Would Have Been Worth the Extra 10 Kuai...

Oh how we love Dianping, let us count the ways.

Dianping lets us:

1) Navigate amongst the myriad restaurants in the western part of Hangzhou to make our nightly excursions into civilization worth the 15-20 minute bike ride

2) Use their recommended dishes to try food outside of our comfort zone or dishes we wouldn't necessarily expect to be good examples of a specific type of cuisine

3) Estimate how much money we need to bring

4) Know whether we'll be going to a nice, quiet place or a loud, hot, smoke-filled place (never go to the latter when not in the right mindset)

Two nights ago, Dianping led us to 香乡馆 Xiangxiang Restaurant（ 杭州最地道川菜馆之一 [one of Hangzhou's most authentic Sichuanese restaurants]）. There are a few dishes that come to our minds when we think of Sichuanese food (though this might just be because we aren't Chinese and don't really understand the full array of Sichuanese food) - 辣子鸡 (sauteed diced chicken with chili)，水煮肉片 (boiled pork slices in a fiery sauce)，麻破豆腐 (ma po tofu)，干煸四季豆 (stir-fried dried stringbeans)

In this restaurant's Dianping review, however, we hadn't even really heard of two of the recommended dishes and they were both succulent and refreshing.

松仁牛肉 (beef with pine nuts)


茄子滑鸡 (eggplant with chicken) - this had a 鱼香/yuxiang flavor to it, but was definitely superior to your normal run of the mill 鱼香茄子/yuxiang qiezi

The one thing we didn't really like or understand about the place was the misplaced effort the staff put into trying to attract customers. There was always a waitress at the door calling out to random people on the street telling them to come in and try their food. First of all, we really aren't in an area where many people are aimlessly walking around without a destination already in mind (this wasn't like a Hangzhou version of Chinatown or Little Italy).

Moreover, they didn't really need to make such an effort as the place was full, business seemed to be going really well and the food stood up to its positive review. I mean, when we settled our bill they underchanged us by 10 RMB. We realized the error and immediately corrected it, but had we not, the meal would have been worth the extra 10 kuai.