A Shanghai restaurant has come under fire for selling a half-chicken dish priced at 480 yuan ( INR 5,500), justifying the steep cost by claiming the bird was raised on classical music and fed milk, reported the South China Morning Post.

On March 14, a businessman and influencer with 270,000 followers posted a video of his visit to the Shanghai Club restaurant, where he was shocked by the price of the dish. He questioned the staff about the chicken's background, jokingly asking if it was raised "listening to music and drinking milk." The restaurant staff confirmed his assumption, adding that the chicken was a rare breed known as "sunflower chicken," sourced exclusively from a farm in Guangdong province.

According to the farm's online description, the sunflower chicken is fed a diet that includes juice extracted from sunflower stems and faded flower heads. It belongs to the three-yellow chicken breed, also called the emperor chicken, which is popular among Michelin-starred chefs for its tender texture and rich flavour. However, the sunflower chicken is considered even more premium, reportedly costing over 200 yuan ( INR 2,300) per kilogram, with a whole bird priced at more than 1,000 yuan ( INR 11,500) in restaurants.

When questioned further by local media, a staff member from the sunflower chicken farm clarified that while the chickens are exposed to classical music, they are not actually fed milk.

The influencer, although willing to pay 480 yuan for the dish, expressed frustration at the misleading claims. "I could accept the price, but not the fabricated stories," he told the staff.

The incident quickly went viral, sparking mockery online. "Amazing the bizarre stories one can make up to sell products," one user commented. Another suggested that such pricing tactics exploit Shanghai's wealthier clientele: "One can grab a small share of a dish from less-developed areas in China and easily sell it to Shanghai people at a much higher price."

Others joked about pricing their own poultry based on the music played around them. "Can my chicken be priced at 1,888 yuan ( INR 22,000) a dish? They were raised listening to Shanxi music," quipped a user from central China's Shanxi province.

The controversy has also reignited discussions on the so-called "Shanghai currency," a term popularised last year to describe the city's exorbitant prices and high spending power. A well-known example was the 800g Japanese toast that sold for 98 yuan ( INR 1,100) in Shanghai -- double its price in Japan -- despite regular supermarket bread costing around 20 yuan ( INR 230).

According to government data, the per capita disposable income of Shanghai residents in 2024 was 88,366 yuan ( INR 10.1 lakh), nearly twice the national average, further fuelling debates on the city's expensive lifestyle.