Continuing the Shanghai Michelin Guide Scramble, I visited Ji Ping Court on a Monday for lunch. The restaurant is located on the third floor of a newly-built luxury building at 55 South Wulumuqi Road in the Former French Concession. It had one star in the 2019 edition of the Michelin Guide that became 2 in the 2020 edition.
Ji Ping Court is a new addition to the 2019 Michelin Guide and gained one star.
The dining room is elegant and intimate and tables are reasonably spaced. They also have three or four private dining rooms.
The visit
I booked by phone calling at around 9.30am and someone was already there to answer the phone. I arrived at around 11.30 and by noon the restaurant was bustling with action. Two of the private rooms were occupied and there were only a couple of tables free in main dining room.
I spent sometime on the exhaustive menu that includes all the classic Cantonese delicacies, including dim sum, and some original dishes.
I ordered one of their creative dishes in the form of a salad with marinated goose liver and grapefruit (but in the menu was indicated as pomelo). The goose liver came in cubes and the overall salad was fresh and tasty. This appropriately was the first dish to arrive.
Then I had a very classic crab soup with corn. This is a very common dish in China and I totally enjoyed it.
Then I had their braised beef brisket with daikon. It came in a pot in a soup full of flavors. While the brisket was not of the melt-in-your-mouth type, the pieces were mostly lean and absolutely tasty.
But the big-ticket item was their trio of Cantonese-style roast meat. From left to right, the dish sported roasted duck, roasted suckling pig and BBQ pork. I tried these types of meat in many other establishments and I can say that what I got was considerably superior to what you would get in the run-of-the-mill Chinese restaurant in Shanghai or even Guangzhou. The duck in particular did not come with any bone and was very tender and juicy. As you would expect the suckling skin was perfectly crispy.
I decided to close the meal with a panna cotta with strawberry that was also perfect.
The check
For what it was a very large meal for one person I paid 715 CNY or just a little over 100 USD. This was a luxury restaurant so this price point is expected. However, considering the quality of the offering, I do not regret this expense.
Overall, the experience was positive and I would have no reservations in recommending this restaurant for high quality Cantonese food. I hope to go back to try their dim sum dishes since what I could try in this visit is just a tiny sample of their large menu.
Also I had a positive experience with the service personnel that was attentive and spoke English, way better than in similar Shanghai restaurants.
Where in Shanghai:
3F, 55 South Wulumuqi Road, Xuhui
Info from the online Michelin Guide.