The best thing about GoKoHai is that it adheres to my idea of a good restaurant: it has a simple, uncluttered menu, suggesting to me that the few items available are done right. The word-of-mouth popularity of the simple eatery is proven by the ubiquitous line of people waiting to be seated. Just like Guyi, there always seems to be someone lingering around waiting to eat at GoKoHai, however the difference here is that you can book a table.

The restaurant is split into two seating sections. The front seats couples and singles, adjoining strangers just like in Tokyo. The back has rooms which can sit up to six people. If you want to go in groups, I strongly suggest you book beforehand, otherwise go with just two people maximum if you want to go on a whim.

As my subtitle suggests, the deal here is minimal. On offer is about eight variations of meats, mostly types of beef cuts, all thinly sliced for quick cooking. The restaurant also offers about 16 vegetable and tofu options and just a few seafood selections. Now that's minimal for a Hot pot restaurant. Unlike the Chinese Hot pots where everyone dips into a communal pot, here each person gets to have their own mini-pots; you don't need to worry about double dipping -- a great feature if you happen to be dining with persons of suspect hygiene.

The quality of the soup base, meats and other ingredients is quite good considering the price (about 30rmb per plate). Don't go expecting to find Kobe beef on the menu though. The squid (38rmb), which was quite expensive compared to the prawns (12rmb for the same amount), was about the only thing that was not particularly good among the several plates my dining partners and I ordered. The bill at the end came to about 100rmb per person.

If you can only read English, follow SmartShanghai's venue listing to get a look at the front of the restaurant.

Gokohai
Address: 1720 Huaihai Lu, near Wuxing Lu
Tel: 021-64717657