperor.” To put things in perspective, 谭华轩/Tan Hua Xuan , another Beijing eatery serving imperial styled cuisine garnered a 28 for food, a 31 for décor, and a 24 for service, and diners on average spent 505 kuai a head -- unfortunately, 谭华轩 isn’t coming to Shanghai anytime soon. And purely as an FYI, we’ve heard from several people that a Beijing 16 for food is at best a Shanghai 13, but that’s another story for another day.
In the end, we aren’t here to tell you whether you should or shouldn’t go dine at Lijiacai when it opens its doors in a few weeks in the Bund's Huangpu Park. For all we know, the service and the décor will be significantly better than those of the Beijing branch (though the food isn’t likely to change). But at 1,000 kuai a pop, it’s not an experiment we would likely undertake.
Read the whole advertorial here.
Discuss more Restaurants and Bars in the Shanghaiist Forum.
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Hi Jay - Does doing a little internet research on dianping.com really provide you with enough material to write critically about a restaurant? Paid advertorial is exactly that (it's not an 'unobjective story,' it's an ad) and should be taken with a grain of salt. If you want unbiased restaurant reviews, turn to the review section of (certain) magazines. You will be assured that they actually visited the restaurants, and ate the food, before they wrote it.
And from my experiece, Lijiacai in Beijing is actually quite good.
Hey Jarrett,
My intention wasn't so much to write "critically" about lijiacai as to provide a more factual counterpoint to an one-sided advertorial, especially when the product in question is so exorbitantly priced.
Of cousre, I'd like to speak from personal experience, but there are just a few 100 kuai bills standing between me and the imperial feast, so I resorted to the next best thing, dianping. Based on my(and several of my friends') experience, the site is pretty much spot on, cuz the reviews are mostly unbiased, written by other diners. At 16/16/17, Lijiacai seems a bit underwhelming, especially if it intends to charnge 1000 rmb per in Shanghai.
And about the whole "advertorial" issue, to be honoest, I'm not a fan. there's nothing "as is" or "a grain of salt" about it, the very nature of the beast is it's trying to pretend to be something else, no? Of course, I understand it's a business call and is completely separate from the qaulity work you guys are doing on the editorial side.
Hope that clears things up a bit.
Jarrett... you are a funny guy. I know of two expat mags who published a "review" for CJ CHICAGO based on the nice comments made by the Shanghaiist's Eat Me section. I know they (the expat mags) didn't order it to try it first because I'm the owner.
CJ
CJ - It wasn't a review at all - and it certainly wasn't critical. I never claimed to eat it, all I did was tell people that Chicago pizzas were available here in Shanghai, and provided a phone number. Get your facts straight pizza man.
Jay didn't claim to eat it.
He claimed to have done all the research he could to find out about it, and found out that the restaurant is fairly shite in some people's opinions. Jay knows where to get unbiased restaurant reviews - he was questioning a restaurant that doesn't want an unbiased review.
Don't worry Jarret, we know that you review restaurants well - and I wouldn't give out that compliment easily.
I did not say the expat mag in question was 8 Days. I know you didn't review it. You mentioned it was a new opening. Other expat mags, without naming names, based ther "review" on the Shanghaiist post. That's why I thought the comment was funny.
CJ
I don't trust any restaraunt that doesn't think its own food is good enough to get a good unbiased review. And nice burn on Beijing btw.