There's a new upmarket vegetarian restaurant in Shanghai. Opened in August 2011, Dashu Wujie was created by the founder of Vegetarian Lifestyle chain. It is an upmarket, 5 storey restaurant overlooking over Xujiahui Park, and walking distance from Xujiahui station (line 1 and 9, exit 14.)
The each floor of the restaurant is themed (water, earth, fire, wind, gold) with banquet rooms available for groups. All fruits and vegetables are organic, as is the oil, of which they use minimally as to keep the food as healthy as possible.
The restaurant has incredibly streamlined service, thanks to staff with earpieces and the use of iPads to order your meal. The menu on the iPad is all in Mandarin, however once you click on the image of the food, a description appears in English. Spicy foods are marked with chillis and additionally foods containing onion and garlic are noted. I'm not sure if the menu was vegan, however there would definitely be vegan options.The menu is incredibly extensive and somewhat confusing to navigate if you cannot read Mandarin, for the tabs are all in Mandarin. Despite this, and with help from our lovely waitress we ordered 6 dishes and a pot of tea, all which arrived promptly.
First came our cold starters of eggplant skin filled with silken eggplant cooked with garlic and black vinegar and the visually pretty pickled radish and yam (I think... memory may be failing me!) The eggplant was absolutely delicious and I highly recommend this dish. The pickled radish was great to get the stomach juices flowing for the rest of the meal that followed.
Next came our mains and bowls of brown rice! Oh how i miss brown rice! We ordered lion's head mushroom in black pepper sauce (as highly recommended by the waitress), mapo tofu (because it's my favourite!), sizzling Korean tofu with kimchi sauce and one other dish that i cannot remember the name! Unfortunately the sashimi was unavailable but the picture looked amazing!
 |
| Mapo Tofu... a deliciously saucy version! |
 |
| The mystery dish |
 |
| Pouring the kimchi sauce over the sizzling Korean tofu |
 |
| Lion's head mushroom with black pepper sauce |
We all really enjoyed the mushroom in black pepper sauce. The texture was 'meaty' as Dad put it but the flavour was delicious. The mapo tofu wasn't drowning in oil but still had the very spicy kick from the sichuan peppers and chilli. The Korean tofu was nice, but we probably didn't need two tofu dishes. The unnamed dish was awesomely bizarre. There were different crumbed vegetables (mushroom, zucchini, squash, tomato) and what looked like two tuna sticks and a plum and a kewpie tartare sauce. I'm really sorry i can't give a more adequate description but i remember when reading on the menu i didn't understand the English!
 |
| The 'tuna' stick. It was delicious!!! |
The prices here are not cheap by Chinese standards, however for western standards i'd say it was brilliant. The entire meal cost $53AUD. I only wish i was in Shanghai a bit longer so i could go back!
Just if it couldn't get any cooler - on our way out we got given these pens for Chinese New Year
Just if it couldn't get any cooler - on our way out we got given these pens for Chinese New Year
 |
| So cute! |
Next time you're in Shanghai i highly recommend visiting this restaurant - even if you aren't vegetarian!
Sarah xx
392 Tianping Lu 天平路392号,近衡山路
3469 2857
open from 11am
Xujiahui Metro Station, exit 14
