[Shanghai] Shangxi 尚席

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[Shanghai] Shangxi 尚席

Shangxi at Four Seasons Pudong 浦東四季酒店 尚席

Add: 2F Four Seasons Pudong, 210 Century Avenue / 世纪大道210号四季酒店2楼, 近浦城路
Tel: 2036 8888
Hours: 11:30am-2:30pm, 5:30-10pm
Website: www.fourseasons.com/pudong
Price: 400-600 RMB/person
Visited: Feb 2015

Please note that this is an invited tasting.

Among the few hotels that have opened since I left Shanghai in 2012, Four Seasons Pudong is one that I heard quite frequently about. Compared to its Puxi sibling, Four Seasons Pudong is much smaller in scale, more modern in design, and more exclusive in vibe. I visited on a Saturday to try Shangxi, the hotel’s Chinese restaurant famed for its dim sum lunch, and was charmed by both the elegant ambience and the delicate dishes.

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With only 22 seats in its main hall, Shangxi is probably the smallest hotel-owned Chinese restaurant I’ve been to (additional private rooms available). The atmosphere is exceedingly calm, with tables spaced at a comfortable distance from one another. A great place for private tête-à-têtes.

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[Shanghai] Qimin Organic Hotpot Market 齊民市集

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[Shanghai] Qimin Organic Hotpot Market 齊民市集

Qimin Organic Hotpot Market 齊民市集

Add: 4/F, Reel Mall, 1601 Nanjing Xi Lu / 静安区南京西路1601号芮欧百货4楼
Tel: 6258 8777
Hours: 11am-2pm, 5-9pm
Website: www.qi-min.com
Price: [lunch set] 88+ RMB [dinner] 200-300 RMB
Visited: Feb 2015

Please note that this is an invited tasting.

I love hotpots, but I’m not exactly a fan of steamy restaurants and messy table tops, with people sticking their chopsticks into one communal pot filled with dubious meats and veggies and unidentifiable blahs swimming in a foamy, murky broth. This is why I’ve always been a fan of Qimin Organic Hotpot. The combination fresh organic ingredients, individual pots, pleasant interior, and attentive service means that hotpot can be a pleasant dining experience as well. They have recently opened a new location in Reel Mall, and I was more than happy to come try out this venue.

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The new space is designed to create a marketplace-like atmosphere, with booths of vegetables, meats, seafoods etc. surrounding a central dining area. The vibe is brought even more alive by Taiwanese underground rock music, which is appropriately kept on a pleasant volume. Two most attention-grabbing features are the clothes hanging from the ceiling, as typically seen in alleyways of Shanghai (but much neater…) and bamboo steamers as table partitions, which, by the way, actually do emit steam when opened…though they do not actually contain food ;).

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[Shanghai] Maison Asano 淺野府

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[Shanghai] Maison Asano 淺野府

Maison Asano 淺野府

Add: 318-2 Julu Lu, near Maoming Nan Lu / 巨鹿路318-2, 近茂名南路
Tel: 6216 2019
Hours: [Tue-Sun] 5:30-10:30pm
Price: 880~1380 RMB/set
Visited: Jan 2015

A number of high-end Japanese restaurants have opened since I left Shanghai in 2012, and one that I heard quite a lot about immediately after its opening is Maison Asano 淺野府. The owners are a pair of Taiwanese siblings with 1/4 Japanese blood from their grandmother, who claims ties to the Asano clan feudal lords (and hence the name Maison Asano). The prices are up there – 888 RMB or 1380 RMB per kaiseki set, but that’s apparently the norm for high end Japanese restaurants nowadays in Shanghai. We were originally planning to go to my old favorite Sushi Oyama, but as it’s closed on Sundays, we ended up at Maison Asano instead.

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I was expecting an intimate restaurant – perhaps just a bar with one or two tables – but Maison Asano is actually quite big with plenty of tables and a few private rooms.

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[Shanghai] Chi-Q

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[Shanghai] Chi-Q

Chi-Q

Add: Three on the Bund 2F, 3 Zhong Shan Dong Yi Lu  / 中山东一路3号外滩三号2楼
Tel: 6321 6622
Hours: 6-10:30pm
Price: 350-450 RMB/person
Website: www.threeonthebund.com
Visited: Jan 2015

Please note that this is an invited tasting.

Upscale Korean barbecue by Jean-Georges Vongerichten and his Korean-American wife Marja. As you can expect from Jean-Georges and Three on the Bund, Korean barbeque becomes a rather chic affair here with top quality ingredients. They’ve brought in chef Bina Yu, who is South Korean by birth and previously sous chef at Jean Georges’ namesake restaurant in New York, to run the kitchen of Chi-Q. I’ve had Korean barbecue quite a few times both in Shanghai and Seoul but never in such high style, and I was curious to find out how it works.

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But first, the space. It is designed by Neri & Hu (a familiar name in Shanghai by now), who put together a sleek dining room with long communal tables crowned by a dramatic atrium, as well as individual booths. More details on Three on the Bund’s website.

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[Shanghai] Sushi Oyama 大山鮨 (3)

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[Shanghai] Sushi Oyama 大山鮨 (3)

Sushi Oyama 大山鮨

Add: 2/F, 20 Donghu Lu, near Huaihai Lu 東湖路20號2樓, 近淮海路
Tel: 5404 7705
Hours: 6:30pm-10:30pm (closed Sunday)
Price: 1280 RMB/person, drinks extra
Visited: Jan 2015

When I was living in Shanghai a few years ago, Sushi Oyama used to be my favorite sushi bar in town. I was never a regular guest because I couldn’t afford to be one – the omakase was priced at 800 RMB/person (recently increased to 1280 RMB/person) – but during the few times I dined here, Oyama-san always made it a very memorable evening (details here). As I’m back in Shanghai for a few weeks of vacation, I decided to come here again despite the fact that a number of other places have opened since my departure.

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Impressively, Oyama-san (not in above photo) still recognized me even though the last time I came here was four years ago. He remembers my blog, where I worked, and even where I sat during my first visit. I told him that I am now a pâtissière in Paris, and we had a pleasant time catching up throughout dinner. Very friendly, as always.

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So, on to the food. Dinner started with a delightful trio of ark clam (赤貝), botan shrimp (牡丹海老), and smoked scallop (帆立の燻製). 

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[Paris] Brunch at Coutume Cafe

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[Paris] Brunch at Coutume Cafe

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Coutume Cafe

Add: 47 Rue de Babylone 75007 Paris
Tel: 01 45 51 50 47
Hours: [Tue-Fri] 8am~7pm [Sat-Sun] 10am~7pm (closed on Mon)
Website: www.coutumecafe.com
Price: [brunch] €25~30 [coffee] €2~5
Visited on: 2012-10

Happy with my cup of latte at Coutume Cafe during my first visit, I soon went back to try their brunch.

Brunch menu at Coutume Cafe changes monthly, and for October there are three choices ranging from €25~30 per set. A friend and I shared Brunch Les Ogres de Coutume (€30), which includes: French-style scrambled eggs, baked potato with chopped hazelnut and chives, bacon, sausage, assortment of three mini viennoiseries with house-made rhubarb vanilla bourbon jam, fresh juice, toasts, and a hot drink (tea, coffee, or hot chocolate). Oh yes, it was enough to feed the two of us.

French-style scrambled eggs, soft and fluffy.

Baked potato with chopped hazelnut and chives.

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[Paris] Rose Bakery

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[Paris] Rose Bakery

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Rose Bakery

Add: 30 rue Debelleyme 75003 Paris
Tel: +33 (0)1 49 96 54 01
Hours: 9am~7pm (closed on Mon)
Price: [drinks] €2.50~6.50 [desserts] €3.50~6.50 [plates] €11.00~18.00
Visited on: 2012-08

After lunch at Breizh Cafe, we wandered around the neighborhood of La Marais (which is très mignon, by the way) before stopping by Rose Bakery, a boutique bakery started by a British woman named Rose Carranini and her French husband. Her aim, I heard, was to “to dissolve the distinction between home and restaurant cooking”. Rumor has it that Rose Bakery offers some truly wonderful organic salads and sandwiches, but we were so full at the moment that we only had room for…desserts :)

Boxes of colourful fresh produce stacked all over the place.

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[Shanghai] Tang Gong 唐宫

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[Shanghai] Tang Gong 唐宫

Tang Gong 唐宫

Add: 1/F, 103 Dong Zhu’anbang Lu, near Jiangsu Lu 东诸安浜路103号维景酒店公寓1-2楼, 近江苏路
Tel: 6251 6148
Hours: 7:30am-10:00pm
Price: 50~80 RMB/person
Visited: Aug 2012

Knowing that I won’t be able to get any good dim sum in Paris (not at this price, at least), I went for a dim sum brunch at Tang Gong right before my departure. Cha siu sou, shrimp dumplings, roasted pigeons, turnip cakes, egg tarts, cha siu buns, chicken feet, stir-fried noodles with beef…The best part? We stuffed our faces, yet the bill came out to be less than 60 RMB per person.

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