Good Vue, great food

It was the eve of the Shanghai Expo and the hotel was packed with the French delegation and a smattering of Chinese government officials hogging the west wing of the hotel, so I decided to stick to the east wing, hoping for a little respite from the crowds.

When I got to the Vue restaurant on the 30th floor, I found out that they had removed my reservation. It didn't take long for them to find a table for me after I insisted on talking to their hotel general manager. So there I was, trying to get a nice quiet dinner by myself, but now stuck next to an obnoxious crowd of loud talking Chinese toasting each other with wine that they were probably clueless about. Anyway, I got my table, and I was pleased.

The restaurant, located at the Hyatt On The Bund, is another Super Potato creation, and the signature style can be discerned from the layout and arrangement of wall designs. Vue was designed with a homestyle kitchen concept in mind, where diners are entertained by chefs cooking right beside the table as if they were sitting at the counter in a large kitchen.

I have been to Vue several times for their excellent Australian Wagyu steaks, but today, I opted for the spring seasonal menu featuring asparagus. For starters, I selected the oven baked wild mushroom soup, which was actually done very much like french onion soup style. It was a decent attempt, but it didn't get me too excited. The Atlantic cod with asparagus, on the other hand, was excellent, fresh and tender, and the accompanying bearnaise sauce was perfect for the asparagus.

As I was finishing my main course, the fireworks display started and the diners got up from their seats and rushed to the windows facing the Bund at the far end of the restaurant. I was much relieved, as the room suddenly went silent, and I was able to finish my meal in peace.

Kaiseki at the penthouse

I recently came across a review of a new Japanese restaurant by the Kuriya group called Kuriya Penthouse, located in downtown Central mall. It was billed as the top end of the Kuriya group's chain of restaurants, with views of the city skyline and and strict dress code to match. Intrigued, and always craving a good kaiseki meal without good reason, I decided I had to give it a try.

Arriving at 7:30pm in the evening, the restaurant was almost empty except for two small tables.The decor wasn't typically Japanese restaurant style, but instead was a more of a mishmash of modern design elements thrown together. Anyway, I was more interested in the kaiseki meals and less on the decor. We were shown to a table by the window, which didn't quite live up to the spectacular skyline view I was expecting to see.

The windows were too far away from the edge of the building, and there was a walkway between the railing and the window, and our view was inevitably interrupted by people walking outside and gawking at our table. I think the window facing tables were a dumb idea. A bamboo screen would have been a much more pleasant alternative.

Anyway, on to the meal. The top end kaiseki set meal on the menu was priced at S$250 per person, which sounded rather reasonable for eight courses of the freshest seasonal ingredients flown in from Japan. And besides, after my recent Aoki fiasco, S$250 sounded like a steal.

The presentation started with an amuse bouche of marinated baby squid, which were very juicy and sweet. Then came the individual servings of fresh uni in the shell, accompanied by freshly grated wasabi. The uni was fresh, but not the freshest I've had, but still very delicious. The third dish was sashimi, and this came with bonito, mackerel and baby abalone. I especially liked the tender abalone. This dish was accompanied by dried pickled seaweed that contrasted well with the sashimi. The next dish was white freshwater eel in ponzu sauce, and toro served with pickled ginger cubes and strands of seaweed that resembled cod roe.

One of my favorite dishes was the grilled wagyu beef slices, served with a pickled sweet ginger stem. The tempura course was fried whitefish and vegetable, again very fresh and well prepared with flaky tempura batter. The restaurant's signature dish was braised kinki fish, this was served in a very large bowl that contained a whole fish cooked in sweet brown sauce, accompanied by fresh vegetables and steamed rice. The kinki fish was simply delicious.

The eighth and last course was dessert, consisting of a choice of fresh fruits flown in from Japan. I selected strawberries, pineapple, cherries and kiwi fruit. The fruits came sliced and encased in a large ice globe that was partially melted on the side to allow access to the fruits inside.

Overall, I was very impressed with the freshness of the ingredients and the innovative presentations. They were a refreshing change from the traditional kaiseki meals that focused solely on the freshness of the ingredients with little room for the chef's creativity to shine through. I liked the food very much, and would definitely be back.

El Willy, the new place for tapas

I had been saving El Willy until I was in the mood for Spanish tapas, and tonight was the night. I finished my haircut at Salon Esprit was starving by the time I walked out of Citic Square. It was almost 9:00PM, so I thought it would be safe to try for a table at El Willy. Ever since it opened over a year ago, this restaurant had won numerous awards in the local culinary scene, the latest of which was Runner Up in the annual City Weekend Shanghai Reader's Poll. Sometimes, it's better to have the No.2 headband, as Afro would say.

The restaurant was packed when I got there, and even with a reservation, they could only seat me at the bar. So I put in a request to switch to a table whenever one was available. The menu was very extensive, with lots of tapas and rice dishes. I picked three items from the tapas menu as I was dining alone that night.

The scallop cerviche was very fresh, complimented by crispy shallots, avocado puree and a dash of extra virgin olive oil. It reminded me of an inverted Japanese hand roll I used to eat at Haiku by Hatsune. The gambas was also a winner, with a nice roasted flavor, strong garlic undertones and again, more of those crispy shallots which I believe are more of an Asian influence than a Spanish tradition. 

My third dish was the chicken and lobster Catalonia, served with a nice brown earthy sauce like Bearnaise. The lobster meat at the center of the escaloped meat tasted a little mushy, but otherwise, the flavors were very well balanced and I soaked up the sauce with the bread.

Overall, I was impressed with the food. Definitely worth a second visit with more people so that more dishes could be sampled. I used to like Azul Viva for their tapas, but that was quite a few years ago and the Spanish culinary scene in Shanghai has shifted once again.

Last Meal At The Bund Before The World Comes Knocking

This being the first weekend the new Bund boardwalk opened to the excited public, I decided I had to squeeze in one last meal for the season before moving on to quieter locales for my adventures in eating. And what better way to watch the world go by, or in this case, to watch the local masses descend on the Bund in droves on a sunny spring Sunday than from the 7th floor patio of M On The Bund.

I secured a window table a couple of days before Sunday, and arrived shortly before noon for brunch. They were serving their usual M Brunch set menus, and I decided I should eat a light meal for lunch after the heavy but excellent breakfast at Park Hyatt a few hours ago. Something light for me was the M house salad with shaved reggiano and pine nuts, and spagetti with clams over tomatoes and fresh parsley.

Few restaurants have been able to maintain their culinary standards as consistently as M On The Bund, and year after year, it continued to impress me with their excellent dishes using the freshest local ingredients, meticulous attention to details and top notch service. Not forgetting the unforgettable views from the patio overlooking the entire expanse of the Bund.

Today in particular, with drink in hand, as I stood watching the crowds throng the boardwalk below as final touches were being made in preparation for the Shanghai Expo 2010, I was reminded how wonderful the M On The Bund brunch experience has always been for me. Six years later, the magic still remains.

XinJiShi aka Jesse Restaurant

The chain of XinJiShi restaurants in Shanghai have become culinary institutions over the years. Although they are now located it more tourist friendly quarters, the standard of food remains excellent and is still held in high regard by the locals, even though prices are much higher than the average local hole-in-the-wall eatery serving traditional Shanghainese cuisine.

Today, I brought my coworker to the Xintiandi branch of XinJiShi to experience the excellent dishes that the rest of us have been raving for years. The usual must-haves included the three-layered pork meat stewed in claypot, the baked crab meat and roe in claypot and the famous jujue dates with glutinous rice. I also ordered a dish of local Chinese vegetables with strips of beancurd.

It has been at least three years since I ate here, but all the dishes were still very good. The stewed pork tasted just as good, although it seemed there was less gravy at the bottom of the pot this time. The stewed crab was amazing, but I remembered the version at Villa Mansion restaurant was even better. 

The jujube dates were still the best in town, and the local vegetable dish featured a local vegetable that I wasn't familair with but tasted a lot like tiny stalks of asparagus. I could have eaten a second plate of the jujube dates, but I had to save room for dessert at the Park Hyatt's 100 Century Ave restaurant later that night.

I was PuLi'ed back by the amazing food

I was so impressed with The PuLi Hotel in the Jing'An district that I had to go back for brunch this Saturday. The culinary creations more closely resembled the dishes that I used to love at T8 in Xintiandi - modern takes on traditional European fare with touches of molecular gastronomy influences. Today the weather was just fabulous, warm and breezy, and it felt like the first weekend of spring in Shanghai.

I arrived shortly after noon, and the Jing'An restaurant was barely getting filled. There was a small table by the window overlooking Jing'An Park, with the bamboo blinds keeping out some of the sunlight as I gazed into the greenery below.

There was no special brunch menu, but I spotted a few breakfast items in the lunch menu. I initially wanted to do the eggs benedict, but later changed my mind and opted for the mushroom tortellini with truffles and spinach. I also picked the cauliflower soup as a starter. The soup had become one of my favorite choices ever since I tried it the first time I dined at Jing'An. Smooth as silk, it was so smooth the texture was beyond puree. It felt like drinking thick flavored cauliflower milk. The extra crunchy crouton-like bits on top of the soup added a very interesting contrast to the entire appetizer. This soup was just simply sublime.

My tortellini wasn't bad either, the flavor of the wild mushroom was aromatic, and the slivers of truffles and parmesan on top added to the overall taste sensation. The tortellini pasta was a little on the tough side, slightly below al dente, but it added a nice chewy texture to the pasta.

I ended the meal with a lemon curd pie with vanilla ice cream. Not quite the key lime pie experience I was hoping, but the tart flavor was very intense, and just the right amount of sweetness, complimented by the creamy vanilla ice cream on top.

Overall, this was a very satisfying lunch, the service was excellent and unobtrusive, the views of Jing'An Park was calming, and the 3 courses were all winners.

Now I'm all ready to book a room at The PuLi Hotel to enjoy the rest of the wonderful services it has to offer.