Left: Get started with a nice cup of pumpkin peanut soup from Shang Hai Restaurant.Right: Be adventurous and try a cup of crab meat and tofu soup from Shang Hai Restaurant.

Keisha Shakespeare-Blackmore, Staff Reporter

There's another new restaurant in town and, with it comes a new Chinese style of dining.

Shang Hai Restaurant located at the Liguanea Post Mall in Ligunea, St. Andrew, opened its doors to the public on January 28. The restaurant has stepped up the dinning experience a notch by bringing a new taste, Mandarin style cuisine.

Paul Yoa, owner of the restaurant told Food that he has introduced Mandarin cuisine to the island, realising that Jamaicans love spicy food and he is of Mandarin background also. Mr. Yoa notes that he has been in the restaurant business for the past 10 years. He first started out with a fast food joint, Five Star in New Kingston that his wife, Kerry operates.

Free Zone worker

Shang Hai Restaurant owner, Paul Yoa.

Mr. Yoa came to Jamaica in 1995 to work at the Free Zone but went back to China after three years. Two years later, he returned to Jamaica because he said he liked it so much especially the warm and friendly people. He also pointed out that working in Jamaica he is able earn more and he has a family care for. "Making money is very important because I have my wife, child, and parents to care for and protect," said Mr. Yoa passionately.

Upon his return, he worked six months in a restaurant and six months in a hotel. He notes that he prefers the restaurant business, as such, in 2002 he started Shang Hai (fast food), that was later changed to Five Star when it relocated to New Kingston last year. Currently, he has reused the name Shang Hai but for his gourmet restaurant in Ligunea. "Sometimes you have to start with a fast food before getting enough money to open a top class restaurant," said Mr. Yoa.

Though not a chef by profession he also wears the chef's hat at his restaurant. He said he learnt the art of cooking from his father, Yoa Xiaomin, who taught him to cook from he was about seven years old. He added too that he has many chef friends who have taught him a lot. He loves to experiment with food which is his passion. And he maintains his will be like no other Chinese restaurant in Jamaica being the only Mandarin Chinese restaurant here. He notes that even the dcor of the restaurant is a representative of Chinese style of living, the colours, lights, and furniture.

Romantic dining experience

For a quiet and romantic dining experience, Shang Hai provides a private section to meet your needs. Also, the food is very colourful, tasty, and has an authentic taste that will tantalise the palates. For desert, a cold plate with slender slices of roasted beef and sugar tomatoes are a must try. And for the main course, the gold stick (Irish potatoes coated with egg yolk and cheese) is an exquisite twist to the popular French fries. Other interested yet tasty dish are crab meat and tofu soup, cold slices of pig's tongue, rice farchang, pumpkin and peanut soup and pork gonbao.