Lawry's, Lee Garden

Managed to have a table on Saturday night at around 7pm without reservation and agreed to return the table at 8:15 pm.

Lobster bisque was rich and delicious, but as everything is in American size, was quite full after the soup. The salad itself was refreshing and with just the right amount of dressing. Love the sprinkles of hard boil egg in it. However, the presentation is really funny. Can't really tell the purpose of spinning the huge metal bowl on the crushed ice while mixing??
The "famous" Lawry's seasoning.

Ordered a traditional cut to share. The roast beef is juicy, tender and full of flavor.
The Yorkshire pudding goes well with the gravy. The side order mushroom is alright but nothing special.

Had a bit confusion when we ordered one to share. We were told that they'll charge about $200 for another salad and mash potato. We were left with the impression it's their "policy" to charge for that if you order to share, even after explaining that we won't need any additional salad and mash potato. Finally we settled on telling the waitress we'll just need to order one portion and the other person will not be eating. Maybe a bit of miscommunication there?

Ichikawa, Taikoo

Haven't been to the this one for a while and picked it as an alternative to the original Korean restaurant. All decided on ordering the $135 dinner set, which you can choose a starter, a soup, a main, noodles/rice and dessert.

When everything arrived:
There were: 4 fried dumplings and one cold spinach; 2 miso soup, 2 pumpkin soup & 1 mushroom soup; 3 teriyaki beef, 1 grilled cod, 1 seafood hot pot; 2 rice, 1 rice with soup(茶漬飯), 1 soba & 1 Udon.
The Cod was nice with a hint of sweetness from the miso. Though it sounds like a strange combination, it also went very well with the sesame dressing left over from the spinach. Also tried the teriyaki beef, it's a bit too salty for me and a bit too much onion...

The food in general was better than I remembered, or maybe just because spend most of the time talking instead of focusing on the food?

Fragrant Flowers

Marco Polo lily - a stunning lily with a overwhelming fragrance. It's blooms are huge and very pretty.

One of my favorites - Lily of the valley. It's difficult to imagine the tiny flowers could have such sweet and great fragrance. Pity don't see them very often in Hong Kong.

Milk Deluxe

Tried the "deluxe" milk by Mengniu(蒙牛) in Shanghai and surprised to find it's rich, creamy and smooth. You won't be able to tell the difference between it and Japanese brands in blind tasting. At RMB$4 it's very good deal but wonder if it's going to survive at almost HK$8 per pack.

Jean Georges - Three on the Bund

Saw the ad of their brunch after having lunch at Whompoa Club (the two restaurants are in the same building), made a booking immediately to try it out.
Croissant and chocolate croissant with the brunch set arrived with three dipping (think they are chocolate, coffee and jam). The reason for forgetting the dipping is the croissants are simply wonderful. They arrived cold yet it's crispy outside and soft and fluffy inside. You can smell the salty buttery aroma when held it close. (Wonder how much butter goes into it...)

Mom and I both encountered our "unforgettable" croissant when we were in Paris. Coincidentally, both were bought near Paris train station. (But there's at least 20 years in between...) For unknown reason, we've rarely have croissant like that again (you'd think you can find anything in HK, Taiwan and China nowadays), until now...

Foie gras brule, dried sour cherries and candied pistachio. This was from the lunch set, which is RMB198, includes 2 dishes plus a dessert. You can choose anything thing from the menu. The sour taste of the cherries balanced well with the richness of the foie gras. Needless to say, I stole most of this dish.

Slow baked salmon, steamed wild mushrooms, sake ginger dressing. Uhm...this is one of the best fish dishes cooked in Western style I've every tried.

This is the brunch set - clockwise from the top left - brioche french toast, caramelized apple; buttermilk pancakes, warm maple syrup; smoked salmon, potato-horseradish gallettes, creme fraiche and eggs Benedict. The french toast is almost like a sponge cake and the eggs Benedict is just right with the centre running. It's nice to have a small portion of each type. The set also include juice and coffee besides the croissants, at RMB$168. No wonder the place is full and you can see the set on most tables.
Veal tenderloin and shank, potato cannelloni, Liquid Parmesan. The veal tenderloin and shank are just perfect. Not too keen on the potato cannelloni though.Roast organic chicken breast, kumquat-lemongrass chutney, mandarin sauce. This was a very nice surprise. Never expect to fin the chicken so tender and juicy, and taste so nice with the olive paste and orange dipping.
Warm chocolate cake. Rich, not too sweet and lovely with ice cream.Petite fours - the chocolates were nice but the best was the marshmallows!!(Macaroons are just so so.)
Originally asked about buying some croissants as take away(that's how good they are), and was told that the croissants were made especially for the brunch sets and not for sale. Luckily, later the very helpful and friendly General Manager, Mr. Godard, said he would go to the kitchen and find a few for us as Easter present! The two bars of Chocolates were Easter treats for ladies.

Enjoyed a lovely brunch and most important thing is finally convinced my parents that western food can be tasty too.

Will definitely go again when in Shanghai again and highly recommended to all visiting Shanghai.

Xsensation - 47/F Sofitel Jinjiang Oriental Shanghai Pudong Hotel

Never have high expectations of the food in a revolving restaurant - the selling point is always the view, not the food. But the dinner turned out to be a very pleasant surprise.

Bread basket arrived first, the mini Baguette were the best out of the three, warm, crispy outside and soft and airy inside.
The soup from dinner set - Morel soup with two slices of crispy cheese toast. The soup was thick and full of flavour and serve when it's still very hot.
2nd course from the set dinner - Cod with asparagus. The fish is very tender and juicy, one of the few that beats Cantonese steam fish.
The main course of the dinner set - Veal and spaghetti with morel carbonara sauce. Uhm...the veal is very tender. The rich sauce went so well with the spaghetti, it's gone in a few seconds.

Duck confit from the a la cart menu. It's nice but when compared with the set dinner, seems to loose it's attraction.Crayfish in puff pastry. Only recommended to those with extremely small appetite.
Dessert from the dinner set - Champagne sorbet with Macaroon, custard mille-feuille. The champagne sorbet was very refreshing and delicate. Warm chocolate chunk- Warm Chocolate cake cut into small cubes with ice cream.
On the whole, must say the set dinner(or was it Chef tasting menu?) was very nice. Think it's about $500RMB + But with the food and wonderful night scene of Pudong, it's definitely worth it.

Also managed to get $200 RMB from the receipt lucky draw. Yeah!

Whampoa Club, Shanghai

Decided to revisit Whampoa Club for the delicate Chinese food.

These Appetizers were from the Tasting Menu (Whampoa Club Specialities) same as last time:Osmanthus candied lotus root filled with slow-cooked glutinous grains, Sugar-cured glutinous red dates with cinnamon apple and seared goose liver, and Old fashion Shanghai smoked fish. Needless to say, they were all very yummy.

These were from another tasting menu - Vegetarian mushroom wantons with savory soya bean milk, Spring bamboo shoots and green shoots braised with shrimp roe, and Roasted duck breast with Chinese herbs, wolfberries sauce.

This was their new express lunch menu - Poached chicken with ginger flavor and wild mushroom salad, crispy white bait sprinkled, soya braised brown wheat gluten, soup of the day, fried rice with dried scallops and shrimps, plus chilled snow fungus coconut pudding. In general, they were tasty but no very special.

Sesame Shrimp served with sauteed egg plant in hot bean sauce, Poached hairy melon cup filled with minced pork and ginger fried rice with dried cuttlefish. Uhm...the shrimp is really nice and the egg plant sauce goes very well with the fried rice.

Red braised abalone with "lion's head' meat dumplings in soya reduction, slow-cooked dried beancurd with seasonal greens in broth. The "lion's head" was no comparison to Mom's. But the slow-cooked dried beancurd in broth was just right. The beancurd threads were just of the right width, not to fine or to thick, and the broth is light, flavourful and not oily.

The Pea starch noodle with scallops in a sour and spicy sauce was gone before the camera's out. That tells you how good it is. Didn't try the Braised shark's fin with crab roe cream as I've stopped eating shark's fin for a some time.

The dim-sum pairing were : Springroll and 'Wo Tie' dumpling and Curry dumpling with peanut pastry crust and Spinach jus vegetarian dumpling. They were all very nice but by the time they arrived, were very full already.
But, still managed to squeeze some room for the deep-fried white turnip dumpling with pastry crust.
More to come - Glutinous pearls in rice wine broth and Sesame glutinous dumpling with peanut powder.
Sweet potato and glutinous rice pearls served with crispy taro dumpling filled with coconut custard.

Of course for someone who is very forgetful, it's impossible to remember all the dishes. So decided to cheat this time - took photo of the menu so there's no need to go through the memory test...

Starbucks in Pu dong

This Starbucks looks out to a huge football field. Lovely place to spend an afternoon sitting outside if the weather is nice.


Oh, don't forget to walk a bit further and you'll meet them:



Publish

Yuzu,柚子

Went to Yuzu when I was in Shanghai last time. They serve "all you can eat" set at dinner time. It's only been a few months time and there are several other shops already.

Visited the one in Holiday Inn in Pu dong for their set lunch.
This is the Sukiyaki set.
This is the daily grill fish set.
And guess what - the most expensive set(sukiyaki) is only 48RMB. It comes with starter, soup, salad, pickle, rice and steam egg custard. But of course, the most important thing is the food was very nicely cooked and carefully flavoured, much better than some of the ones you get in Hong Kong charging close/or over HK$100.

Danieli's Restaurant- St. Regis, Shanghai

Here's the official description from the website:

"Marvel at the panorama of glittering Pudong while feasting on modern Italian cuisine. Located on the 39th floor, Danieli's combines epicurean excellence with relaxing ambience. Sundays feature our divine free-flow of champagne Italian Sunday Lunch from 11:30am-2:30pm.

Named "Best Restaurant in Shanghai 2006" by Shanghai Tatler as one of many distinctions, Danieli's Italian Restaurant has become an award-winning fixture on the dynamic Shanghai restaurant circuit. These accolades reflect the restaurant's uncompromising standards of hospitality and gastronomic perfection."

http://www.starwoodhotels.com/stregis/property/dining/attraction_detail.html?propertyID=1365&attractionId=31683

Read a few reviews about the place and missed it several times. Finally managed to try it out yet...

The bread is very crispy and warm, managed to finish 1 1/2 loaf.

Beef caparchio.
Mozzarella, tomato and rocket salad.

Grilled Salmon - not very impressive, especially compared to the other two fish dishes later at other restaurant.
Lamb shank - the lamb was tender and the tomato sauce worked well with the lamb.


Well, for the price of 200RMB for a 2 courses plus coffee/tea lunch set, the food was bit disappointing. Especially when considering this is Shanghai, Pu dong area and when you can get a much better deal with tastier food and better view in restaurants on the Bund.

Aspasia

Read a few blogs about the place and had high expectations...

Bread is not as good as imagined. Prefer the ones in Angelini and Grassini. The dipping in the test tubes are cute but could not dip in it when the bread stick is getting short... The cucumber and yellow pea ones are of very mild taste and the bell peppers is the best of the three. Pity am not so keen on bell peppers.

They offered to let us try the three house red before deciding which we like. Don't know much about wine and picked Ripassa di Zenato simply think it taste better.

Fried mackerel with fennel salad - the fish is very tender with the centre still raw, perfect with the fennel salad.

This is only 1/4 of the pizza, so you can imagine the whole one is actually the size of a normal pizza . It's the very thin crust type and with just the right amount of toppings.
The pumpkin ravioli is surprisingly sweet, with a tint of cinnamon.
First time to come across a donkey dish - braised donkey with polenta and cheese. Have to try it, just for the experience, as never seen donkey on the menu before. It turned out to taste a bit like beef with a different texture. The sauce is quite thick and heavy so can't really tell if donkey has any distinctive taste. According to the Chef, it's good for cleaning stomach!?

The original dessert should be Basil gelatin with blood orange ice cream and sesame ice cream. But by the time we finished our lunch, that was all gone and the alternative is pistachio and passion fruit cake with strawberries salsa. The strawberries salsa is very nice and refreshing while the cake is light and not too sweet.

On the whole this was a lovely lunch - good food, nice environment, helpful service and great value for money. Definitely worth going again if in TST.