Sad news from the margins of the legal grilled beef world: Tie Wu, also known as Tetsuya, the fantastic yakiniku restaurant with beef from don't-ask-where (it was Japan), has closed. I wrote about it a year ago and had been back for more than a few special occasions. Now it's gone. "Contract issues." The owner plans to open a new one, he says, but it's a little bit farther away than Hongmei Lu.

Jakarta, he says. It will be in Jakarta. Maybe he's just had enough of operating here, what with his planned second location off Dingxi Lu being involved in a massive construction site accident that made the news. Maybe the stricter laws around everything these days made it difficult to keep operating in the gray area. Maybe he just likes surfing in Bali and wants to be closer to that. Either way, it's a loss for Shanghai, after more than a decade run, but the good news is there are still some excellent yakiniku restaurants in Shanghai. Of particular note, Nakama, on Taiyuan Lu south of Jianguo, with their fantastic dry-aged Australian beef and inset bar-counter grills, and even Kanpai Classic on the Bund for char-grilled Wagyu. See ya later, Tie Wu. It was great while it lasted.