Jardin De Jade is a popular Chinese restaurant chain with branches in Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong, and Macau. The Hong Kong Wanchai Branch has been granted one Michelin Star since 2013.
Jade Mansion is the new fine dining concept of the group in Shanghai and their original location at the 4th floor of IFC mall has been granted the iconic Michelin star since 2017.
The visit
The location is very convenient. Sometimes I stop eating at IFC on the way to Pudong airport of Hongqiao station since the mall is directly connected to the line 2 of the subway that connects these two major hubs. It was one of those days.
The evening before I went to the restaurant to make a reservation in person. Staff did not speak English, but the menu is fully translated.
The restaurant is very large with no shortage of private and shared dining rooms. Above the dining room where I was seated. It is a modern elegant environment (even if my sofa was a bit worn).
If you go for lunch make sure to ask for the “Guangzhou” menu, basically a menu of dim sum dishes available until 4pm.
I ordered some dim sum and one of their signature dishes. The first dish was three vegetarian dumplings with herbs. It was really good. Recommended.
Then I had a dish of Osmanthus and Water Chestnut Cake. I am very glad that I ordered this dish (first time) as it was really a nice flavor in a unique solid yet gelatinous texture.
The classic Sao Mai was not so classic… it had some big chunks of shrimp and abalone. Overall I did not particularly liked it.
The steamed buns with pork were very well executed. A perfect exemplar of this classic.
I thought that trying the just the dim sum would have not been fair. So I also ordered one of their signature dishes from the extensive menu. It was a hilsa herring (ilish) fillet boiled in a delicate soy sauce. Unfortunately the fish was full of small bones and very difficult to enjoy. However, there were so many interesting dishes in the regular menu: stewed turtle, duck in brown sauce, flatfish with scallion, crisp chicken with caviar and mango, a matsutake and watercress soup with Evian (sic) water, to name a few that caught my attention.
The check
Total check was 344 RMB (half for the fish, dim was very affordable). There was service charge, but for some reason there was a lunch discount. In the menu they have a lot of very reasonably priced dishes.
The dim sum was overall excellent and the menu is large and well curated. Dishes are well curated and executed. If this deserves a Michelin star, I am not sure though.
Where in Shanghai:
4/F, IFC Pudong, 8 Shiji Da Dao (Century Avenue)
In Chinese: 世纪大道8号，国金中心IFC商场4楼.