Tag: Xintiandi

The Kitchen Studios (Andaz) Sunday brunch in Shanghai

Online you find references to the Westin and more recently to The Regis hotel as the best weekend buffets in Shanghai. Bullshit. These are very noisy, crowded, and the food is so so. (The Westin is a nice place to see expats getting drunken if it is your fetish, though).

The Kitchen Studios’ restaurant of the Andaz Hotel in Xintiandi does an excellent job in putting together a well-managed Sunday buffet (only on Sundays from noon) with quality food and at a reasonable price point.

I have been a big fun for a long time. I still remember a couple of years ago when they were launching their weekend brunch and I was among the few diners taking advantage of their promotion at the time. Now the news is out and it is almost sold out, but still, in my latest visit in November 2019, I did not feel the pressure of the crowd and there were no shortages of food. It remains a pleasant experience.

The visit

Let me take you around the buffet.

There are two spacious dining rooms around the buffet area, with both sofas and normal chairs. The decor is modern. Even if the rooms got pretty soon almost full, I did not overwhelmed.

One of the main attraction is the sushi and sashimi boat. They have tuna, salmon, and amberjack.

More seafood: lobster claws and…

… and imported prawns and crab legs.

It was hairy crab season and they were available (not a fan here).

There was an oyster station.

They would provide three oysters per order (brought to your table). I usually have at least 6, so I kept ordering, no problem.

There were various dishes that could be ordered as many times as you wish. The foie gras quite good.

Every diner could order one lobster dish.

I had the egg benedict with lobster and caviar. Nothing special, but a nice way to get my Sunday eggs. The half lobster with cheese was preferred by my friends, but had too much dish in my opinion.

Since it was almost Thanksgiving, a big turkey was available at the roast meat station along with beef.

They also had Chinese food. I tried the lobster wonton soup. Again, nothing exceptional, but I appreciated the effort.

Another dish made on demand was the Shanghai pancakes. I would not recommend it as it is super-filling and you can have it around town for 2 USD or so. But again, I appreciate the effort to have some local food.

Some dim sum dishes were available.

Many more dishes I am not posting were available, including lamb meat, pork, and vegetables. I could not try them all!

The dessert station included many treats including freshly made waffles and ice cream.

They paid homage to the local milk candy called White Rabbit with a cake made from the same milk. (White Rabbit company was on a diversification spree at the time of this posting… perhaps it was a marketing initiative.)

Soft drinks and some wine were also included and freely available.

The check

The check was picked up by a friend so I do not have a picture to post. The price per person was 446 RMB (63 USD), way less than similar buffets on the Bund. I was extremely pleased by the efficiency of the operations (even during the first hectic half an hour after opening the service was pretty good and fast) and the quality of the food.

PS: for a luxury semi-buffet, my favorite remains the Cathay Room.

Where in Shanghai:
2F of Andaz Hotel 88 Songshan Lu.
In Chinese: 嵩山路88号.

Dining like royalty at T’ang Court in Shanghai

T’ang Court is the flagship fine dining restaurant of the luxury Langham Hotel in Shanghai (in Xintiandi). In Hong Kong the Langham uses the same name for their top Chinese restaurant. Both in Hong Kong and Shanghai T’ang Court is a Michelin-starred restaurant. In Hong Kong has been awarded the top honor, 3 stars, for years. In Shanghai, the inaugural edition of the Guide (2017) awarded 3 stars as well making T’ang Court the only triple starred restaurant in Mainland China. For a while. In the 2019 edition of the Guide it was demoted to two stars and, for some inexplicable reason, to one in the subsequent 2020 edition. It is headed by executive chef Alan Sun. Here’s my visit as part of the Shanghai Michelin Guide Scramble.

The visit

I booked with a simple email. The website features the menu and a nice interactive picture showing the venue. I did not take pictures of the dining room to avoid bothering other guests. The main dining room is relatively small, accommodating only 20 people; most of the space is dedicated to private dining rooms, but the small size is not an issue: tables are nicely spaced and there is a terrace. It is modern understated luxury.

There was a complimentary amuse bouche: a shrimp and pork dumpling in soup and some carrots wrapped in radish and marinated in vinegar. It was very nice.

My first dish was a soup with grouper and handmade tofu (two pieces of grouper, one not edible).

My main was grouper fillet with yam and vegetables. This was a very good dish. Live seafood seems to be one of the strong points of this restaurant.

By the way, at the beginning I was also given a set of sauces: chili sauce, Xo sauce, and soy sauce. I was recommended to use the Xo sauce for the main dish.

Following the grammar of a classic Chinese meal, I included a rice dish at the end. This was fried rice with crab meat and sea urchin. The sea urchin was almost invisible…

I had some room for a dessert. In the room the most popular dessert seemed to be mango ice cream coming in a bowl contoured by fuming dry ice. The presentation of my dessert was less spectacular, but the taste was great. It was an almond tofu pudding that was simply superb in flavor.

Also of note the Chinese tea menu. They have some of the best of the best Chinese teas. It is an impressive list (with a serving easily costing 30 USD and more).

Another special note about the service. The staff was really professional. They knew how to have a conversation with me about the menu and talked me out ordering a very large dish that would have been unsuitable for me. Well done.

The check

For three courses plus a dessert the check was 936.30 RMB (or 135 USD). This is the price point you can expect from this kind of establishment.

It was a seamless meal, even if the dishes did not blew me away. In comparison, I think Yi Long Court remains a better Chinese restaurant in the two star category of the Michelin Guide.

Where in Shanghai:
5/F, The Langham Shanghai Xintiandi, 99 Madang Lu
In Chinese: 马当路99号5楼
Check their website for menu, email for reservation, and virtual visit.

First impressions of Polux by Paul Pairet

Polux is a new project headed by Paul Pairet, the chef extraordinaire behind Ultraviolet and Mr & Ms Bund. It is named after the cat of an old French cartoon and is located in the pedestrian area of Xintiandi, Shanghai.

If you are not familiar with Shanghai, you need to know that Xintiandi is a shopping and entertainment district with reconstituted traditional mid-19th century shikumen houses on narrow alleys. It is a very popular area, but I never associated it with good food (you might disagree if you are a fan of Wolfang Puck).

The visit

I headed to Polux on a Sunday for brunch meeting a friend, just one week after their opening on 14 March 2019. They are open for breakfast, lunch and dinner (all day dining) with different menus. Initially they were open 7 days a week, but at the time of this post they have instituted a day off on Mondays.

The staff had my reservation on the books and escorted me to a table. I liked the cloth towels, a small luxury these days.

By the way, even if the place was rapidly filling up, the staff noticed that the table was wobbling and they promptly offered me and my friend another table.

I recognized many faces among the staff from Mr and Ms Bund and Ultraviolet. These are incredibly professional people. (Including the marketing team: by the time of my visit Polux was correctly indicated on all social media, including Facebook and Google Maps; contrast this with the Bulgari Hotel for example…) By no accident, in their second week of operations, everything was running remarkably smoothly.

Bread was complimentary, as it should be in French eateries.

While I was waiting for my friend, I ordered their sardines, a simple dish, but it was nice that they included in the menu some small snacks.

I and my friend shared a steak haché with mash and eggs. A steak
haché is basically a French hamburger. I found it very good, with the beef juice adding some flavor to the mix.

Then both I and my friend had the signature Polux burger coming with fries.

It was a relatively small burger (or I should say “compact”), with bacon and a good amount cheese melting around the patty. I think that some sauce was dripped on the buns as well. But there was a twist (in what I would call Pairet’s style): the lower bun was “excavated” to firmly accommodate the beef patty and some extra condiments (asparagus?). The overall flavor was on the spicy side.

We drank the namesake iced tea, that was not regular iced tea (again one of those twists that made Pairet’s cuisine a favorite of mine): it was a concoction with verbena, orange, lemon, apple, cucumber, and mint. The result was quite pleasant.

The check

Total check was 528 RMB (or 40 USD per person). Was it worth it? Wast it good? Will I go back?

To answer context is important. 40 USD for some regular cafe food may seem pricey, but this is Shanghai, where Western food, good one, is hard to come by at this price point. From this point of view, the final check was more than fair.

In an interview that I read (sorry, I cannot find the link) Pairet explained that they intended to offer good unpretentious everyday food, something that could be the second best for many diners. I think that they delivered what they promised and even more. Polux is good comfort food with a twist here and there (and to be fair, the brunch menu was quite extensive and I wish I had tried their cheek beefsteak, their croque, and some of the egg dishes).

Finally, you have to consider that you are in Xintiandi, an upscale district not famous for its gourmet food. Polux from this point of view is a game changer.

I totally see myself going back and digging into their menu. And that Shake Shack is just around the corner is another big plus.

Where in Shanghai:
No. 5, Lane 181, Taicang Lu, by Huangpi Nan Lu
In Chinese: 太仓路181弄5号, 近黄陂南路
Nearest metro: two blocks south of Huangpi South Road (line 1).
Note: close to Xintiandi number 1 heritage house.

Shake Shack lands in Shanghai

Famed American burger chain Shake Shack made it to Shanghai opening in Xintiandi just before Spring Festival 2019. This is what we found visiting the joint on a weekend in March 2019. We already experienced Shake Shack in Hong Kong where we enjoyed their smoke burger.

The visit

Shake Shack replaced Pizza Marzano in one of the reconstituted traditional shikumen in the heart of the car-free area of Xintiandi. In my opinion it is a big gain for the area.

It was around 2pm and the relatively small shop was packed. Luckily not much queue and in around 20 minute I got my burger. I was even able to seize a chair.

The delicious smoke burger did not disappoint, but I think the bacon was crispier in Hong Kong. What I like about these burgers is the moderate use of condiments and the spicy backtaste.

They also sell branded merchandising. Not sure it is a good idea to associate your food brand with a pet bowl (pictured above), but it was for sale.

The check

The burger cost 58 RMB, that’s almost 10% more expensive than Hong Kong’s price where it was 62 HKD that at the current exchange rate would be 53 RMB.

They also have the the classic hot dogs, shakes, fries, and concretes (frozen custards, for those who do not fear sugar). The local signature shake is called Strawberry Yu(zu) Garden and is a vanilla frozen custard (can we call it ice cream?) blended with strawberry and, of course, yuzu juice. Will try it next time.

Update

Came back on a Sunday evening, no queue and I tried the exclusive Shake. Yuzu and strawberry are fused well together. I would gladly avoid the whipped cream (and the green tea powder does not add much to the mix).

Where in Shanghai:
Unit 02-03, Building 11-13, Xintiandi, 181 Taicang Lu, near Madang Lu
In Chinese: 新天地北里, 太仓路181弄11-13号, 近马当路
Nearest metro stations: Xintiandi or South Huangpi Road (the latter is closer).
Website: https://www.shakeshack.com/location/shanghai-xintiandi/