9 February 2005
Happy Chinese New Year!
In honour of said New Year, tried out new restaurant recently called Shanghai Blues. Had great time and came out pretty darned relaxed - which is what eating out should be about. Review as follows:
"This beautifully decorated restaurant has definitely taken a leaf out of Hakkasan's book when it comes to interiors. However, I'm glad to say the staff do not maintain the same level of pretension as its predecessor. The manager, Michael and his staff are all extremely warm and friendly and on our visit the service was efficient and not overbearing.
The bar serves your usual selection of drinks, nothing very different, but there is a good selection of wines (pricey) and we had a very palatable Sommelier Rhone.
Menu is great. Very wide variety of dishes with a real mix of traditional and new fusion. There is an emphasis on seafood including Alaskan Crab, seabass, dover sole, lobster, razor clams and scallops cooked in a variety of ways. The lobster and crab are quite pricey. We had filleted seabass with strawberry sauce, which was interesting - but not sure we would order it again. The fish was great - the strawberry sauce, not so much. Razor clams with beansprouts and chinese chives were pleasant but perhaps not outstanding. The braised pork belly with Chinese spices was to die for. So tasty with pickled vegetables stirred into the sweet savoury sauce. The manager asked if we were put off by the fattiness of the meat but as that is what pork belly is all about, we assured him that it was perfection. We also tried two vegetable dishes - morning glory with Shanghai spice sauce and kailan (Chinese broccoli) with salt fish - both divine. There is a great choice of vegetable dishes (though beware - some are not necessarily vegetarian) and also an interesting dim sum menu.
Desserts are good, but portions are small - except the fresh fruit platter which was a good size and included mangoes, papayas, lychees, strawberries, melon and others. We had red bean and green tea pudding and Yuan Yang delight (a glutinous rice pudding) - both extremely tasty.
There is a good selection of teas though not too adventurous.
There is so much to choose from in the menu that the restaurant definitely merits several return visits - especially as the food was generally so tasty.
The bill came to £125 including wine, desserts and drinks for three but after the introductory 40% tip we paid just £84.00. A definite good deal and wished we'd gone for the lobster!
The restaurant is divided into several rooms which makes it quite intimate and we are told they have live jazz on Friday and Saturday evenings.
On a final note, the washrooms are lovely and they use Molton Brown toiletries - another plus!"
"This beautifully decorated restaurant has definitely taken a leaf out of Hakkasan's book when it comes to interiors. However, I'm glad to say the staff do not maintain the same level of pretension as its predecessor. The manager, Michael and his staff are all extremely warm and friendly and on our visit the service was efficient and not overbearing.
The bar serves your usual selection of drinks, nothing very different, but there is a good selection of wines (pricey) and we had a very palatable Sommelier Rhone.
Menu is great. Very wide variety of dishes with a real mix of traditional and new fusion. There is an emphasis on seafood including Alaskan Crab, seabass, dover sole, lobster, razor clams and scallops cooked in a variety of ways. The lobster and crab are quite pricey. We had filleted seabass with strawberry sauce, which was interesting - but not sure we would order it again. The fish was great - the strawberry sauce, not so much. Razor clams with beansprouts and chinese chives were pleasant but perhaps not outstanding. The braised pork belly with Chinese spices was to die for. So tasty with pickled vegetables stirred into the sweet savoury sauce. The manager asked if we were put off by the fattiness of the meat but as that is what pork belly is all about, we assured him that it was perfection. We also tried two vegetable dishes - morning glory with Shanghai spice sauce and kailan (Chinese broccoli) with salt fish - both divine. There is a great choice of vegetable dishes (though beware - some are not necessarily vegetarian) and also an interesting dim sum menu.
Desserts are good, but portions are small - except the fresh fruit platter which was a good size and included mangoes, papayas, lychees, strawberries, melon and others. We had red bean and green tea pudding and Yuan Yang delight (a glutinous rice pudding) - both extremely tasty.
There is a good selection of teas though not too adventurous.
There is so much to choose from in the menu that the restaurant definitely merits several return visits - especially as the food was generally so tasty.
The bill came to £125 including wine, desserts and drinks for three but after the introductory 40% tip we paid just £84.00. A definite good deal and wished we'd gone for the lobster!
The restaurant is divided into several rooms which makes it quite intimate and we are told they have live jazz on Friday and Saturday evenings.
On a final note, the washrooms are lovely and they use Molton Brown toiletries - another plus!"
Labels: festivals, food, restaurants
# posted by gilamonster : 22:06
