I am sure that by now, many people have seen multiple reels or stories about the new era of dining in China. Many restaurants have begun to offer immersive meals that include entertainment, performances, and a storyline tied to the various dishes served during the meal. Each meal comes with a set course which lasts the entire performance, about 2 hours in total. The moment we planned our Chengdu trip, we knew this was the one thing we wanted to experience
We had to pre-book in advance on their app via WeChat and took the VIP row of seats to be at the front row of the performance. We also paid an additional fee for the make-up and dress-up so we can feel fully immersed in the environment. The restaurant is located in the Eastern Suburbs Memory area, which used to be a state-owned Hongguang Electronic Tube Factory, which is now a revitalised space packed with art, music, food, and shopping
The interiors are decorated like a modern garden, with man-made structures that resemble China’s ancient buildings. As a product launch was scheduled for the same day, the layout is slightly different, as they made changes to display the products. Beyond the main sitting areas with the fake ancient building decorations, you can find the service counter as well as the entrance to both the dress-up area and the main dining zone
After confirming our booking, we were brought upstairs to the dressing area to choose our clothes before heading to the many makeup counters. The speed of the makeup artist is like a factory line where each seat gets quickly filled up when one person is done with the makeup. You get to choose the dress via iPad, and they will also bring a few to show you before you proceed with a fitting. The whole experience took about an hour, and you can proceed either to the lobby for photos or another level up, where they have different settings for customers to take pictures. There were fake bridges over a fake pond, a garden with fake cherry blossoms, a dance platform with traditional Chinese drums, a scholar’s room with bamboo scrolls and many writing brushes
Once we were done making funny videos and pictures, we headed to the first floor, where the actual dining hall is located. The hall is huge with many seats, and we were glad we got the VIP seats, which were located in the first row, right next to the performance floor. The entire hall was emaculate and opulent in decorations. The place setting has golden utensils and plates as well as an ancient wine jar and cup for alcohol, which is included in the meal. There is also a separate set of porcelain tea pot and cup with its own heating candle. The scroll contains the menu and the storyline for the performance, which was very pretty and informative. Once we got seated, the staff came to us and checked on our dietary requirements, and they spoke to us like palace maids, which immediately put us into an immersive experience even before the meal started
When we sat down, some cold dishes were already placed at our tables in these cute ancient lunch boxes, which were often seen in most Chinese period dramas. Each level has four dishes, and they are mostly cold dishes, some ranging from sweet to savoury, and as I do not take beef, they replaced one of the dishes with a vegetarian one. I would consider them as appetisers with pickled vegetables, cold meat wraps, cold tofu with seaweed, mousse balls and pork cracklings. I don’t remember being pleasantly astonished by the dishes; they were just ok
Each dish was accompanied by a song and a story section, and we started off with soup, which was a light chicken soup with bamboo pith and abalone. The soup was very light and quite refreshing, but wasn’t too out of the ordinary. We were also served soy-braised quail, which was served on this cute hot stone to keep the meat warm. This dish was savoury with tender meat, but the flavours were on the lighter side, missing a nice and fragrant soy flavour
At this point, I wasn’t too impressed by the dishes which had been served, and the performance was a lot more interesting and captivating. Next, we had the claypot tofu and scallops, which differed from our friends’ version, which included beef cubes. Rice was also served with this dish, as it has a savoury sauce that paired well with the rice. Our dish was light with the scallops, and we heard the beef version was a lot more flavourful. At this mid-point, we were also served a palate cleanser drink with strawberries, which was a little acidic and sweet
The next 2 dishes were better tasting, with the sweet and sour fish and chicken thick broth. The fish was tender with a crispy skin, which was nicely coated with the sweet and sour sauce, which is quite similar to the sweet and sour pork sauce. The soup was more interesting than the first one served, as it was deeper in flavour and had a light spicy kick from the cut chilli.
As the performance reached its peak, we were also served the last few dishes for lunch, including fried prawns, seasoned bamboo shoots, edamame beans, and a sweet tofu dessert. The fried prawn had a crispy, light batter with seaweed flavouring and the bamboo shoots and beans were slightly vinegary. The sweet beancurd dessert had 2 flavours: the matcha and the original, and was sweet and smooth
Overall, the experience was interesting and felt more authentic as we paid for the dress up. In terms of food standards and flavour, I find most of the items mediocre, but the plating and service were immaculate to make the whole experience quite enjoyable
Address: 四川省成都市成华区建设南支建设南支路4号27栋（东郊记忆南大门）
Address in EN: No.4, Middle Section South Jianshe Road, Chenghua District, Chengdu ( The address in Google is wrong)
Bear Travels . Bear Eats . Bear Cooks 