Regional classics · Hangzhou
West Lake Fish in Vinegar Sauce
西湖醋鱼 — Hangzhou’s signature fish course: grass carp or mandarin fish, barely poached, under a sweet-sour Shaoxing glaze that locals grade restaurants by.
The test of a kitchen is restraint: the fish must be fresh-water clean and poached for seconds, not minutes, then napped in a sauce of vinegar, sugar, ginger and wine. Bad versions are muddy and rubbery; good versions — the two-star Ru Yuan’s is said to have gone through seventy iterations — are delicate and bright.
Every lakeside restaurant in Hangzhou serves it, but the dish is a benchmark rather than a crowd-pleaser: order it alongside Longjing shrimp and Dongpo pork to see the full Hangzhou canon on one table.
Where to eat it
- Ru Yuan (two Michelin stars)
- Jin Sha at Four Seasons West Lake
- Lakeside Hangzhou restaurants in general
Named tables that do it well
- Ru Yuan — Michelin 2 Stars
- Jin Sha — Michelin 1 Star
- Long Jing Cao Tang — Michelin 1 Star
- Gui Yu Shan Fang — Michelin 1 Star
Routes that eat their way here
More dishes to know
- Stinky Mandarin Fish (Chou Gui Yu) (臭鳜鱼)
- Xiaolongbao (小笼包)
- Hairy Crab (大闸蟹)
- Dongpo Pork (东坡肉)
- Longjing Tea Shrimp (龙井虾仁)
- Squirrel Mandarin Fish (松鼠桂鱼)