Lanting Chinese Restaurant

This tiny mom-and-pop operation, located within easy walking distance from the excellent shopping at Xintiandi, is about as authentically Shanghainese as it gets. There are 2 chefs, 6 little square tables, and a perennial line-up with patrons sitting outside on wobbly plastic chairs in a queue. Wait times can be extremely long (ie. 2 hours), temper can flare and fights occasionally break out between patrons, or even between a patron and the owner on the night of our visit! Chicken Bones in Sauce RMB 28 Deep-Fried Yellow Croaker Fish in Batter RMB 30 Stir-Fried Alfalfa Leaves in Wine RMB 16 Large Draft Beer RMB 10 Seven-Up RMB 5 Rice and Plate Sets x 2RMB 4 TOTAL RMB 91 (CAD$14

Love this place and will always come back every time i’m in Shanghai. Nice local foods, but queue can get long during peak hours.

A good restaurant, but I wanted to specifically say thank you to ms Eif Zhong, who helped me a lot with communication and ordering (I don't speak Chinese), and made me feel very welcome. Thank you.

We visited Lanting during the Qing Ming Festival. A lot of the popular spots were fully booked and we finally managed to get our lunch booking through with them. Because of the festive traffic, we arrived quite late at around 13:30. Things didn’t go right since the arrival experience. Though there were empty car park space at the entrance, we were directed by the entrance staff to go down the carpark where it was full of cars already. When we return back, there’s no spaces already! They ended up asking me to park in the driveway of the basement car park! I followed the signage inside the lift which said level 24. There was no one at the concierge/reception when I got out. I have to go down one internal stairs to find that the reception was actually at level 23. I also found out later when we left that the signage in another lift said 23! The place was scarcely filled with only 3 tables. I was thinking that maybe we arrived really late despite this was one of the most festive period with tons of travelers. We were given a e-menu like an ipad. You will have to flip back and fro, place your order, and check the accuracy all by yourself. Though this maybe the going trend and more efficient for operation, I still prefer the conventional paper menu where there is someone to serve and discuss on personal preferences. I never found fine dining and high end restaurant using this kind of e-menu at all. With the price they are charging, they should have someone to serve the guest. We have tried the fried chicken, abalone, fish soup, river shrimp, beef, and a few unimpressive dishes. The food quality varied from average to fairly good. The main problem was the food temperature. Most Chinese food needs to be served sizzling hot but all dish we had were luke warm. At the end of the meal, I saw their waitress running around tidying the place for dinner and making negative comments on guests who were still there. That should only happened in low end places but not restaurant charging you 400-500 per head. The general service did not convince me that they have keen interest in hospitality. This may be one of the best in the past but definitely not my recommendation in Hangzhou.