China Herald: New Year´s eve dinner at Da Dong Roasted Duck restaurant

Preparing duck at our table

While traditional Shanghainese food is still going strong, fine dining is definitely making huge inroads among the locals in Shanghai. Good foreign restaurants have already been around for foreigners, but fine dining is also becoming popular among Chinese. This evening we had a great evening at Da Dong Roasted Duck, originating from Beijing.
Dinner starts is a typical new Chinese tradition: exchanging the access code of the free wifi at the restaurant to avoid roaming coast. In China, if you do not offer free access to the internet, you do not deserve to exist.
Da Dong is an efficient organization, and with some good preparation, we marched past the waiting rows, directly to our table. In the middle, burning wood fires prepare rows of ducks for later consumption.
The restaurant is not small, but minor compared to many food factories in Shanghai that can host many thousands of guests. People take their time for eating (not that normal for locals), and for a good reason: food is excellent. Most Shanghai restaurants are great for their food, or great for their ambiance. Da Dong has both right.
I counted faces: I did not see one other foreigner, apart from one standing at the entrance, otherwise Chinese paying a fair price for excellent food and atmosphere. That has been different, not so long ago.
Not yet jealous? Here are some more pictures.