That top-of-the-world feeling

Who would have thought that a restaurant called simply the Dining Room would be able to provide such a wonderful, sublime eating experience for me tonight? The fact that it was the second highest restaurant in the world didn't even cross my mind until I was seated by the window. Looking down 85 floors below, I could see the whole city beneath my feet. But I digress; the restaurant built it's reputation on serving one of the most exquisite meals in Shanghai and my expectations were high tonight.

A meal at the Dining Room is no trivial affair, and by Shanghai standards, prices are high in the stratosphere. But I also wanted to try as many of their signature dishes as possible, so it seemed the seasonal degustation menu was the obvious choice for the night.

The dinner started with the restaurant's signature flower crab salad with tri-color cherry tomatoes, rocket leaves and fava beans. Everything about the dish was outstanding, every ingredient was fresh and delicious. The first course whetted my appetite, and so I had high expectations for the next dish. 

Out came the foie gras done two ways, one piece seared and topped with apricot and lavender glaze, the other served as a terrine with lavender jelly and vanilla apricot topping. This second course surpassed the first by a long stretch, and I was in foie gras heaven! The use of lavender was something refreshing, fragrant with a hint of bitterness, contrasting very well with the citrus flavor of the apricot. 

The third dish consisted of another one of my favorite ingredients - roasted black cod, and this dish was served with diced octopus and basil mashed potato. The cod was perfectly cooked, I loved the tenderness of the octopus pieces but the basil flavor of the mashed potato won me over.

The next dish was pan seared beef tenderloin served with sour cream and chives over potato dauphine. The beef was definitely of a much higher grade than those served in the local restaurants. I was curious and enquired with the waiter, who informed me that the hotel had a special arrangement with a private Japanese-run boutique ranch in Australia's Ranger Valley to supply their meats. What a brilliant move. 

By the end of this course, I was hoping dessert would be something light, but I was shocked when the waiter brought a football sized chocolate ball to my table. Seeing the look of utter disbelief written on my face, he assured me that the dessert was not as big as it looked. As the hot chocolate sauce was poured over the chocolate ball, it crumbled and melted before my eyes to reveal a tiny chocolate cake at the center of the plate. The hot chocolate sauce blended well with the melted chocolate ball, creating a two-toned medley of chocolate sauces around the cake. The cake alone would have been a delight - chocolate mousse on top, chocolate ice cream at the bottom, but paired with the sauce, absolutely brilliant!

Tonight's dinner at the Dining Room certainly was out of this world, and with a glass of Malbec, it set me back about 950RMB. Sky high prices for a sky high restaurant, but it was worth every penny for the experience.

The Dining Room is located inside the Park Hyatt Shanghai Hotel, in Pudong Shanghai.

Sunday brunch at Issimo

It was a rainy Sunday morning as I headed out to town for brunch at Issimo, the Italian restaurant located inside the JIA boutique hotel in the Jing'An district of Shanghai. The entrance was at the corner of the building, with a flight of stairs leading upstairs to the dining room vi a a mirrored staircase of diamond shaped glass. Issimo was stylishly modern, and bright, with a lot of natural lighting and a nice vibe that made me feel very comfortable. I got a table by the window, and ordered a juice while waiting for my friend to show up.

The menu selection for brunch was short, but I spotted a few items that I immediately liked. They had a 4 course set menu with my favorite choices, so that was an easy decision for me to make.

For starters, I had the grilled octopus salad with long beans and grilled peppers. The octupus was a little chewy, but otherwise had a nice smokey flavor and tasted fresh. Then came the squid ink ravioli with manila clams, cherry tomatoes and a poached egg. It was an odd combination of ingredients, but nonetheless tasted quite nice. 

For my main, I had the proscuitto wrapped salmon served with a cream sauce that was well done. I was impressed by the first three courses, but the dessert was a bit of a let down, consisting of a chcoolate gelato, a cheese cake and a chocolate mousse. They were all good, but not outstanding, and gave me the impression that there was a lack of effort on the part of the kitchen team.

Overall, a very enjoyable brunch, food was delicious, service was excellent and prompt, and I loved the decor. The lounge and bar in front of the dining room were also good reasons to return for dinner someday to check out the scene.

Restaurant Martin in Shanghai

I had the day off, and decided to try something new for lunch. While digging through the local restaurant review sites, I found Restaurant Martin, the Shanghai location for three-star Michelin chef Martin Berasategui's award winning restaurant, a contemporary of Ferran Adrian. I was puzzled why none of my friends or colleagues ever mentioned this restaurant to me. Certainly a restaurant with such a reputation should have been in the news more often, or perhaps mentioned in the same breath as M on the Bund. Perhaps the food wasn't up to par, or the service was atrocious, well, there was only one way to find out.

Restaurant Martin was located in a very charming and majestic heritage mansion built in the 1920s inside Xujiahui Park. This alone should have made this a very popular establishment with the fine dining crowd. I stepped into the foyer of the restaurant slightly after noon, and was shown to my table on the upper level, inside a charming dining room with four tables. There was already a table of four Japanese women lunching as I entered.

I ordered the seasonal set lunch, which comprised of three courses and a dessert. I had high hopes for the first course, which was chilled peach gazpacho, because summer time has always been the best for the sweetest peaches. The gazpacho was served with oilve oil drizzled on top and tasted awesome, slightly chilled with a strong peach flavor that balanced well with the olive oil and tomato puree. The texture was so smooth it was like eating spoonfuls of my flavored yoghurt.

The second course was poached egg with hollandaise sauce over caviar and seasoned with truffle oil. This dish tasted light, the caviar was a very good choice, as was the touch of truffle oil. Overall, a medley of flavors that won me over right away.

My main course consisted of pan fried monkfish with steamed vegetables. It had been a long time since I had my last monkfish meal, so this was another dish I was very much looking forward to. When cooked right, monkfish can taste very much like lobster meat, and Restaurant Martin's version was cooked just right.

For dessert, I had the star anise flavored ice cream over carrot creme brulee, drizzled with olive oil. This was truly a very unique dessert, the flavors were extraordinary, simple yet delicious. I wished the portion was a bit more generous.

My overall dining experience at Restaurant Martin was amazing. Not cheap, by Shanghai standards, but considering the quality of food and excellent service, it was well worth it. Sunday brunch might be the perfect time to come back, for good food and long walks in Xujiahui Park.

Back to T8

On my way back from the Shanghai Expo, I decided to swing by Xintiandi to check out the scene. Unfortunately, I didn't see any restaurants that interested me after walking both the south and north blocks, which invariably meant I had only one decent choice for dinner that night. So I headed over to T8.

It has been at least a couple of years since I dined there, so I was expecting a lot of new items on the menu. The restaurant was very crowded when I walked in, but fortunately, they always had some seats available by the counter. 

Truffle was featured on the menu, so I picked an entree and a main for my meal. The bread was served in their signature cup holder, with butter and a dipping sauce. I was glad that some things haven't changed at T8. My entree was corn soup with ravioli and truffles over a cream sauce. A little heavy on the calories, but the soup was wonderful and the truffle flavor lifted the soup above the ordinary. 

My main course was roasted chicken wrapped in bacon, and stuffed with truffles, served over cauliflower puree and pickled cabbage. The chicken was very tender and flavors of the bacon, cabbage and the truffles blended together very well.

It was good to know that T8 has managed to maintain its high standards after the last few years, and has stayed true to its creative culinary edge. But with the new restaurants sprouting all around Shanghai over the past year, it looks like the competition is heating up with the likes of Mr&Mrs Bund and Restaurant Martin following closely behind. For me, T8 will always remain a favorite, and possibly the only reason I would return to Xintiandi.

Club Vietnam at the FCC

I came across a restaurant called Club Vietnam at the FCC while searching the internet for good Vietnamese food in Shanghai. Having been to the FCC in Siem Reap a few months ago, I thought this might be an affiliation. I only found out much later that FCC meant "Foreign Culture Club", the brainchild of a Hong Kong restaurateur. But this didn't stop me from giving Club Vietnam a try, after reading about the fine reviews from local publications.

Club Vietnam is located in an enclave of old Shanghainese houses off Julu Road. The FCC building itself houses several F&B establishments, one of which was Club Vietnam. The other, a private dining restaurant called Manchuria, was on the other side of the building together with the Wine Cellar. Club Vietnam is a white affair, white marble tables paired with white chairs and plain white walls. Not much in terms of decor, but at least it offers a modern minimalist albeit slightly boring dining environment. The menu was rather extensive, and I took a while to settle on the appetizer sampler, and the deep fried snapper with tamarind sauce. I also ordered a glass of their house sangria.

The first course arrived, and I was presented with a spread of three classic Vietnamese appetizers - grilled Vietnamese prawn cakes with homemade dipping sauce, skewered prawns and garlic, and fried spring rolls. I loved all three appetizers, they were very authentic.

My snapper arrived on a large plate smothered in tamarind sauce. The flavor was unbelievably good, so good, that I had to order a bowl of white rice to accompany it.  It actually reminded me of a similar dish I had in Chiang Mai.

Overall, the meal was excellent, and ranks up there with some of the better ones I've eaten in recent years. I never thought I'd find good Vietnamese food in Shanghai, but I guess if there's a market for excellent and authentic Thai cuisine like Simply Thai, then I guess there's a niche for a restaurant like Club Vietnam to thrive.

Back to my old habits again

It's been at least three years since I had a good meal at Shintori, and I thought tonight might be the perfect time to take a nostalgic stroll down that bamboo path leading up to the glass cube entrance. It all started during a conversation in the office about new places to eat in Shanghai. My colleagues were eager to try something different and away from the Bund, so we took a cab downtown to explore some of the more local areas of the city. 

Our first stop was along Donghu Road, where El Willy and Sichuan Citizen were located. As usual, El Willy was impossible to get in without a reservation, and tonight there wasn't even standing room at the bar. I didn't want to eat Sichuan for dinner two nights in a row, so we walked down the road looking for other alternatives. At some point, I started checking Google Maps and realized that we were just a block away from Julu Road, where Shintori, People 7 and Mesa were located. I brought up the idea of eating modern Japanese, and both my colleagues were keen to try. And so within minutes, we found ourselves standing outside the doorway leading into Shintori.

Some people would describe walking into Shintori for the first time an ethereal moment where you feel transported to a different world the moment you take your first step through the entrance. Both my colleagues were awed by the serenity that greeted us as we walked through the non-descript doorway along Julu Road with the tiny number '803' on a metal plaque. Most people would have missed it, but those "in-the-know" get a kick out of taking their friends there and seeing the look of amazement on their faces as the sliding doors around the glass cube open up, revealing the foyer and main dining hall just beyond the door.

Shintori had not changed one bit these past few years. It was still bustling and we were only able to get counter seats. The menu looked a little different, but most of the dishes were familiar. I pointed out a few signature dishes for my colleagues to try, but decided to go with the kaiseki set instead. At RMB280, it seemed like a very good deal, with 6 courses covering the usual kaiseki dishes of an appetizer, sashimi, tempura, grilled meat, soup, rice and dessert. 

What really impressed me was the freshness of the ingredients, and the perfectly blended flavors. The only slight disappointment was the dessert, which was too ordinary, given that Shintori has always been known for their modern Japanese interpretations. Maybe I was just expecting to get a slice of the green tea tiramisu that my colleague was eating.

I'm glad to know that in this city of everchanging dining experiences, some good things haven't changed yet. I love Shintori the way I love a good secret vacation hideaway, so I'm only sharing this with a few people, especially when I want a quiet dinner out in the city by myself.

Sichuan Citizen

I decided I needed something spicy for dinner tonight, so the newly renovated Sichuan Citizen was the obvious choice for some home style Sichuan  cooking. Some people might say the food was expat fodder, but my local friend insisted it was authentic and rather like the typical dishes his mom used to cook. From the main stretch of Donghu Road looking in, the restaurant looked rather small, taking up the width of a typical shophouse. 

Once inside, the small bar and dining area opened out to a much larger family style dining room in the rear adjoining room. On the upper floor, there were more private rooms and yet another large dining hall. Tonight, the bar area was the place to hang out, and it was packed when I got there at nine o'clock.

The restaurant decor was rather like a blend between a tiki bar and a wood shack filled with Chinese memorabilia. It also reminded me of a restaurant called Sino in Santana Row, San Jose, that was trying to cash in on the faddish chinoiserie trend at the time. At least Sichuan Citizen had real Chinese waiters working there.

I ordered the mapo dofu, the fried beef fillet with dried red chili and the string bean with bacon. Later, I also added the Shanghai style crystal shrimp, just because they never tasted the same anywhere else in the world. All four dishes were excellent, and not too spicy even for me. I guess that's why they called this expat food. My favorite was the mapo dofu (spicy beancurd with minced pork) that was just perfect when paired with a bowl of steaming white rice. 

I could have eaten two plates of that. I also like the fact that the menu is extensive and has all the most popular Sichuan dishes, and they have a well-stocked bar serving cocktails to quench the fiery tastebuds after a meal. 

A new taste of Vietnam in town

There are few Vietnamese restaurants worth mentioning in Singapore, so whenever there is a new one entering the scene, I'm always eager to give it a try, hoping that someday I will find a worthy alternative to Le Dalat Indochine in Bangkok. The name Nuoc reminds me of the delicious fish sauces that accompany most Vietnamese dishes, and the thought of digging into fresh handrolls and salads got my mouth salivating before I even got to the door.

I love the location of the restaurant, located on the top floor of the Orchard Central building, amidst tropical greenery and a water garden. The restaurant's decor was modern and stlyish, even slightly eclectic Asian. We were there for lunch, and even though there was a set lunch menu, we decided to try the signature dishes from the a la carte menu.

First up was the banh beo, steamed rice cake with croutons, dried shrimps and chili. it's been a while since I've had this dish, and this one's much better than the version at Vung Tau in San Jose. We also ordered the beef pho soup, which, I admit was the best I've had in Singapore for many years. The fried spring rolls were very well done, crispy and juicy.

The tri-season salad was another highlight of the meal, a tasty combination of prawns, sliced pork belly and lotus stems over crushed peanuts and fresh chili. For the main course, we ordered the caramelized pork in clay pot, which was cooked very similarly like the catfish dish Cá khô.

All in all, we had a fabulous Vietnamese lunch in Singapore. It's always good to know that there are decent Vietnamese restaurants in in town for a change. I'm hoping this one sticks around for a while.

Dining Downstairs

It seems every now and then a new boutique hotel springs up in Shanghai. Except for the Mansion Hotel, most seem to be ultra modern and hip, catering to a more discerning travel community bored with the five star hotels chains that have planted themselves all over the city in the last few years. URBN hotel, in the Jing'An district, aims to one up everyone else by being the first carbon neutral boutique hotel in China, and with a string of awards in the greater Shanghai area as well. They have teamed up with David Laris of Laris (Three On The Bund) for their F&B offering, culminating in the Downstairs with David Laris cafe that recently opened a few months ago. 

Whereas Upstairs is the hotel's lounge that serves artisan cocktails, Downstairs serves simple cafe fare focused on sustainable farming and organic produce from local farmers. Sounds a lot like a Bay Area type of joint, no? I'm not sure how the locals take to sustainable farming methods in a city overrun with backstreet restaurants using recycled cooking oil and dodgy produce laced with toxic levels of pesticides, but I'm sure the expat community appreciates any restaurant that can serve up a clean healthy meal.

The menu at Downstairs is not as extensive as some high end restaurants, but this is after all a cafe serving simpler dishes, and for that, the prices are very reasonable. Appetizers run between RMB45 to 75, and mains are usually in the RMB120 to 165 range, with the exception of the Angus steaks which are RMB390 a piece. A glass of Larosso Malbec sets you back RMB40.

I ordered a glass of Wild Cherry Cacao iced tea while I perused the menu, then later settled on the poached chicken salad with Vietnamese sauces for my first starter, which was essentially a Vietnamese chicken salad that tasted very light and refreshing. I also ordered the Thai fish cakes, which came in a serving plate of three pieces, lightly battered and fluffy, accompanied by a generous mound of coriander, but completely missed the mark when it came down to authenticity, so I was a little disappointed. For my main course I ordered the mac and cheese with truffle oil and three cheeses. This was also a bit of a letdown, perhaps because of the choice of the three cheeses used. I would have preferred a stronger flavor, like gruyere.

Despite the lackluster food, the service was excellent. The wait staff was very attentive and friendly, and made the entire meal an overall pleasant experience. I loved the decor of Downstairs, with lots of recycled elements that added to the cosy, rustic feel of the cafe. The adjacent outdoor dining patio opened out to the garden lined with bamboo and would be a perfect spot for warmer evenings. Unfortunately the flood lights were a little too bright, and it reminded me of the times I  was sitting at the benches watching night baseball games at the AT&T arena in San Francisco.

Overall, this is a rather decent place for a light, healthy meal, and I would probably be back for brunch one of these weekends. But as far as boutique hotel eateries go, my favorite is still the Jing'An restaurant at the PuLi.