Among the four central cities in the Yangtze River Delta, Hangzhou's crab-eating culture is the weakest. Nanjing has Gucheng Lake, Suzhou has Yangcheng Lake, and although Shanghai is not a crab production area, its close distance from Jiangsu and Nanjing and a group of extremely picky crab-eating gourmets still cultivate a developed crab-eating culture for Shanghai. Compared with the first three, the crab market in Hangzhou has developed a little carelessly. Even though the giant crab in Jiaxing Nanhu has briefly appeared on the stage of history, if you choose a high-quality crab banquet restaurant on the current Hangzhou boundary, it can still only be a "general in the coffin".
Tianlunli Restaurant is one of the most outstanding crab banquet restaurants in Hangzhou. The restaurant has been around for more than 20 years, and its focus on lake crabs has made it well-known in Hangzhou. Every autumn, when the lake crab is on the market, the lake crab festival will be held in Tianlunli, attracting a lot of diners to come to the scene. It's just that looking at the whole of Hangzhou, the family that is good at lake crabs seems to be a little lonely, and the move of holding the lake crab festival also brings a color of self-entertainment.
Tianlunli uses mature Taihu crabs as its main source of ingredients. The debate over who is more delicious between Taihu Lake crab, Yangcheng Lake crab and Gucheng Lake crab has been going on for many years. However, as early as 2014, a well-known person conducted a live blind tasting test on the Internet, and finally came to the result that diners could not tell the difference between the three types of crabs, which caused an uproar among crab eating enthusiasts. In fact, when it comes to the maturity of the crab breeding industry, Taihu Lake, Gucheng Lake and Yangcheng Lake are comparable, due to the widespread reputation of Yangcheng Lake and the slightly insufficient production, many Taihu Lake and Gucheng Lake crabs are also sold as Yangcheng Lake crabs, which has almost become a blatant secret in the crab sales group.
Tianlunli's approach to lake crabs can be said to be full of tricks, which is also its biggest selling point. In addition to the common steamed crab, drunk crab, crab roe xiaolong, crab roe tofu, there are several quite novel dishes, namely crab stuffed orange, crab roe cinnamon fish and crab roe jelly. Among them, crab roe jelly is a different dish that we have never found in many crab banquet restaurants in Shanghai. It replaces the pork with a crab roe skin jelly, which has a crystal clear appearance and a yellowish color. In terms of seasoning, it is too heavy, and the sweetness of the crab meat is not highlighted. Fortunately, its good taste adds a lot of color to it, the crab roe jelly melts in the mouth, and the crab meat in it is tender and chewy, and the overall taste is distinct.
Elegant dining style is a plus for Tianlunli Restaurant. Marbled ceilings, hanging light bulbs, and gray tables and chairs create a dark-toned dining room atmosphere, with a strong modern sense with a touch of elegance. The waiters are enthusiastic, and diners are guided to their seats when they enter the door, and there is no need for customers to greet them too much when they add water and change dishes during the meal. The only thing that can be picked on is that in the off-season of eating crab, there are not all kinds of crab dishes on the menu, which can sometimes disappoint diners who come to eat crab.
