Lei Garden
Lei Garden, a renowned restaurant from Hong Kong, previously earned a Michelin star in Shanghai, but unfortunately withdrew from the Chengdu market. I had written about its Shanghai branch on my blog before, and I didn’t expect them to open a location in Ningbo as well. Happening to come down from Xuedou Mountain, I hurried over to give it a try. The restaurant is located in the new district, opposite the International Convention and Exhibition Center, in an area called the Ningbo International Financial Service Center. It’s essentially a complex combining office buildings and dining, surrounded by a forest of skyscrapers. Although it’s not in the city center, the upside is that it was relatively close to my hotel, making for a perfect post-dinner stroll back.
Additionally, for dinner service at this restaurant, most ingredients need to be reserved in advance; otherwise, they sell out by lunchtime. This includes all dim sum, roasted meats, daily soups, and Mango Pomelo Sago—everything requires a reservation…
Crispy Roasted Pork Belly, a must-order signature dish. The small portion comes with 9 pieces, which is just right for two people.
Glassy Crispy Squab: The skin really is like a thin layer of glass—incredibly crispy. What’s amazing is that the entire skin is uniformly crisp. It’s practically magical; I reckon if you gave me a thousand squabs to experiment with, I might just figure out their cooking method… Hahaha.
Shrimp Dumplings
Stir-fried Hairy Gourd with Pork Neck: The hairy gourd was delicious, fragrant and sweet. The dish overall was slightly salty, but generally very tasty. On Lei Garden’s plain white plate, the characters for ‘Lei Garden’ are elegantly written in syrup.
Signature Claypot Rice: Generous with ingredients. The crispy rice crust at the bottom is served separately, though personally, I feel it tastes better mixed in~
The original Mango Pomelo Sago remains a classic.
Compared to the Shanghai branch, the service here is noticeably better. Staff proactively refill water, serve soup, and scoop rice. There are enough servers, so they aren’t overwhelmed. The restaurant space is massive; the entrance winds through a long corridor—you have to walk quite a distance to get to your seat. Yet, despite being in such a remote location, managing to fill the place is truly impressive.
San Liang Yakiniku
San Liang Yakiniku is a Japanese-style BBQ restaurant. Perhaps due to recent tensions with South Korea, Japanese BBQ spots seem to be popping up everywhere. The restaurant is located in Donganli, an open-air shopping plaza somewhat similar to Thumb Plaza. While there’s no subway nearby, the surrounding residential communities keep the foot traffic lively. Surprisingly, there’s even a Hema Fresh supermarket nearby…
nThe meat quality here is excellent—chilled fresh cuts that are incredibly juicy. Both the boneless short ribs and beef tongue were delicious with great texture. They don’t need any special seasoning; a light dip in sauce is more than enough.
Boneless Short Ribs
Marbled Beef Short Ribs
Premium Thick-Cut Beef Tongue
Frosty Marbled Pork
Vegetable Platter
All in all, this restaurant is well worth a visit and is featured on Dianping’s ‘Must-Eat’ list for Ningbo. Sometimes, stretching your budget just a little bit to experience truly delicious food is absolutely worth it. The ambiance is also nice, mostly consisting of booth seating. It isn’t too noisy inside, and conveniently, there are USB charging ports right at the table.
Photos in this post taken with SONY A5100 + 16-50 f3.5-5.6, edited in Lightroom.
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