Dong Zhai Lou (Kaili)

Dong Zhai Lou is a Kaili restaurant on Minzu Shangmao Street, recommended for boiled fish in sour soup and for ethnic-minority dishes of southeast Guizhou. Kaili is the main city of Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture, and its cuisine reflects the cooking of the Miao and Dong peoples, who share a taste for sour, fermented and smoked flavours. The restaurant's name refers to the Dong zhai, a Dong village, and the lou, a tower or building, evoking the wooden drum towers and houses for which Dong communities are known. The signature dish is boiled fish in sour soup, in which river fish is poached in a tangy, tomato-and-chili broth until it is just cooked, then served with vegetables and tofu. The menu also includes Dong minority dishes, which typically feature pickled fish, cured and smoked meat, glutinous rice and wild herbs, and offer a sense of the seasonal and preserved cooking of the region's mountain villages. The dining room usually draws on ethnic decoration, with wood, textiles and sometimes performances or costumed staff, and the mood is warm and communal. Tables are suited to groups, and the noise level is moderate to high at peak times. No dress code applies. Beverages can include tea, soft drinks, beer and the rice wines associated with minority communities, though no formal wine programme exists. Walk-ins are accepted and reservations are not required, but arriving before 7PM at peak times is advisable, especially for tour groups. Prices are in the mid-range. Minzu Shangmao Street is a central commercial street in Kaili, which makes the restaurant easy to reach from the main hotels and the city's museums, and it is a convenient place to try both sour soup fish and Dong specialities in one meal. Visitors who plan to travel to nearby Dong villages in Qiandongnan, such as those around Zhaoxing, may find it a useful preview of the cuisine that they will encounter there.