CORRECTION: The following article appears exactly as printed in the Beijinger's November issue. Otaku's management has since pointed out that Otaku should not be linked with Izaka-Ya and Jazz-Ya as part of a "family" of venues, as our article implies. We apologize for any offense caused. 

Otaku follows Spice Factory as the second recent addition to Li Bo’s stable of stylish venues, also including Jazz-Ya, d lounge and Izaka-Ya. It’s as obsessively tasteful as the rest of the family, but gets bashful with manga art and cocktails in bubble tea cups. The quirks won’t wash with everyone, but are minor distractions.

The star of the menu here is the scallop grilled with butter sauce (RMB 90) – meaty and fresh, smooth and scrumptious. “Chocolate burger meat” (RMB 45) may sound like a dessert al carne; actually, these are creative croquettes, stuffed with unsweetened dark chocolate sauce.

Food explorers will be excited at the rarity and variety of live freshwater fish maintained in tanks – regional specialties from Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan and Tibet. Any of these can be on your table within moments, if you have the necessary means.

New Japanese restaurants are a trending topic in Gulou lately. Suzuki is cool and cheap, but the food is hit-and-miss. Kiko needs customers like a whale needs Greenpeace. And as for Yoshi Izakaya, that was an insult to sticky rice grains everywhere.

This place is the first Gulou Japanese that feels right as soon as you walk in.

For the next year or so, you’re bound to see a few tourists loitering at 29 Nanluogu Xiang, staring dumbly, hungrily, at an abandoned shell. If only they knew to walk 500 meters east for the Korean fix they seek. But they don’t – not until the next edition of their guidebook appears.