One fish bowl, one street
XIAOYU — “little fish” — is a mid-range Sichuan shop on Yersin street, living off one dish done really well: pickled fish.
Pickled fish (suancai yu) is Sichuan street food: thin-sliced fresh fish poached in a golden pickled-mustard broth, spiked with dried chili and numbing Sichuan peppercorns. At XIAOYU, that bowl is the center of every meal — bright sour broth, tearing heat, eaten with white rice.
The room tells the truth: closely set wooden tables, warm yellow light, not one wasted detail. This is a proper mid-range canteen — people come for the fish bowl, not for check-ins. a number of a shop that gets eaten at for real, praised for real.
Open all week: weekends 10:30–21:30, weekdays 10:30–21:00. Right in Ben Thanh, District 1 — close enough for a lunch drop-in, good enough for a dinner return.
What sets it apart
- One anchor dish: Sichuan pickled fish — turmeric-gold broth, chili and numbing peppercorns
- Properly mid-range — a canteen, not a showy restaurant
- Warm room: closely set wooden tables, yellow light
- Right in Ben Thanh, District 1 — 142 Yersin, easy to find
- Real eaters, real praise — no check-in games
Who it's for
Proper dried chili and numbing peppercorns — come for the signature sour heat.
Right in Ben Thanh, open from 10:30 — a hot fish bowl with white rice is a proper lunch.
The anchor dish is sour-spicy Sichuan — not the shop for the chili-averse.
Quick facts
Sichuan pickled fish
Sichuan (suancai fish)
Mid-range
142 Yersin, Ben Thanh, D1