Serving traditional Shanghainese, Cantonese and Hangzhounese cuisine with a contemporary flair, Four Seasons Hotel Hangzhou at West Lake’s Jin Sha is a stylish spot for a taste of the region’s bounty. The restaurant sources most of its ingredients locally, using free-range chicken and vegetables from nearby farms.
Jin Sha’s design allows you to watch chef Wang Yong and his team hard at work making delicate steamed black truffle dumplings, clay-baked crispy chicken and plenty of dishes starring fresh seafood. You’ll also find a wide selection of tea; you’d be remiss not to order a cup of longjing green tea, native to Hangzhou.
Designed by Tokyo firm Spin Design Studio — which also did the interiors for Four Seasons Hotel Hong Kong’s restaurant Caprice — the venue’s main dining space and private rooms highlight incredible views of the hotel’s garden and pond.
Jin Sha’s alfresco dining is a rare treat in Hangzhou and lovely in the spring and fall, when temperatures are most pleasant.
- In nice weather, the most coveted spots at Jin Sha are the 34 seats outside, shaded by oaks and willows and overlooking the property’s beautifully manicured classical Chinese garden.
- There are 11 stand-alone private dining pavilions, each featuring walls of windows that flood the room with sunlight, a terrace and pretty garden views. If you’re coming with a large group, this is the table to book.
- Jin Sha’s kitchen utilizes seasonal ingredients, so be sure to visit in autumn when hairy crab makes an appearance. The delicacy is served boiled, in steamed dumplings and braised with bean curd.
- The Hangzhou restaurant excels at elevating street fare to a fine-dining level, like with Shanghainese comfort staple cong you bing (scallion pancakes) and melt-in-your-mouth vegetable and pork wontons.
- The team at Jin Sha puts extra effort into the dozen-plus desserts, turning out delicacies like housemade ice cream (ginger, honey, walnut), a longjing pudding, and red bean cheesecake.
- For weekday lunch and dinner, you can get by without a reservation. If you want to come for weekend dim sum, be sure to book in advance.
- Jin Sha is more for business deals and romantic meals, so we don’t recommend bringing younger kids. The hotel has a babysitting service and also runs dumpling-making and arts-and-crafts classes for little ones.
- If there’s a bit of a wait for a table, grab a cup of tea in the lobby lounge. Hangzhou is famous for its longjing (grown near the hotel), or if you prefer a sweeter sip, try a few varieties of Valrhona hot chocolate.
- The menus at Jin Sha feature dishes that skew traditional but use contemporary ingredients. Steamed vegetable dumplings, for example, are upgraded with black truffles.
- The seafood restaurant’s stand-out Hangzhou dish is plump river shrimp sautéed with longjing tea.
- The star of the menu at Jin Sha is seafood, much of it local— razor clams, king prawns, river shrimp, cod, scallops — served sautéed, steamed, poached and fried.
- The culinary team at Jin Sha is helmed by Wang Yong, who has more than 20 years’ experience cooking Hangzhounese and Shanghainese cuisine.
- When cooking at home for his family, Yong whips up home-style Hangzhounese food like pork belly with bamboo shoots. He favors dishes he learned to cook from his mother in his home province of Jiangxi.
- Yong says the most important technique in preparing Hangzhou cuisine is in knife skills — every slice, shred and cube must be uniform.
