Amazing Chinese Cuisine is the name of a Michelin-starred restaurant in Shanghai (one star in the 2019 edition of the Guide).
The restaurant specializes in new Chaozhou cuisine (A cuisine from Guandong region known for its delicate flavors, focusing on fresh ingredients, as opposed to heavy sauces or seasoning). The founder of the restaurant is called Du Jianqing. They also have a bigger restaurant in the Bund Financial Center area, but the one who got the Michelin award in the 2019 Guide was the original location, first opened in 2015, in Changning District. That’s the location I visited.
The visit
This was supposed to be a difficult location to check out since the restaurant is located in a villa and is only comprised of private VIP rooms. For a solo diner may not be easy to secure a table. However by the time of my visit, they had become a bit more flexible and allowed parties of two to make reservations for lunch. For what I believe was a glitch in the system, I was able to place a booking for one person through Dining City. They were very nice and honored my reservation.
First of all, a couple of details on how to get there since it is off-the-beaten path. Luckily the restaurant is within 100 meters from exit 1 of Shuicheng Road station serving metro line 10. From the East Nanjing Road is a 30-minute ride.
Taking exit 1 you will find yourself on one side of Starlive mall. Go to the front of the mall and look for the road guarded by two lions on the other side (where the mall parking access is located). That’s where you will find the villa.
When I arrived I was escorted to my private dining room. I felt a little bit of embarrassment to occupy the room all by myself. A young chef showed up, apparently he was the only staff speaking English. I quickly agreed on the set menu available and I ordered a pot of Pu’er tea. They had available the set menu used during China Restaurant Week that had ended just the day earlier. It was actually the best possible arrangement for me since the tasting menu gave me the opportunity to taste several of their dishes.
Every time the waitress came in, she would knock the door. The timing was very good. The lunch lasted around 75 minutes. The first dish I received was some seasonal fruit.
The cold appetizer platter included, from the bottom and then clockwise, king salmon, stewed pork feet with Chaozou-flavor, agaricus blazei murill (an edible medicinal mushroom originating from Brazil) with onion oil, and caviar Napoleon on a blini. I appreciated how they put together a nice range of flavors with quality ingredients not only from China. They also added a chicken consommé.
Before the mains, a light soup with snowflake beef slices and celery was served. The beef was lean and very good.
The first main dish was a relatively big piece of abalone (27 grams according to the menu) with a morchella (true morels) fungus. The abalone was better than most I had in other Chinese restaurants, meaty and very tender, but the revelation of the dish was the morchella that I believe was filled with minced pork meat and had a pleasant and powerful flavor.
The second main was equally exquisite: gently fried yellow croaker from East China Sea with crispy truffle. There was a lot of boneless pulp and the sauce was really delicious (even if the truffle flavor was not prominent).
The third main was kind of a softball when compared with the previous two. A few bits of fried salted meat (pork belly) with Chaozhou horred cucumber. Still, it was a very flavorful dish.
As customary in these Chinese course meal, prior of the end there was a starch-rich dish. This time it was not rice, but a yummy bowl of hot and sour noodles (with I believe kelp and strips of chicken meat). Once again, I must price the good balancing of the flavor.
The dessert was a warm bowl of stewed lotus seeds with rock candy. The seeds were literally meting in my mouth. It was a nice conclusion for the meal.
The check
Final check after adding the tea and 10% service charge was 821 RMB (114.5 USD). An “important” check in line with the content and setting of the meal. I was positively impressed by the course meal and enjoyed all the dishes. I must also commend on the willingness to serve a non Chinese speaker and the elegant set up of the private room.
Where in Shanghai:
B5 villa, 1665 Hongqiao Lu, Changning District
In Chinese: 虹桥路1665号B5幢别墅
Dining City page: www.diningcity.cn/en/shanghai/amazing_chinese_cuisine.
