Kunming Restaurants

This is a very new restaurant (Oct 2003).

The deco uses heavy timber and glazed stone tiles. It is very intricately decorated and gives off the traditional japanese flavour. Don't worry, you get to sit on proper timber bench.

It has a ground floor and a mezzanine.

Favorite Dish: The lunch set (RMB 38) is worth a try. This is a big array of different japanese dishes (with rice). Interestingly, it also serves chinese dishes (which is nothing special). Signature japanese items are sashimi, tenpura, grilled fish and fried chicken.

This is an eatery with both indoor and alfresco dining. You pay at the counter as you order, then take the coupon to the kitchen counter to exchange for food.

The menu is in Chinese.

It's a quiet place behind Xiao Xi Men. If you can find the "Jiang brother restaurant", and just take the path on the left, walk past the eatery attached to Jiang, and you will come to this one.

Favorite Dish: A lot of stuff on the menu (include indonesian fried rice), but I recommend the rice in chicken soup (Tu Ji Pao Fan). It costs RMB 5.

And for drink - papaya water - RMB 50 cents.

A surprise is the fermented tofu, which has the authentic taste for those who remember what the real chinese fermented tofu used to taste like in the 70's in Malaysia. And is a free condiment, which you scoop onto a side dish provided.

This a high-class japanese deco restaurant. Five-star ratings. There are also teppanyaki rooms available. In the main dining hall, you find a giant round aquarium which houses goldfish. The trick to this is the aquarium itself is only about 6 inches thick and thus hollow in the middle. It's a beautiful view nonetheless.

Favorite Dish: Sashimi set lunch. RMB110 + 15%. It is a large serving, and absolutely worth the money.

This includes salmon, fatty tuna, octopus, and various other seafood.

This is a tasteful western restaurant setup.
Two Floors of dark timber.

It's a quiet romantic restaurant with not-very attentive waitresses, which is a norm in Kunming.

The anti-dote to the real good noodle is the waitress' attitude. They are very hard sellers of their wine :

"Would you like some wine tonight ?"
"No thank you. Dinner menu please"
"Please have a look at our wine card, we have various promotions"
"No wine please. How about the beer promotion displayed outside ? "
"Have a look at our wine (push the winecard to you). This is a good selection"
"No thanks. I would like to have chicken chop"
"Oh if you order this wine, you get a beef steak free"

This can go on and on, depending on when you really snap..

Favorite Dish: We had chicken, pasta and soup.

But found to our surprise the really good stuff was the "Fujian chao mien" or "Fujian Fried noodles", which we ordered at the end of the western meal and thought we could have some more.

The noodle was served, with no cutlery. "Chopsticks please", and the waitress immediately turned her attention to the next empty table to clean up (??). We went to the cutlery closet and took the chopsticks ourselves.

The noodle is fried with chives, egg and yunnan ham. It smells a little like Penang Char Kuay Tiao.

A little too oily will be the only downside. But if you pick the noodles with your chopsticks and place them on a clean plate, then more or less you get rid of the oil in which the bottom half of the noddles is soaked.

"Bill please". No one heed us despite raised hands and voice. In the end we went downstairs ourselves and immediately someone shouted "table XXX is leaving".

This specialises in steamboat.
The soup base is made of yunnan ham and chicken cooked with yunnannese herbs. The major herb is Dian Ma, the root/rhizome of some plant.

Health benefits : good for weak stomach, blood circulation, migrane.

It's typical yunnannese eatery settings. You can choose to sit at a proper table (4 person per table), or half-squat on the real low chairs and dine at the real low table.

The stove is right on the table, and the gas cylinder is under the table.

Not much space to move around. All the furnitures are jam packed together.

Favorite Dish: Sequence of eating the Steamboat :
1) Boil the soup (with ham and chicken and herbs, which are prepared by the kitchen and served in a big pot)
2) Turn fire to small. Drink first the soup
3) Make dip with the various condiments served, and pour a little soup to the dip. The surprise includes fermented tofu (furu) which is very very authentic (well for malaysians at least).
4) Eat the ham and chicken with dip.
5) Add the vege and noodles (you get to order from the menu - in chinese) and start boiling again
6) Eat the vege (and soup)

The soup is a little salty, but the savoury taste is just right to fight off the cold in autumn/winter.

The soup base costs RMB 38. The rest is up to your order. Vege costs between RMB 1 to the RMB 5 for the expensive mushrooms. Two of us went and spent RMB 27 each.

Typical hotel coffeehouse setting. But the dessert is worth mentioning.

Favorite Dish: "Napolean slice"

Try the custard puff. It's custard sandwiched between layers of fluffy pastry, and topped with some jellified slices of plum or whatever fruit that fancies the decorator.

At RMB 8 a piece, it's heaven to eat that with a cup of black coffee.

When you are in West Hill (Xi Shan), don't forget to have lunch there at one of the farmers' home. The locals call them "Nong Jia Le", which means joy of farmer's family.

The lunch will cost RMB 4 per person irrespective of which home you go to. There are typically 10 types of dishes, ranging from meat to vege to cold entries, and a few types of staple (rice, corn, etc), and include a somewhat tasteless soy drink.

You are free to have a 2nd (and 3rd and 4th)serving for the dish you like most.

You can also lend them a helping hand by washing your bowls yourself (before you use them, that is)

Some restaurants offer farm stay.

It's an experience not to be missed.

Favorite Dish: The cured tofu (fu zhu) is heaven.
The chilli tofu is also good.
For some reason yunnannese make the smoothest tofu.

I didn't know that dog's meat is so popular in Kunming. There are many stores selling dog's meat noodles and hot pot alonge the road, with big "Dog's Meat" sign board. This is a bowl of dog's meat noodle, pretty expensive, 15 Yuan. A normal noddle only cost 4 Yuan in Kunming. The taste not too fantastic, it's like lamb, but little sweeter.