Mandarin Fish Baked in Cream Sauce 烤奶汁鳜鱼
Mandarin Fish Baked in Cream Sauce is featured among the local specialties of Heilongjiang.
Mandarin Fish Baked in Cream Sauce (烤奶汁鳜鱼) belongs to the Russian-style Western cooking of Harbin (哈尔滨), Heilongjiang. CCTV's food programme 'Flavours' (味道) presented it in 2025 as one of the classic representatives of Harbin's Russian 'grand cuisine' (俄式大菜).
Where it comes from
A 2024 Guangming Daily (光明日报) essay on the city calls Harbin 'a city brought by the railway' and says it naturally has Western food, naming cream-sauce mandarin fish (奶汁鳜鱼) alongside pot-braised lamb, pot-braised beef, grilled chicken and French fried eggs.
How it is eaten
The dish is served at two old restaurants on Central Street (中央大街) in Harbin. Huamei Western Restaurant (华梅西餐厅), at No. 112 Central Street, is a China Time-honoured Brand (中华老字号) certified by the Ministry of Commerce; Harbin's broadcaster HRB Lanwang (HRB蓝网) reported in 2025 that its baked cream-sauce mandarin fish and its salad-dressed chicken have received the 'China famous dish' (中国名菜) honour.
The Western restaurant of the Modern Hotel (马迭尔宾馆), founded in 1906, is another. The Hong Kong Commercial Daily (香港商报) described the hotel in 2019 as the source of Harbin's Western food and its cooking as purely Russian, naming baked cream-sauce mandarin fish among the specialities with borscht, pot-braised beef and lamb, and roast suckling pig.
Sources & reading
Written from the linked sources and fact-checked against them on 2026-09-24. Recipes and servings vary between kitchens.