Shanghai fine dining restaurant Canopia is under fire for serving diners “elephant feces,” as a dessert course that’s part of a ¥3,888 menu. (I first covered it a year ago in the January 2024 Scoop.)
Canopia is an immersive restaurant built into a multi-million yuan villa at Yangyun Village in Shanghai. The villa, owned by its investor, contains a reconstructed Yunnan rainforest within, complete with a waterfall and simulated rainfall, as well as flora and fauna. It reportedly took an estimated 15-20 million RMB to build.
The news of said “shit” went viral on social media, originally posted by controversial blogger 米雪食记 (40,000 forwards on WeChat channels), then picked up by Shanghai Observer (上观新闻), a news platform under state-backed Shanghai United Media Group (上海报业集团). The Shanghai Observer video clip posted April 11 has more than 20,000 forwards, and the caption reads:
“象粪甜品”居然真有大象粑粑！？#上海人均3888元天价餐厅被查 ！市场监管局：封存原料，停止经营。
“Dessert made from elephant dung” actually contains elephant feces. Exorbitant Shanghai restaurant charging ¥3,888 per person investigated! Market supervision authority: ingredients seal, operations halted.
Update: Diners are not told what they’re eating until after they’ve ingested said product.
This isn’t Kopi Luwak (cat poop coffee), which has its own market regulators and is recognized internationally as a specialty coffee.
The shit, I’m guessing, is sourced from somewhere in Yunnan. Who knows any more details at this point. If I were to guess, there isn’t a QS (quality safety) attached to it. But I wouldn’t know — I haven’t been there. I’ll skip the poop, thanks.
Main image via Canopia’s official WeChat account.
