Famous grilled fish brand to open first Shanghai shop

A culinary icon deeply rooted in Southwest China's Sichuan province and Chongqing municipality, which is also a must-visit spot for tourists, is scheduled to make its first appearance in Shanghai at the end of this month, just before the Chinese New Year.

Having been a staple on the "must-eat" list of restaurant review app Dazhong Dianping for six consecutive years and once creating a record in Beijing with an eight-hour wait time after opening its first outlet in the capital in 2024, the Kaojiang brand continues to capture the hearts of food enthusiasts.

The chain's operator said the classic spicy version of grilled fish, the restaurants' signature dish, will be the highlight of the Shanghai menu. The operator emphasized that Kaojiang aims to establish itself as China's leading grilled fish brand by offering authentic Sichuan-Chongqing style spicy grilled fish to a wider population.

According to a 2024 report released by the consulting firm Frost & Sullivan on the current status and future trends of China's grilled fish market, the spicy flavor ranked as the top-selling item nationwide.

Shanghai, known for its diversity and openness to culinary innovation, has a vibrant but highly competitive market. With more than 70 locations across China, the brand is now ready to meet these challenges.

Huang Chunyan, Kaojiang's brand manager, explained that their grilled fish is renowned for its taste, a result of years of refining flavors and techniques, even after the first restaurant opened in 2013.

"To recreate authentic flavors, our team once spent three months testing flavor upgrades, finally deciding on a golden ratio of three types of Sichuan peppercorns and three types of chilies," Huang said.

"All of our restaurants also use freshly ground black bean curd as a side dish. The black bean curd is made from black beans from northeastern China and has undergone nearly a month of testing to capture the nostalgic taste of traditional bean curd," she said.

To address the issue of uneven heating in commonly used rectangular dishes, which could affect the texture of the bean curd, Kaojiang pioneered a patented round pan. Huang noted that this solution was adopted after 300 days of testing and involved optimizing 12 design iterations.

The move to Shanghai was largely driven by foodies. In a May vote to decide which city the brand would next open shop in, Shanghai won. However, the exact location was left to a November poll. Options included the Xujiahui area, People's Square, Jing'an Temple, Huaihai Road, and the Wujiaochang area.

Unlike traditional business expansion strategies typically dominated by data analysts and development teams, this new opening appears to have been driven more by customers.

Initially, the established business center Xujiahui was the location of choice. Then social media intervened. A comment suggesting Wujiaochang received almost 1,000 likes. Students from nearby universities, including Fudan University and Tongji University, got involved, resulting in nearly 45,000 people participating in the vote. Wujiaochang, the youthful area in Yangpu district that is home to at least six universities, won with over 52 percent of the vote.

Huang said the brand has always placed great importance on customer preferences and the voting on location was an indication of that. Other examples include upgrading restaurants' ventilation systems to reduce the chances of fishy odors clinging to customers' clothing and adding charging facilities under each table.

zhouwenting@chinadaily.com.cn