Sir Elly’s at The Peninsula
Add: 13/F, The Peninsula, 32 Zhongshan Dong Yi Lu / 中山東一路32號半島酒店13樓
Tel: 2327 6756
Hours: [lunch] 12:00pm-2:30pm, [dinner] Sun-Thu, 6:00-10:30pm Fri-Sat, 6:00-11:00pm
Website: www.peninsula.com/Shanghai/
Price: [lunch] 280 RMB + 15% [dinner] 500+ RMB
Visited: Sep 2010
Restaurant Week Stop # 3: Sir Elly’s at The Peninsula. The lunch, unsurprisingly, turned out to be the best out of all my restaurant week meals.
The Restaurant Week lunch was a 3-course affair – appetizer, main dish, and dessert. Both the appetizers and the desserts were served in sampler sizes, allowing guests to try a variety of what the restaurant has to offer: “Goat Cheese Tart” with Carmelized Onion and Frisee Salad, “Summer Tomato Salad” with Vanilla, Orange, and Ginger Confit, “Tuna Tartar” with Espelette and Blinni, Vichyssoise” with Rosemary Cream, and Crouton. Even something as simple as the tomato salad was thoughtfully put together – the cherry tomatoes were briefly cooked, skinned, chilled, and served with orange and ginger confit and a splash of olive oil. Perfect for a hot summer day.
I was able to try all 5 main courses offered during lunch thanks to my lunch companions. My favorites were the “Squab” and the “Beef Cheek”. The squab (the meat of young domesticated pigeon) was perfectly done – juicy, firm but tender, flavors all there. The beef cheek was cooked until it’s easily picked apart by the fork and tasted superb with cherry coulis. The only flaw was the bland gnocchi that came with the beef (I miss Stiller’s herbs gnocchi).
Here’s “Squab”, Grilled Potatoes, Chive Coulis, Squab Jus, Confit Onion.
“Beef Cheek”, Gnocchi, Asparagus, Cherry Coulis.
“Risotto”, Tomato, Raw Tomato, Tomato Essence.
“Grouper”, Pan Roasted, Shaved Fennel, Lemon, Carrot Puree.
“Loup de Mer”, Schrenckii Caviar, Panisse “New Grenobloise”.
Desserts were also served in sampler sizes as shown below. My favorite was the “Apricot” Creme Brulee, Arlette, Almond with its heavenly almond flavor, rich but not at all overpowering. The madeleine was served warm, crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside with honey and bits of orange zest. Don’t remember much about the “Strawberry” Indian Strawberry Lassi.
Lunch at Sir Elly’s was overall a very satisfying experience and definitely the best Restaurant Week set meal so far. Just a few last words on service – while there was nothing blatantly wrong with the waitstaff, there was a general lack of warmth in their interaction with customers. A warm smile or a softer tone of voice, please?