[Shanghai] Restaurant Week at Table No. 1

Table No. 1

Add: 1-3 Maojiayuan Lu, near Zhongshan Nan Lu / 毛家園路1-3號1樓, 近中山南路
Tel: 6080 2918
Hours: 12~2:30pm, 6~10:30pm
Website: www.tableno-1.com
Price: [lunch] 178 RMB+15%/person, [dinner]300~400 RMB/person
Visited: Mar 2012 (visit 1, 3)

By the time I got around to making Restaurant Week reservations, most of the places that I’d like to visit are already fully booked. I was glad to find, however, that Table No. 1 – one of my favorite restaurants in Shanghai – still had open spots. Lunch it is.

The dining room, designed by Neri & Hu, is spare, plain, rustic. It quickly filled up after I snapped this picture, but somehow the space never got too rowdy even with a full house. Bonus points for that.

The cuisine at Table No. 1 is characterized by the use of fresh, seasonal, and top quality ingredients. Take this starter for example: salmon tartare, quail egg, radish, cucumber and tea vinaigrette – clean plating, refreshing flavors.

Another starter on the menu: ham hock and foie-gras terrine, sour dough, mustard. Stole a bite of this and loved what I tasted. The terrine itself was wonderful, and the cream on the side was fantastic too.

Main course: roast young lemon chicken, served with fries and salad. The chicken was quite tender and easily picked apart by a fork, but it was slightly bland even with the accompanying sauce. Fries, topped with garlic and served with homemade tomato dip, were delicious as usual.

Another main course on the menu: slow cooked duck legs and hearts, mushroom spiced broth. Tender duck legs, crunchy duck hearts (yes hearts), topped with straw-like dried (or fried?) needle mushrooms and bathing in a mushroom broth. Preferred this over the chicken.

For dessert, warm orange cake, chocolate ice cream. Caramelized orange slice was pretty, chocolate ice cream was lovely, but the orange cake was too sweet and not as fluffy as I remembered it from my last visit. Small disappointment.

Lastly, ‘Eton Mess’ meringue, raspberry cream and jelly.

An imperfect but very delightful lunch. I really loved what I saw and quite liked how they tasted too – interestingly, I seem to always like the appetizers more than the main courses here. The portions may be too small for some people, but it left me satisfied without being overstuffed. Made a mental note to come back here more often.