The city’s eateries face unwelcome imitators

When is imitation the least welcome form of flattery? If a restaurant launches with your same menu, same prices, and nearly the same name and logo, when does it cross the line from exasperating gray area to illegal infringement– worthy of a court visit? The line seems very fine for a few of Shanghai’s restaurants. We’ve seen it before and we’re seeing it again: copycat restaurants with nary two scruples to rub together.

Just like “pirated” products, imitation restaurants have been seen in Shanghai over the years, and below are just a few of the recent imposters. Most of us know that Sichuan heavyweight Spicy Joint (辛香汇, Xin Xiang Hui in Chinese) boasts the hottest tables in town, with seven branches, a perennially busy reservation line, and diners so keen that they wait hours in line. So, some clever folks thought, why not open something similar to Spicy Joint, but just a teensy bit different, like different by one Chinese character? Why not indeed. There are currently at least two copycat Xin Xiang Hui in Shanghai: Chang Xiang Hui and Xiang La Hui. This is sort of like selling a bag called Guci or a cellphone called Nckia.

A visit to Chang Xiang Hui revealed delicious but shockingly familiar food: everything from our favorite Spicy Joint gluttonous frog and syrupy plum juice to the towering crispy potato sticks. The only odd part of the evening was that we were not at Spicy Joint but somehow we were eating all of Spicy Joint’s dishes. Also, I acknowledge the service was better than Spicy Joint’s, truly wily adversaries.

Similarly egregious newcomers are the unwanted members in the tea drink family. The ubiquitous milk tea stalls of Hong Kong brand Happy Lemon (快乐柠檬, Kuaile Ningmeng), now numbering 25 in Shanghai alone, have inspired blatant mimicry. Only steps from Happy Lemon in People’s Square are now two “Tea Lemon” stalls (乐乐柠檬 Lele Ningmeng, also sometimes translated as Lemon Baby). Surpise surprise, the menu is almost a carbon-copy of Happy Lemon’s: Tea Lemon’s “Peppermint Lemon With Nata Da Coco” tastes uncannily similar to Happy Lemon’s “Lemon Peppermint With Nata Da Coco”. Even the environmentally friendly reminder on the cup is the same: “Love Your City” with a cartoon of an impish lemon-like figure throwing the cup in the trash.

I imagine this is just the place that original owners wish to throw such brazen impersonators.

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