After reading all the positive reviews, I decided to pay No Name a visit. It has a very quiet and cozy terrace. We ordered a wild mushroom with raisins and lemon salad - it had no raisins, one type of mushrooms, and was nothing special. The wild mushrooms in banana leaf was OK, but not as much variety of mushrooms as in other restaurants. The lamb marinated in yoghurt was fine, but not worth the money. They had ran out of coffee beans, so no coffee.

The prices are ridiculously high. If it's worth it, I would pay for it...but it't not. The atmosphere is great, and another plus is that they don't add MSG. The food tastes much healthier than in other restaurants.

Visited 14 April 2011.

Yes it's a little hard to find, but that's half the fun. You can be on the noisy fun lakeside one moment, and two minutes later sitting on a blissfully calm and quite roof terrace, or inside the slightly quirky restaurant. We reckon it's worth the five minutes of hunting to find it, once there it really is an oasis of calm, with good service and great food.

We had the spring rolls which were perfectly fried but still light and crammed with veges and Yunnan's famous mini mushrooms, curry vege dumplings, which were also very healthy and tasty, beef in banana leaf also very good. Kebabs were a little too spicy for two of our friends, but everyone loved the potato cheese pie (sounds weird but is very nice).

Dinner for five with a round of drinks was 435 kuai. Plenty of meat and vegetarian options. Good atmosphere, slightly odd choice of music (sounded more like the hari krishna concert band CD). Will go again.

Don't make the same mistake as I did by making your first trip to No-Name on a stormy day. Situated in a random, small Houhai hutong alleyway, finding No-Name in the rain is literally about as difficult as finding an empty cab in Beijing in the rain.

Once inside, however, I immediately was greeted by a sense of hospitality and warmth (both in terms of room temperature and restaurant service). Although my entire party had not quite located the restaurant yet, the waitress offered to find a table on the second floor that would accommodate us upstairs first, while seating me and bringing water - something that was very welcoming when contrasted against my typical experience of having to demand bai kai shui from fuwuyuans.

While waiting for my friends to arrive, I was able to really appreciate the natural atmosphere on the second floor, which was actually complemented by the constant beating of rain outside. In fact, between the pineapple aroma, floral decor, and abrupt lightning, I almost felt as if I was in the Yunnan jungle undergrowth, ready to dine on fresh-picked wild mushrooms.

Unfortunately, once my group arrived and ordered food, we were disappointed to find that the food quality was not quite up to the level of the environment of the restaurant. With a big group and a wide range of food preferences, we ordered a large array of dishes hoping to be able to sample a little bit of everything. However, we were (unpleasantly) surprised to find that the portion sizes that we received were very limited. In addition, the majority of dishes were fairly disappointing in quality.

The wild mushrooms in banana leaf were rather overcooked, leading to a somewhat bland flavor and mushy, textureless feel. The pineapple rice, although memorable (and presented inside a fresh pineapple), tasted soggy and over-sweetened. The lemon beef that we ordered was very standard and didn't seem to be particularly distinctive, as we had hoped for at a Yunnan restaurant. The tofu while decently flavored, also failed to strike us as great Yunnan food. The only dish that stood out was the mint and beef, which was very refreshing; however, again, it was severely limited by the unfortunate portion size.

Overall, although the atmosphere is simply stellar, No-Name's food disappoints, with meager portions accompanied with high prices. If you're looking for great Yunnan food, look elsewhere; however, if you're looking for the experience of a scavenger hunt culminating in a jungle-like restaurant interior, then by all means give it a go.

I went to No Name this week with a group of friends- it was a little tough to help everyone find it, but it was great once we got there! The upstairs terrace (with a roof) was nice and cool- the atmosphere was very relaxing and it was a nice way to unwind at the end of the week.

The food tasted great- the mint beef was especially fantastic. My one complaint is that the portions aren't quite the family-style sizes I've come to expect at Chinese restaurants, which wasn't great for dining in a big group. Each of our 8 people only got a bite or two of each dish, so we felt like we were overpaying considerably.

Overall, great atmosphere, really tasty food- just bring a date instead of a large group.

It might be because of the location in the houhai area that the prices of this average Yunnan restaurant are unexplicably so high!

I have to admit that the food was good, but this big plus was somehow diminished by the other factors, environment and price.

Environment: I don't understand why they have 2 floors, but only the top floor is heated! Probably they are not used to big crowds? ANyway, the ground floor is just freezing.
The waitresses seemed to enjoy more playing cards together than taking care of us and of the other few clients. They for sure didn't wear any special clothes, as somebody said before!
Yes, the cat is kind of cute, but I guess you are not supposed to let a dirty, even if cute, cat sitting on the chairs destined to customers, what if somebody is allergic? Definetely my pregnant wife wasn't happy about that!

Price: being a fan of the Yunnan cuisine and my wife being from Yunnan, we were both surprised by the prices. Why so high? The same food in, for example, In&Out or the Silk Way, is the same tasty, but with prices considerably lower (and In&Out is in Sanlitun, so their expenses should be even higher than in a hutong in houhai)!

Drinks: don't order wine, they will bring you a bottle from the freezer!

Good food, interesting menu, great atmosphere. There was even a chill cat joining us on the rooftop terrace.