Koyama

Koyama's menu is a veritable reference book of raw fish. It offers 400-plus traditional Japanese dishes and regional specialties, showcasing thick slabs of beautiful raw fish and many dishes in pornographic detail. Half-way through skimming it, you will be hungry.

The fish here is incredibly fresh, making Koyama an excellent place to go for sashimi and sushi.”

The salmon in particular is melt-in-your-mouth fresh. To illustrate how good, one dianping.com user, ?x?x, claims that eating salmon 28 days in a row will improve your skin noticeably. Then she goes on to recommend that all women undertake this endeavor by eating the salmon sashimi at Koyama.

We can't substantiate her health claims, but we agree: if you're going to dedicate yourself to salmon, do it at Koyama.

Besides the salmon, the fresh sea urchin, grilled codfish and generous hand rolls are also popular orders.

For those who think Koyama is expensive for dinner (anywhere from RMB 200-700), try the set lunches, particularly the chirashi bowl set, which also comes with chawanmushi (steamed egg) and miso soup.

For RMB 88 the set includes the chirashi bowl, an appetizer, a steamed egg and soup. It's the best lunch deal in Xintiandi any day of the week. The sushi rice, swathed in thick cuts of fresh salmon, tuna, octopus and scallop, is almost too pretty to eat.