Shanghai Eats: Yan Gege vegetarian hotpot
On New Year’s Day, the day after the wonderful lunch at Duli, the question was, how to top that experience? It did cross my mind to make a return to Duli the following day and order the other items on the small menu. But I was curious to try another vegetarian restaurant while my friend was in town, so I suggested Yan Gege, a vegetarian hotpot restaurant that I had read about.
It’s maybe a 20 minute walk north of the Jing An Kerry Centre in an area of residential high-rises, and tucked away in a pedestrian plaza past a Starbucks.
The restaurant was quite small, and it was packed when I got there. Thankfully I had made reservations on Dianping before coming. Notice the waitress with the costume, back facing to the camera. I think only certain waitresses can put their special Yunnan mushrooms into the hotpot - the ones wearing this.
When I arrived, I wasn’t sure how the system worked. I knew it was all-you-can-eat, but was a bit confused by the menu that they gave me. There turned out to be a few choices to be made:
Broth. The hotpot has two tiers: the top tier has a special mushroom broth, while the bottom tier you choose. There were choices like a spicy one, a tomato one, and a curry one, but the one the waitress recommended was the “Bak Kut Teh,” which is traditionally made from pork ribs but this one was 12 (?) medicinal ingredients stewed together. It did have that medicinal smell but the flavor was great.
The special mushrooms for the top tier broth; one can order one of each per table. The waitress helped us order all of them.
Beverages. There were different teas, and also juices like beet and pear which I had. You can order as much as you want.
Snacks. We ended up ordering a bunch of these before the waitress kind of put an end to it, because we hadn’t seen the buffet yet. These vegetarian dumplings in hot sauce were good, and I also liked the fried mochi sticks with brown sugar syrup in the back. The mushroom xiaolongbao were really nice and brothy too! We also had the curry flatbread which I would give a pass to the next time (kind of like a quesadilla with some stuff in the middle, but it was dry and not very flavorful). We also got some noodles, topped with what really looked like cubed pork, but was tofu and potato I think. They were a bit much considering all of the other stuff to eat.
The buffet area is just next to the dining area, and really beautifully presented. Here were all of the mushrooms and leafy greens. Towards the end of the buffet to the left of the cherry tomatoes I think were long peanut sprouts - something I had never had before! Kind of like bean sprouts with their crunchy ends, only bigger.
Check out the romanesco broccoli. I also tried the orange fungus - it was like wood ear fungus, but orange and kind of spongy which helped soak up the broth. I really liked it! The finger-like mushrooms at the bottom were also fun.
On the other side of the vegetables were different types of tofu (blocks and tofu skin), and vegetarian versions of fish balls and ham.
You put these items on these pretty wooden plates.
There was also an area with maybe 3 different soups, including one curry soup with giant blobs of soft fried tofu, and also different cold vegetable dishes like okra and gluten. There are little bowls to put these side dishes in.
Then there was the section with the dipping sauces to mix yourself.
A waitress then came by with our special Yunnan mushrooms and the bamboo pith (the long, beige spongy things on the left - my favorite!), beautifully presented with dry ice smoke coming out of the vessel.
And our two-tier hotpot was also brought up. At this point we weren’t really sure how to proceed, especially given that the top tier was still covered.
So the waitress helped put the mushrooms into the top tier, giving an explanation as she went, and flipped over the hourglass you see just behind the hot pot in the middle so that we would know when it was ready to eat.
The mushroom broth on the top was simply delicious! And all of the variety of vegetables and tofu felt so indulgent, I definitely didn’t miss meat at all.
It’s a bit pricey at at 228 RMB if you pay through Dianping (238 RMB if not), but I’d say it’s quite worth it. There was just the right amount of ritual with the dry ice around the mushrooms and the buffet area, and the waitress in the dresses adding mushrooms into the mushroom broth for you. And it was just a very tasty experience. A perfect start to the new year!
