Pin Chuan 品川
47 Taojiang Lu,
French Concession
near Wulumuqi Nan Lu, Metro Line 1 Hengshan Lu Station
桃江路47号
近乌鲁木齐南路, 地铁1号线衡山路站
6437-9361
Open 11am-2pm, 5-11pm
Price Y100-Y199 per couple
Accepts International Credit Cards
This Venue has been nominated for a Reader's Choice Award 2010 in the category Shanghai - Best Spicy Chinese
- City Weekend
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This restaurant offers a comfortable environment and wide range of unique Sichuan dishes, complete with a helpful chili rating system. Spicy Chengdu-style chicken, poached sliced beef and the customer favorite, “old nanny fish,” are delicious but hardcore chili lovers may need to ask the waitstaff to kick it up a notch.
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cityweekend
Most Recent Reviews
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In a city where authenticity is hard to come by, this rates highly on my list of restaurants to return to. Great value for money and a lovely ambience that beckon return visits in the near future.
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Saw an ad in the Shanghai Daily and wanted to try an "authentic" Sichuan restaurant. The dinner experience started out on a very bad note. As soon as we sat down we were given, as is the case with most fine dining establishments, rolled damp towels and a very small bowl of preserved vegetables as a starter. We used the towels and then began to munch on the delicious starter while reading the well designed menu. Then, we were told that we had to PAY for the towels AND the preserved vegetables. We complained that we never heard of such a thing in a Chinese restaurant! The towels were NOT the non-woven kind that usually come individually wrapped in foil that, sometimes, have the price on them. We complained to the waiter that it was very unprofessional to bring the towels and starter and then, after we had used them, that we had to pay for them! He became very sullen and said, "well no one has ever complained about it before". That's probably because no one knew they were being charged until the bill was brought and probably not noticed. We said we are not paying for either and they could take them away and with a frown and smirk, they took away the towels and starter. I think if it quite "cheap and small-minded" to charge for such things at an otherwise fine restaurant. We explained very clearly that it wasn't a matter of the cost, but a matter of principle. The food was delicious, the service was very good. Such a place should offer towels and a small starter on a complimentary basis. This would build goodwill and a happier clientele.
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I like the new menu though it was reeking of a chemical smell.
The service was attentive and good. Food arrived quickly but some starters came after the mains did. Must be because some were mass-produced...
The mapo tofu was great wt rice. The kou shui chicken is really yummy. The fish with bean sprouts and flat noodles would have been great, except it was served without the noodles. When I asked the staff about it, he realised he made a mistake and asked me if I still wanted the noodles. Then he brought out the noodles in a separate dish. Fish with bean sprouts and flat noodles on a separate dish is not the same. The fish wt bean sprouts was not tasty but the flat noodles was good. So sad that they ruined this dish for me... The green dumpling with peanuts was good. The skin on the wonton in hot oil was too thick.
The prices are as expensive as the 'other' place down the street. I suggest having a non-smoking area designated, especially since it is a fairly spacious restaurant.
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Crispy deboned la zi ji. Mapo tofu with crab that even your grandma will love. Clean, spacious decor that will make you feel right at home even when you are sweating through the spice. We love it! One of the few Chinese restaurants in this city that won't charge you an arm+leg for a large party.
Will be back for the Tuesday 50% specials.
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I was here last night with my visiting Singaporean godfather. The food was really good - especially the La Zi Ji. Yum yum.
The service wasn't great (had to ask the waiter THRICE for rice) and waited more than 25 minutes for our vegetable dish to appear. By the time it did, we had already finished most of the mains.
However, the overall experience was good and would definitely recommend this place to anyone who desires a bit of spicy food in a comfortable setting.
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I had a terrifying experience last night (2nd March) when it was pointed out to me (by the guests at the next table) that there were silvery flakes (I have pics taken) at the bottom of all our tea cups! It appeared that the restaurant used a cleaner to remove the tea stains in their hot water flasks and failed to clean the residue! It was truly horrifying and embarrassing as I was hosting guests and we were enjoying the food until that incident. Was I supposed to make a scene or to quietly accept it? I realised that there was actually very little we can do as consumers other than the inconsequential complaints to the restaurant manager. Well, foodies do beware what you put in your mouths. The "best" restaurants are only as good as their management and don't make the mistake of assuming that they are good just because the menu is fancy and expensive.
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After a couple of amazing solo trips to Pin Chuan for lunch and dinner, we took a group of almost 50 for a company dinner. Not only was the food as amazing as ever - the wait staff handled our loud and rowdy group (drunk on BaiJiu) with grace and aplomb. Nice feature for a place that should normally be reserved for a quiet, romantic dinner.
(I tried to give this 5 stars, but keep getting "error on page"! I tried using Chrome, IE, and Firefox - on Windows Vista)
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Loved it. Have been to 3 other local Sichuan restaurants and cannot cope with the scorching and numbing whereby all food tastes are obliterated and all one feels is pain! Perhaps my foreign tastebuds can't cope with the real thing and so I had to be dragged out to eat Sichuan and to my surprise....finally found a place that understood how to balance the freshness of the food with the level of spiciness and "ma". I now understand how peppercorns can be used to heighten the dish (& not kill the taste!). So for those who say it is not authentic or mild....I say - it's probably the best way to eat Sichuan! Also loved that the chicken was deboned (tired of boney bits with no meat) and the fish was also deboned! In a great mansion in the french concession, the ambience was perfect - plush yet homey. The private rooms on the 2nd floor are great for entertaining and the service was good too and prices reasonable. Definitely my 1st choice for Sichuan!
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New ownership has lightened the spice - this place feels neutered. With that in mind, still a nice alternative to South Beauty and a good place to take those with gentler palates.
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Excellent alternative to South Beauty and a cosy place to dine. The food is heavier in taste and spice. It is a tad heavier than authentic sichuan food. It doesn't give me the pure taste that I've experienced in Chengdu. The prices is reasonable.
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One of the best Sichuan restaurant around and the price is very reasonable. All the usually dishes such as , prawns, boiled fish, chilli crab meat etc are to the highest standards.
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place to go if i had to reccomend only one sichuan restaurant in the city this would be it.
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More Heat
Great spicy food places are passed like coveted secrets, you want to show off a gem you've found but you don't want the masses descending. So we were surprised that recently the spicy name on everyone's lips has been the recently reopened Pin Chuan, far from a quiet hole in the wall. We wandered in initially with a group of four, which then grew to 14, and expected status quo Shanghai service. To our delight, the wait staff was more than accommodating about helping us with table logistics. To start, we sampled two cold dishes, the spinach with ginger and vinegar (YY19) and the capital style baby ribs (YY43). The mild sweetness of the ribs was perfectly set against the bitter sweetness of the spinach and a comfort to the spicy-adverse in our group. We hoped our mains--[i]lazi ji[/i] (YY73), jin chong beef (YY59) and an eggplant dish--would turn up the heat a notch but while flavorful, they were a bit mild. The highlight of the meal was a [i]mapo dofu[/i] which lacked the spiciness that our fire-craving taste buds desired but was impressive in its inclusion of black beans, a rare fine which elevates any [i]mapo dofu[/i] from average to oustanding. Although all the dishes were enjoyed, they clearly cater to the milder tongues of an expat clientele--great for softer Sichuan adventures or for when the parents are in town.