[Photo by Gao Erqiang/China Daily]

In 2016, the restaurant chain generated about 180 million yuan ($26 million) in sales, up by 16 percent year on year, according to Bao. In comparison, the growth rate of Shanghai's dining industry is less than 10 percent, with fine dining's figure even lower thanks to stagnant growth since 2013, when the central government imposed a strict ban on luxury dining with public money.

Industry insiders and investors also say there is too much competition from luxury hotels and Michelin-starred chefs in China's most vibrant food capital, but Bao dismisses that view.

"In fact," he says, "I think Shanghai's dining industry is far from being competitive."

A native of Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, Bao had been a police officer for seven years before he went into trade in Shanghai "in response to Deng Xiaoping's call", as he puts it, and made his first bucket of gold.

He later emigrated to Australia and spent a few years of "retirement-like life there"－until his Chinese stomach summoned him back.