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Getting in line for dining with a difference
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QUEUING to get into a restaurant is not news in Hangzhou, but to queue for dinner as early as 3pm or as late as 10pm is rare. Recently two new restaurants in the city have seen such popularity, with the young and trendy lining up to get in.
The restaurants — With Your Hand, that promises “no tableware,” and Piggy, which hires handsome waiters to cook meat at diners’ tables, focus on customer experience.
The scene outside With Your Hand seems like a scene from outside a night club. At around 10pm well-dressed, good-looking hipster types are lining up in front of a small gate.
And the interior of the restaurant seems like a club, complete with music, swirling blue lights and waiting staff in masquerade masks.
The restaurant is a branch of the famous local brand Grandma’s Kitchen, but diners here expect not only tasty food but the experience of eating, as the name suggests, with your hands.
It has neither chopsticks nor forks, instead giving customers plastic gloves. No wonder on the menu most dishes are baked, or foods that Chinese people love to chew — chicken feet, duck neck and nuts.
However, “the theme of the restaurant is not ‘without tableware,’ rather, ‘to eat with pleasure’,” insists Wu Guoping, the founder of Grandma’s Kitchen.
He installed tall tables so that diners can even stand to eat. “It makes chatting easier,” explains Wu.
Some tables are joined into a long line, “so neighbors can get to know each other,” and on every table there is a large plate to deposit bones and nut shells.
Meanwhile, seats are buckets with covers — so belongings can be put inside if things are going to get messy.
Must-order items include “Crazy Chicken” — a whole skewered grilled chicken — and Mongolian grilled lamb, both perfect for eating with your hands.
Piggy, meanwhile, also sells grilled food, and is a Korean-style grilled pork restaurant. But forget the stereotype of Korean-costumed waitresses and low tables, Piggy appeals to young diners by using lots of “cartoon pig” elements and waiting staff in hip-hop style uniforms, though also with bow ties.
At every table, young trendy waiters are responsible of grilling meat, frying rice and making salad for customers.
At the gate welcoming diners is a group of sculptures of pink cartoon pigs, looking like a family about to take a vacation.
The gate itself is decorated with a dozen neon lights and LED displays of the restaurant name and portraits of cartoon pigs.
In the restaurant the decor continues the colorful cartoon theme.
The seats and tables are close to each other. “A 200-square-meter space contains seating for 150 as we plan to make people intimate,” says Cao Xinyue, the director of the restaurant, adding that every seat is as close as 15 centimeters.
The background music is Korean pop, numerous screens on walls play Korean pop videos, while there is also night club style lighting.
All in all, the perfect setting for young trendies to pig out on barbecue favorites.
• With Your Hand
Address: No. 167 unit, B/F, the fourth phase of Hubin In77 Intime Department Store, 245 Yan’an Rd
• Piggy
Address: 1/F, C3 Zone of the second phase of Hubin In77 Intime Department Store, 39 Wushan Road
Take your cue from queues
A queue outside a restaurant means waiting, but is also usually a sign of good food. Here we list some other restaurants in Hangzhou where diners must usually line up outside to get a table.
• Grandma’s Kitchen
Address: 3 Hubin Rd; 8/F, B Mansion, Hangzhou Tower, No. 21, Wulin Square; 17/F, Tiedao Mansion, 1 Huancheng Rd E. (beside the Hangzhou Railway station); 218 Tiyuchang Rd
• Bailu
Address: 2/F, Intime Department Store, 98 Yan’an Rd; 572 Zhongshan Rd M.; 15 Yesutang Lane
• Mingren Mingjia
Address: 178 Tiyuchang Rd; 5/F, 38 Wen’er Rd; 333 Shangtang Rd
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