Yue Lu Eatery Longhua Uniworld Shopping Center 岳麓食記 龍華壹方天地店 (Shenzhen, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

I can’t believe we are really here at Lok Ma Chau station (落馬洲站) crossing the border. My first trip to Shenzhen in nearly eight years, my heart was pouncing so fast that I thought I needed medical attention. But I do have my high school buddies J.E.R.K., my wingmen who have stood by me for years by my side. So, despite the unexpectedly heavy traffic crossing the border on a Monday morning, the feeling was good.

We were chanting “四個小生去旅行” on our way to the metro station on the Shenzhen side. Hangar Jack organized the trip for us  and he chose a long long route to get to our destination. Almost 7 stations to Lok Ma Chau and another 13 to Longhua (龍華) via metro line No.4. When everything was said and done, the whole trip (one-way) took us more than an hour before we eventually arrived at Uniworld Shopping Center (壹方天地).

The first order of business was an early lunch at Uniworld which happens to be one of the biggest shopping malls in Shenzhen spanning over four zones (A, B, C and D). Not surprisingly, the four zones are packed with restaurants from western, Asian to Japanese and Chinese cuisine eateries. Since there aren’t that many restaurant in Hong Kong serving hearty Hunan dishes (地道湘菜), we thought we should seize the opportunity to check out Yue Lu Eatery (岳麓食記), a Hunan cuisine restaurant in Zone B of the mall.

Yue Lu offers a pretty small food menu which was only readable by scanning the QR code on the table. You need to have the DianPing (大眾點評) app or other alternative mobile apps installed on your phone to do so. That wasn't working for me but luckily some of us had my back covered.

Here we found a number of Hunan specialty dishes including sautéed beef with chili (辣椒炒肉), and stinky tofu (長沙臭豆腐) but I wasn't feeling all that adventurous this afternoon...

Roasted crispy chicken (現烤脆皮雞) – This looked more like a pigeon from my vantage point but most of us were too hungry to care much. The crispy skin certainly wasn't bad and there was some nice smokiness from the meat to back things up.

Stir-fried spicy beef with chili (小炒黃牛肉) – This dish was one of the key reasons we were here after Master c-foo spotted a poster of it just outside the restaurant.

I have to admit, they really know how to make a grand entrance.

I thought the beef was less spicy than I first anticipated (still pretty dry and spicy) and it worked reasonably well with the unlimited supply of steamed rice. But we were left scratching our head wondering why they shredded the beef into such small pieces.

Sautéed beef with chili and garlic (辣椒炒肉) – Pretty much the same as the previous dish but this was tossed with green peppers, garlic and black beans (almost same except the beef was in even smaller pieces). 

Dry pot baby Chinese cabbage (干鍋娃娃菜) – Of course, we needed some vegetables following all the meat and this was perfect.

I have heard from friends and families that food was relatively cheap in Shenzhen everywhere and they were equally delicious comparing to Hong Kong. But such was not the case this afternoon. Our bill was around 350RMB but we weren't really close to being full at all! However, rather than having another dish or two, we decided to simply settle the bill and perhaps look for some sweet treats in a couple of hours. That would be our plan going forward.

Food Rating: 5/10

Price: ¥¥¥

Address: Level 3, Shop 021, Longhua Uniworld Shopping Center, 4020 Renmin Road, Shenzhen, China

Closest Metro Station: Longhua

Tel: +86 755 2107-6443

Opening Hours: 11:30am - 2:30pm, 5:00pm - 9:00pm daily