Southern Barbarian

2 Photos

by Clare McAndrew
on Monday, May 19, 2008 12:00 AM

The owner of Beijing's much talked about fish and chip restaurant ‘Fish Nation' has brought his entrepreneurial ideas to Shanghai with a new restaurant, Southern Barbarian. Specializing in Yunnan cuisine and currently on the lips of hip, cool and in-the-know Shanghai diners, its ideal for anyone looking to experience the lesser known style of Yunnan cuisine. Southern Barbarian, an amusingly tongue-in-cheek title seems to be the perfect name for a restaurant that's looking to buck the trend in Chinese dining and be just a little different.

A quick perusal of the menu shows that this is no ordinary Chinese restaurant. Grandmothers Mashed Potatoes with Pickled Vegetables and Scallions RMB18 is a delicious combination vegetable with of smooth mashed potatoes. The Smashed Broad Beans with Yunnan Ham RMB25 was excellent while the Charcoal Grilled Aubergine with Tomato and Chilli RMB18, a starter style cold dish, was remarkably refreshing and would even do nicely as a quick snack. There is a large selection of Yunnan BBQ meat and fish, which has a spicy but flavoursome coating similar to piri piri. Cheese lovers may be surprised to find a couple of cheese based dishes here, and the salt and pepper fried Yunnan goats cheese is definitely worth a taste. Daring diners may be tempted by the sugared honey bees. I wasn't brave enough to try these but they certainly looked interesting. It also proudly boasts an extensive international beer list, selected by the owner during his international travels. I opted for the raspberry beer RMB40.

Southern Barbarian is now among my first choices when entertaining foreign guests. It joins the diversity of Chinese cuisine with a distinctive appeal to the Western palate. Its affordable prices and pleasant atmosphere make it a nice restaurant for small or large groups. It also happens to be a great place to cure a hangover.