Chu

Chengdu leaves me feeling fragmented. In its most bustling districts, the grand display windows of luxury brands gleam brightly, while crowds decked in designer streetwear stream out of IFS at closing time, bags in hand. Yet, just a short distance away lies the worn fabric of the city, with streets crammed with small stools and signboards advertising junk collection and cash advance services for credit cards.

In second-tier cities, high-end restaurants often suffer from a dilution of transport, replication, and expression. Chengdu seems like a city without high-end dining - the restrooms of the luxuriously priced Yuzhilan smell as bad as those at a popular tourist spot, yet the menu is crammed with expensive ingredients like premium abalone. Crowds flock to hotpot, rabbit heads, and fly restaurants, leaving the slightly pricier eateries deserted.

Therefore, the emergence of CHU MODERN CUISINE feels pioneering.

Before visiting, I kept my expectations low, fatigued by the many fusion restaurants that have turned from delightful discoveries to tiresome chores. But after dining, I confidently place CHU in the top tier of fusion cuisine in China.

In my opinion, there are only five in the first tier of fusion cuisine: Ling Long in Beijing, Obscura by Tang Xiang in Shanghai, Chao Yue in Guangzhou, AVANT in Shenzhen, and CHU in Chengdu.

What sets CHU apart is its unique, independent developmental path.

Having dined far and wide, I often find new restaurants evoking memories of others. Despite an abundance of concepts, the choice of ingredients, flavor combinations, and presentation often feels familiar - an endless cycle of copying and adapting. But CHU is special. I expected it to be just another replicating, transporting, adapting restaurant, suffering the expressive losses typical of second-tier cities, but CHU proved to have a distinctive style and independent flair.

Its ingredient selection is often dazzling, the local flavor profiles are strong, the presentation is fresh and natural, and the tableware is simple and elegant. With over ten courses paired with a modest average price of 688 RMB, CHU stands out in the fusion cuisine price spectrum, delivering far beyond its price point.

After all, the most famous fusion restaurants in China fall into three categories:

A. Expensive ingredients, high prices

B. Cheap ingredients, high prices

C. Cheap ingredients, reasonable prices

CHU belongs to the third category. To develop away from pricey ingredients and to offer sincere development outcomes and pricing is a rarity in today's high-end dining market.

Could CHU execute a 1500+ RMB per person menu? I don't know. But at the current 688 RMB / 12-course price point, there is no domestic competitor for this rising restaurant.

Back to the dishes:

The meal started with a fruit appetizer. Three fruit dishes were served first, featuring Northeast "thief-proof" tomatoes topped with water buffalo cheese and basil sauce, Fujian guava filled with a layer of jelly and a layer of crushed ice, and Yunnan green papaya paired with exotic flavor powder. Compared to serving whole fruits or slices, these charming little fruit dishes were a refreshing change. After all, the first three dishes often set the tone for a restaurant's quality.

The first dish, 'Natural', included chunks of palm heart and slices of palm root, with a light yellow corn puree and a dark yellow mullet roe. Similar to a lily dish, it was mildly sweet. However, I think a savory first cold dish would have been a better follow-up to the opening sweetness of the fruit.

The second dish, 'Wanzhou Grilled Fish', was inspired by night snack stalls – undoubtedly fun and clever. The crawfish meat was prepared as a jelly wrap, while the spicy fish was placed on fried rice mixed with pickles, with a layer of egg yolk spicy sauce flavored with ginger between the fish and the rice. A "fried sushi" version of a night snack, it's a delightful combination of protein, carbs, and fat, paired with a hop-fermented beverage for a coherent and direct culinary delight.

The third dish, 'Boletus' (from the secret menu), was like an 'open sandwich' with a scallion pancake base, topped with boletus mushrooms, cheese strands, and raw beef slices, and hidden with two pieces of onion for sweetness. As someone from Shanghai, I found the scallion pancake lacking in aroma and crispiness, resembling more of a biscuit. The toppings, dominated by the beef, made the layers less distinct. Incorporating fried potato shreds (like the scallion pancakes from Wang's in Shanghai's Yuyuan Road) or duck liver sauce (like the goose liver scallion pancake from Hangzhou's Jinsha Hall) might have made it more interesting.

The

fourth dish, 'Ancient Method', featured hand-rolled cold vermicelli leaves from the yellow horn tree, combined with a cashew milk sauce mixed with Sichuan pepper and other elements to create a milky yellow sauce, topped with conch meat. This savory and slightly sweet cold dish wasn't quite to my liking.

The fifth dish, 'Order', had an intriguing concept. The name puzzled me until I realized it was because both tea leaves pair well with fish and peach, creating a harmonious arrangement. The Dazhu goby fish, marinated in oolong tea oil and lightly charred, retained a nearly raw state inside, paired with crunchy and slightly tart peach flesh. Served with mustard oil vinegar and paired with an oolong tea drink flavored with apricot and date, it offered a unique layering of flavors, especially the peach variety, which, if sweet and juicy like a honey peach, would have felt lacking. The fish's compatibility with the faint sourness was perfect.

The sixth dish, 'Choice', featured a sweet bamboo shoot from Pu'er in Yunnan, which was white, low in fiber, and slightly sweet. It was steamed in a thick layer of flaky pastry, and upon serving, the shoot was removed from the casing for plating, accompanied by three preparations of green peas (whole peas, pea puree, pea powder) and Xuanwei ham. Wrapping the bamboo shoot in ham, it was a Chinese version of "melon and ham". The best part of this dish was the pea sauce, rich in bean flavor and fragrant with added butter, Puning bean paste, and black vinegar, offering a rich, multi-dimensional taste upon careful chewing.

The seventh dish, 'Local', had a Franco-Japanese fusion style, using cuttlefish eggs from Zhoushan and cuttlefish meat from Fujian, drizzled with sesame oil, paired with chunks of zucchini, and topped with some wasabi. It was rather unremarkable.

The eighth dish, 'Companion', meaning "this dish has been with the restaurant for a long time", originally used pomfret but was substituted with beef tongue for me, which I thought was even tastier. The beef tongue was thick and tender, rich in flavor, served on the restaurant's homemade egg cake, wrapped with beef tongue, pickled chili, herbs, jellyfish, and other ingredients. This dish, a big pancake roll using Chengdu's signature egg cake, had a rich and well-matched sauce, achieving a high level of completion.

The ninth dish, 'Starfruit', served as a palate cleanser with starfruit flesh covered with its cousin, sourgrass, providing a pleasant sourness to cut through the richness.

The tenth dish, 'Yellow Umbrella Alley', represented an old district in Chengdu known for its braised delicacies. The highlight of this dish was the 'Yellow Umbrella Alley' flavored sauce, which looked like ordinary chili oil but started sweet before a lingering spiciness unfolded in the mouth. The sauce, a mix of ginger juice, onion, chili, vinegar, sugar, and other elements, provided rich layers of flavor that touched every taste bud. It was served with beef and eggplant.

The eleventh dish was the main course (from the secret menu). After many courses and feeling quite full, it was surprising to have another off-menu main dish. The rice came in three colors, cooked in duck broth, mushroom broth, and fish broth, repurposing ingredients used previously. The rice variety felt quite average and a bit harsh. It was paired with duck soup and a side of something black and unappealing, which I didn't touch as it looked unappetizing.

The twelfth dish, 'Elderberry Slush', was a palate-cleansing ice slush made from elderberries, offering an unusual texture similar to a frozen, dense cotton candy, possibly infused with soda, providing a bubbly sensation when eaten. It was paired with green grape flesh. I must commend CHU for its fruit preparation skills; it would be a waste not to open a specialty fruit cuisine restaurant.

The thirteenth dish, 'Sweetness Meter', was the main dessert, featuring white bitter melon flesh, with custard apple foam and lemongrass ice slush, creating different levels of sweetness. It was quite pleasant.

The post-meal dessert followed the style of French cuisine, featuring Ya'an black tea paired with durian, mangosteen, and other small sweet treats.

The restaurant also offers a non-alcohol pairing for RMB 198, matching six drinks, two based on tea leaves (oolong, bamboo leaf green), two plant-based (aged tangerine and green bean laozao), and the remaining two with creative flair, such as a salty drink with boletus flavor to accompany the boletus mushroom dish, and a "wine-flavored" beverage made by heating red wine then cooling and evaporating the

alcohol to accompany the beef. While this pairing is entertaining, it often clashes with the dishes, particularly the salty drinks, which don't conform to mainstream tastes. I suggest that the restaurant doesn't need to "subvert" every aspect of the dining experience to showcase its avant-garde nature. Sometimes, it's necessary to provide customers with familiarity and comfort. Offering a pure Chinese tea pairing would also be lovely.

However, running a restaurant is an "It's all about location" business, where location isn't just about choosing a spot within a city's commercial district, but choosing the city and the clientele. Quality products should be presented to those who appreciate them, and being secluded may limit the reach to regional influence. Sometimes I feel CHU is too nonchalant, but perhaps it's this casual and serene attitude that allows the restaurant to devote more energy and heart to earnest development. After all, fine wine needs no bush.