Chopped steak, salmon, a few plates of sushi plus enough Japanese beer to send someone home staggering would normally bleed the common Chinese bill-payer of a week's pay.
In Shanghai, add to that a salad, a mushroom stir-fry, a bottle of sake and just about anything else and you pay as little as 100 yuan, which is worth about $12.45.
"At 100 yuan, everyone can accept it, all kinds of people," said Huang Juping, branch manager of the eight-year-old Itoya Japanese Restaurant. About 80 percent of Itoya's 108 seats fill every night with prices of 98 yuan for 200 kinds of food, Huang said.