The palace is a confusing place for a meal

Gong Yan came highly recommended when I told a friend I was going to Shanghai. It was supposed to be set in imperial China (the current theme is Song Dynasty) and one is meant to dine like a palace noble. Coming in at about RMB 400 per person (lunch), it was a pretty good 10-course meal. We were seated and served high grade Da Hong Pao tea, 3 Deg Plum Wine, various pastries and side dishes first. When the show started, we were presented with the most delicious Jin Hua Ham tofu soup. The other dishes that followed were nice, but they seem to get culinarily lazier as the course goes. The meal ended with a clear noodle soup (very plain), and an osmanthus flavoured yogurt which I honestly do not think its very imperial China at all...? My mother-in-law who is lactose intolerant was given some cut fruits. Despite my criticism though, the food was still all in all high quality and worth eating for the price point. My main gripe with the experience though was my confusion with what I need to do at each point in time.... The intersperse of show and service left one with very little time to appreciate the food. When I find myself trying to watch the dance and understand the show, my food gets neglected and the next course is ready to be served. When I switched my focus to savour every morsel of food, I find myself dining in the dark (they off the lights for show effect) and thereby losing the visual appreciation of both my lunch and the performance - which I think is a little disrespectful too. What is one supposed to do when dining in the palace??? In the midst of my confusion, the 12:10 lunch seating very quickly become 2pm and I felt like I had been rushed through a meal, ready to resume my imperial court duties. I will sentence the director of this meal to experience this pandemonium for himself... T_T Perhaps that's just me. Seated in the middle of our group of 5, my experience was likely a moderation of my entire family. The mother-in-law on the extreme right had the best view of the show. She thoroughly enjoyed the food and experience. She also appreciates the accommodation to her dietary requirements (she also does not eat beef and they switched out her beef dish with chicken). All in all she gives this meal a 5-star rating because Shanghai was otherwise as exciting as memorizing the periodic table. My sister-in-law on the extreme left and also the last seat of the row had a whole other experience. She did not understand much about the performance and was fervently trying to keep herself awake during the meal. Doesn't help that her view of the performance was largely obstructed by a mega pillar. For this, we do not recommend sitting in seat North 11-11. As a foodie, she keenly awaits each performance to be over so that she gets more food though! After the meal, she continues to sing praises about the beef dish. Lastly, and something I wish the restaurant would pick up and improve on though, was how they treat their staff in plain view of t #localfood #china