Kanazawa

What is the best meal you're had lately? If you've eaten at the Kanazawa, there's no argument about the answer to that question.

For those who haven't eaten there, you have to go to truly appreciate the 13 courses of kaiseki and tea ceremony.

Although offering a number of set menus starting from RMB 300 (for seven courses), only the 13-course meal (RMB 1,000) factors in things like age, catering to the "appropriate for the season of your life," according to the chef.

Kanazawa is the epitome of “hidden Japanese place in Hongqiao,” the base of Shanghai’s Japanese community.

The elaborate meal is kaiseki with a Kanazawa flair -- delicately prepared courses with an emphasis on fresh seafood served on Kanazawa Shiiki, stunning gold leaf lacquerware with ornate, hand-drawn art.

Every item is seasonal and astoundingly fresh.

A 13-course meal could include sake so smooth it goes down like water, bento box of small bites, a sushi course with fatty toro, sweet ebi shrimp, thinly sliced, gold-flecked red snapper, a tender fillet from a silvery skinned whole fish stuffed with fresh okara (soybean pulp left over from making tofu), slices duck meat in a rich mushroom and abalone sauce, with a hint of wasabi, and much much more.

Only opened in 2009, it's clear why Kanazawa already has a following in the Japanese community, and why they've kept this secret to themselves.