Hangzhou’s Wai Po Jia
June 14, 2011 in China, Food, Reviews, Travel
One of the most popular restaurants in Hangzhou is the chain Wai Po Jia (translated to mean ‘Grandmother’s House’), and it was on our list of places to visit during our trip there. Actually, we enjoyed it so much that we ended up going twice.
Unlike Lou Wai Lou (reviewed here), which is one of the more expensive options, Wai Po Jia is a mid-range restaurant in terms of price (don’t worry, it’s still clean). But in terms of flavours and variety, I preferred Wai Po Jia a lot more.
The unique thing with Wai Po Jia was that each of the restaurants in the chain has a different theme/look. If you don’t look at the sign you’ll probably think it’s a completely different restaurant.
The best thing with Wai Po Jia is the amazing variety. Going through the massive menu with hundreds of colour photos is an experience in itself. It took us a good 20 minutes of looking, asking and debating to decide what it was we wanted to order on both visits.
As for the taste of the food, also very good, extremely varied in terms of texture and flavour. Not every dish was a homerun but none were horrible. Definitely more suited to foreigners than some of the other local restaurants. I mean, just check out the 16 photo slideshow above. Do I need to say anymore?
In all, a place I can happily recommend.
8 out of 10!
Can you describe the photos? They look *incredible*!
Okay, let me give it a go.
Dry noodles with oil and sauce
Roast pork slices
Scallops with vermicelli
A shelled sea creature of some kind, tasted chewy
Dry wontons
Stir-fried rice cakes
Stewed fresh chicken
Fish soup
Flat shallot pastry
Stewed eggplant
Mapo Tofu
Hot plate fatty pork
Stir fry cauliflower
Hot plate beef ribs
Steamed fish
Pan-fried pastry with hoisin sauce
Awesome! Thanks!
The stewed eggplants looked the best.
And the chewy shelled sea creature looked like scallops… delicious scallops… mmm…
Guess what I had for dinner tonight? Potato chips. A whole bag of potato chips.
What happened to your health trip?
I loved that place man, you missed out on the best – 茶香鸡
http://hangzhou.koubei.com/store/detail–storeId-8589bedcb1bb49af993f2b8596b5a29f?ad_id=&am_id=&cm_id=&pm_id=
When did you go to Hangzhou?? That does look good man.
[...] Hangzhou’s famous West Lake. We had just eaten a massive meal at the excellent Wai Po Jia (review here) and really needed to walk off the food babies, so after disembarking we spent a couple of hours [...]
May I know where’s the address of Wai Po Jia？ Thanks