RU YUAN

The theme of this spring's menu is "Winter is gone, spring is here". It still inherits the essence of Hangzhou's traditional cuisine, uses local fresh seasonal ingredients, adheres to the concept of sustainable development, and chooses to match according to the season. Cold dishes are wonderful: There are sweet and delicate oil and vinegar smoked fish eggs. There are baby vegetables baked clams with colorful peach pink sea salt. There are crispy boxes filled with artemisia and dried bean curd. There are exquisite and unforgettable mustard greens Zhoushan jellyfish. Jade cut fish balls, take the meat of catfish and chop it into fine grains on the reversed pig skin. This ancient traditional method can not only remove the fish bones from the skin, but also take the fat from the skin into the fish meat. This is a traditional skill and the great wisdom of the ancients. The crystal clear fish balls are strong in shape, delicate and smooth in the mouth, and the evenly sized sweet beans are green duckweed, like jade drops, and the soup is extremely sweet. Longjing shrimp, this is the must-eat famous dish in Hangzhou that has been iterated here 71 times. This dish is also deconstructed and reorganized based on traditional techniques. The shrimp shells are peeled by hand to extract shrimp oil and stir-fried with Longjing tea oil, and then Longjing tea leaves made of Longjing tea phenol and green dough are added. I am lucky this time. In this season when Longjing tea is on the market, fresh green tea buds are added to the stir-fry to make this dish even better. This is available for a limited time! Hangzhou cuisine Gold Medal Braised Pork has to be mentioned. This dish is the first creation of Master Fu Yueliang, who inherited and carried forward this dish. While maintaining the shape of traditional pagoda meat, bamboo shoots are embedded inside, and orchid spring bamboo shoots are carved with exquisite carving skills outside. The bamboo shoots inside absorb the fat and oil of the braised pork, and the sweet and sour spring bamboo shoots outside add interest to its greasy taste. Spring and winter gather two bamboo shoots, and time distinguishes the universe! Desserts are also Chinese, silky and elegant! Lotus seeds in winter and lotus roots in spring, this name is not roundabout and not offensive. Use winter lotus heart to grind it into a smooth and fat-like paste, add lotus root powder to make a paste, embellish lotus root slices into flowers, and osmanthus oil to add color and charm! In recent years, everyone has used inheritance and innovation as a slogan, an advertisement, a topic of conversation, and a joke! But today's meal at Ruyuan is for me! I admire and admire it. Every dish has the essence of tradition, and every dish presents today's excitement! I remember reading an interview with Master Fu, he said: "We inherit the classics and reshape the classics. Use the essence of Hangzhou cuisine to pay tribute to tradition"! His creative logic must be original, find direction from the four seasons, and find inspiration in the old recipes. He did it, this is the true meaning of "inheritance and innovation"! In addition, I would like to sigh about what I heard in the front hall. This is a restaurant that frequently reminds me of the plot of "Tokyo Grand Hotel" in my mind during the experience! Maybe the expression of the restaurant in the plot is the perfect restaurant in my cognition. Ruyuan is a loving restaurant. The respect and love of the waiters for the customers, the respect and love of the management for the chef team, and the love of the chefs for excellent ingredients. All of these can be experienced in your meal. This is an amazing team! [Strong] Entering the garden·I wished Attending the table·I was satisfied As the food·I wished to pass on the tradition As the courtyard·I wished

Summer Food Charm: Fu Yueliang's Summer Poetry This summer, Chef Fu Yueliang and Ms. Iris, together with their team, present a lively and elegant summer taste with the theme of "Summer Food Charm". In the menu, the seasonal and elegant Jiangnan scenery blends with the summer charm of a foreign land far away from the mountains and seas. On the deep roots of local water and soil, it sucks nutrients from other places, and the spirit of "eating in season" sprouts new branches from the old roots. "Qingliangfeng Stone Bamboo Shoots" debuts, ten kilograms of fresh bamboo shoots can produce one kilogram of dried, condensing the essence of "wild, clear, fresh, and crisp", which is a natural delicacy to relieve summer heat and stimulate appetite. "Sauced Dalian Two-Head Abalone" is based on the surging texture of fresh abalone, and uses precise heat and Hangzhou-style sauce to achieve a quartet of "elastic, tender, fresh, and glutinous". Tradition is reborn in innovation. The "crispy skin and soft stinky tofu" has a crispy skin like a thin shell, and the inside is soft and juicy like a soft heart, perfectly unifying the fermented flavor and taste level. The "West Lake Lotus Root and East China Sea Squid" is not only a combination of ingredients, but also a collision of cultural symbols - the generosity of the ocean meets the elegance of lotus root, and a delicate balance is achieved between salty sweetness and crispness, with a far-reaching artistic conception. The "Tianmu Water Duck Lychee Soup" is well versed in the way of summer health preservation. With water duck nourishing yin as the base and lychee warming yang as the blending, it has achieved a delicious and nourishing classic medicinal diet. The highly anticipated "74 West Lake Vinegar Fish" uses grass carp from the source of Qianjiang River in Kaihua, Zhejiang this summer. Kaihua grass carp, born in green mountains and clear waters and cold and flowing water, has lake freshness without mud taste. The whole fish is deboned and boned with complicated techniques, allowing diners to enjoy the deliciousness without fear of fish bones, which not only demonstrates the exquisiteness of traditional techniques, but also conveys respect for local high-quality ingredients. How can you miss the soup dumplings that can be called works of art? "Emerald Sponge Gourd Soup Dumpling" is the epitome of this summer's customs. It also requires "lifting gently, moving slowly, opening the window first, then drinking the soup", but the tip of the tongue lingers with the refreshing and summer sweetness brought by the sponge gourd. The finale is the "Gold Medal Braised Pork Summer" hidden deep in my heart. This classic dish that accompanied the grand feast of childhood is now reproduced in a more refined form. In response to the season, the filling of the tower is replaced with lily, which is sweet and glutinous in summer, and it achieves a wonderful balance with the fat of braised pork, and is garnished with a few smoked sweet beans. The satisfaction and happiness are hard to describe in words. The lotus wind leads the way, and the star wish is tasted for the first time; the lychee fragrance moisturizes, and the fireflies illuminate the wish. The summer banquet in Ruyuan is a harmony of customs and craftsmanship, and it is also the most elegant poem dedicated to summer.

Enter the garden and enjoy the lotus breeze A green poem by the West Lake, a Michelin temple of rationality and poetry In the botanical garden in summer, cicadas are chirping and the breeze is blowing. Ruyuan Restaurant by the West Lake is like a secluded and quiet lotus pond, waiting for the destined person. Two years after its opening, it has become famous! It is rare to add a Michelin star in one year. Ruyuan has quickly become the supreme temple for domestic catering industry practitioners to worship. This is not only the pride of Chinese catering, but also the glory of Chinese cooking. In my opinion, Ruyuan is an absolute model of "Fine dining" and an experiment of rationality and poetry. Its core concept is to integrate space function, food culture, operation logic and aesthetic expression into a systematic design that is linked together. The most convincing detail is the handwritten dish design manuscript of chef Fu Yueliang, which is transformed into wall decoration. These drafts carrying the development ideas of Hangzhou cuisine have not been sealed, but accurately translated into art prints. This is by no means an accidental embellishment, it is a concrete expression of the concept of dish creation, sublimating the traces of cooking thinking into artistic symbols, cleverly echoing the restaurant's food philosophy of "inheriting the original taste, keeping the integrity and innovating". And this is just a microcosm of the overall thinking. The scattered table area, tea space, theme box and wine cellar, each area is carefully planned according to the flow of customers, private needs and service efficiency. Functional zoning not only meets multiple scenarios, but also extends the stay time through differentiated experience, improves operational efficiency, and achieves a dynamic balance between the number of seats and operating costs. Design serves dining and extends to the carrier of dish culture. Whether it is the research and improvement of the 74th version of West Lake Vinegar Fish, or the polishing of the 80th version of Longjing Shrimp, behind the numbers is the chef's almost paranoid pursuit of craftsmanship. He digitally narrates the creative process of the kitchen, making the research and development logic itself a part of the cultural aesthetics of the dish. Every decision made by Ruyuan can be traced back to the cross-validation of space efficiency, cultural expression, and cost control, which is the epitome of its systematic design philosophy and the core competitiveness that makes it a model in the industry. It is these details deeply rooted in the core that have enabled Ruyuan to quickly win two Michelin stars and the annual service award in just two years, creating an impressive and impressive achievement. This is the "secret" that fellow pilgrims should pay most attention to.

Congratulations to Ruyuan Restaurant for winning the 2024 Hangzhou Michelin star less than a year after opening. And Ruyuan Restaurant Xiaoguan for winning the Best Service Award. Great 👍

Jiangsu and Zhejiang cuisine is very comfortable to eat, light and flavorful. Longjing shrimp is chewy and sweet with a unique flavor.

This is a collaborative menu worth flying in for: "Ru Yuan" and "Yong" – Fermentation Aesthetics Fu Yueliang of the two-Michelin-starred Hangzhou restaurant "Ru Yuan" joins forces with Vicky Zheng Yongqi of "Yong," ranked 11th in the 2025 World's 50 Best Restaurants (3rd in Asia's 50 Best Restaurants), to present a four-day "Fermentation Aesthetics" feast in Hangzhou and Hong Kong. These two highly sought-after chefs are friends of mine. What I admire most about them isn't their current status in the Chinese culinary world, but their humility in researching taste and philosophy, and their powerful energy for continuous "transformation." Upon arriving in Hangzhou, Vicky immediately began exploring the local markets with Chef Fu. I recalled him and his wife Polly taking me to Hong Kong's southern markets; his understanding of abalone, sea cucumber, and shark fin is top-notch among the new generation of chefs. That's why his sea cucumber spring rolls have such a satisfyingly fatty pork-like texture inside. Coincidentally, Wing's abalone still featured abalone liver for added umami, but this time, to echo the Hangzhou flavor, they added fermented broad bean paste and Xiaoshan dried radish, creating a savory and universally appealing taste. Fu Yueliang presented dried abalone in fermented rice wine alongside, a perfect match. Speaking of Chef Fu, I bumped into him in Spain years ago. While everyone else was at the outlet mall, he was engrossed in a bookstore, carrying a huge suitcase full of cookbooks back to China. This time, they served traditional soup dumplings (containing a large packet of pork skin broth). As someone who often eats greasy food, I've always been skeptical about the health benefits of soup dumplings. But this time, the Longjing shrimp broth inside was truly refreshing. It's not hard to imagine that there's a profound reason why his signature braised pork belly and West Lake vinegar fish can remain so consistently innovative. This braised pork belly was a stunning new version. The puffed quinoa on the outside added a crispy layer, while the melt-in-your-mouth chestnuts soaked up the rich broth, reminding me of my grandmother's braised chestnuts from my childhood—so satisfying! Vicky brought her restaurant's ammonia-free preserved eggs, Hong Kong-style cured pork belly, and pickled vegetables… Chef Fu prepared homemade stinky tofu, Hangzhou pickled cucumbers, and pickled radishes. They even cooked a naturally fermented version of pickled fish with sunflower seeds together. I couldn't help but admire the genuine quality of their "Fermentation Aesthetics Menu." The two chefs offered different interpretations of tofu. Chef Fu said that Hangzhou flavors are subtle on the outside but rich in flavor. He stuffed stinky tofu with preserved eggs, complemented by a spicy sauce and salty soy milk, presenting "The Life of Tofu." Vicky, on the other hand, used homemade, fragrant preserved eggs, paired with peanut-flavored sesame tofu and a spicy sauce. His understanding of chili sauce was very inspiring for chefs in the Jiangnan and Greater Bay Area regions. He said the chili sauce should have an initial spiciness, but the spiciness shouldn't linger, otherwise it would affect the subsequent tasting. Finally, Vicky brought the Chaoshan children's fondness for cilantro in desserts to her mixed ice jelly with passion fruit and coconut. Fu Yueliang expressed this with lotus-shaped pastries paired with Hangzhou-style lotus seed and bamboo shoot sweet soup, capturing the essence of Hangzhou cuisine. Both masters found new insights into flavor within the boundaries of their own traditions.

🌿I stumbled upon this little courtyard on the weekend, and the white walls, gray tiles, and swaying bamboo shadows were instantly soothing. In the open kitchen, the chefs skillfully wielded their knives, and the cutting boards were piled high with fresh seasonal ingredients; the atmosphere was both rustic and elegant.🍃 🍲Must-try Jiangnan Three Delicacies: ✔️"Matsutake Mushroom Stewed Chicken"🍲Simmered in a clay pot for four hours, the golden broth is glistening with oil; one sip and you're warmed to the core. ✔️"Crab Roe Tofu Soup"🦀Freshly extracted crab roe wrapped around tofu, sprinkled with chopped shepherd's purse—it's so delicious it'll make your eyebrows dance! ✔️"Osmanthus Sugar Lotus Root"🌼The chewy lotus root holes are stuffed with glutinous rice, drizzled with amber-colored osmanthus sugar—the sweetness is just right. For around 150+ RMB per person, you can enjoy seasonal delicacies in an elegant Chinese-style setting, perfect for a leisurely meal and conversation with family and friends. Sunlight streamed through the wooden window lattice, casting a warm glow on the dining table and even the bowls and chopsticks. What a delightful afternoon! ✨