I Love China

Yes it’s back again after a successful first run, many of Shanghai’s top restaurants (and some of the not so top ones too) will be offering food lovers the chance to enjoy a three course dinner for a mere 238 RMB (or lunch for 118 RMB). Some of the restaurants that will be taking part include:

T8, Laris, M1NT, Moonsha, Hamilton House, Mi Tierra, Mesa, Kathleen’s 5, Rosso Italiano, JC Mandarin – Wine Bar and Grill, Shintori, New Heights, Nougatine, Whampoa Club, Sasha’s, Bistro Latitude, The Chinoise Story, JW’s California Grill and Wan Hao, Vedas, LAN, Peninsula’s Sir Elly’s and Yi Long Court, The Portman Ritz-Carlton’s Palladio, Gran Melia’s Acqua, Suntime Century and El Albero

It runs from 6th September to 12th September and sadly I will be away the whole week. If I was here, a few I’d love to try would include Sir Elly’s at the Peninsula Hotel, Laris and M1NT. Of course the quality of the meals depends entirely on how the restaurant wants to position it. You may remember my previous experience at the Marriott so big famous names are no guarantee of a good offer during restaurant week. I have dined at M1NT but not during restaurant week, although Beverly was lucky enough to get a table there during restaurant week last time.

Although not in Shanghai, Charlie Chan in Cambridge (next to Oddbins) will also be participating in Shanghai restaurant week, but of course, being England, the cost will be 238 pounds per person rather than RMB.

Bookings open TODAY so get your table secured quickly before all the top places fill up.

The iconic Peace Hotel in Shanghai opened in the late 1920s (then called the Cathay Hotel) and like Hamilton House and the Metropole Hotel (both on Fuzhou Lu), the Peace Hotel was built by British property tycoon Sir Victor Sassoon, the Donald Trump of 1920s and 1930s Shanghai. It was universally recognised as the best, most prestigious hotel in Shanghai in the 30s and was also for a while – at 10 storeys high – the city’s tallest building.

I first visited the hotel back in 1999. By then of course, it was a shadow of its glorious past – dark, dingy, depressing and in decline. The jazz band members were all in their 70s and you get the feeling they had been there since the 20s.

If you’re not familiar with the building, just look out for the distinctive copper pyramid-shaped roof, which is now green. This was the part of the building that housed Victor Sassoon’s private apartments and dining room back in the day.

The hotel closed in 2007 for a much needed 65m dollar makeover, but I’m happy to report that it finally re-opened just last week. Now two separate hotels – the Fairmont Peace Hotel occupies the north building and as the name suggests, is now a joint venture between Fairmont (which also runs The Savoy in London) and the Chinese Jin Jiang hotel group.  The rather oddly named Swatch Art Peace Hotel (I believe due to open soon) occupies the south building on the other side of Nanjing Road, and the two are now run as separate businesses.

I have yet to visit the newly opened hotel, but it’s on my list along with the nearby and also newly opened Peninsula Hotel which houses Sir Elly’s, supposedly one of the best (and most expensive) fine dining restaurants in the city.

Reports to follow, most likely after payday, unless anyone would like to sponsor me to dine there and then and write what’s certain to be a glowing review!

Fairmont Peace Hotel
20 Nanjing Road East
Shanghai,
China
200002

I quite like seafood and when I lived in Beijing I regularly went to a very good Cantonese seafood place for my fix of shrimp, lobster, scallops, steamed fish, razor clams and crab. After 5 years in Shanghai I never really bothered trying to find a replacement until one opened right on my doorstep.

It’s called Ah Yat (阿一) and it’s a very authentic Cantonese chain where they have water tanks stocked full of fresh live seafood that you can just choose and discuss with the chef how you want him to cook it.

The thing with seafood is it tends to be more expensive than regular meat and vegetables, so it’s not something you can have every day. However, they seem to be having an amazing promotion right now – choose from a choice of six items and you can have 2 items for 98 rmb, 3 for 128 rmb or what I selected, 4 items for 168 rmb. What an amazing bargain. I went for the shrimp (500g so a very generous amount), black pepper crab, a whole steamed turbot and just to mix it up a bit, the roasted pigeon. On top of that, I added a portion of green vegetables and some steamed scallops with garlic and that basically made for a seafood feast for 2. Total cost was 306 rmb (they gave us an additional 12% discount).

The place is located at the very end of Huaihai Road just before it intersects with Renmin Road. The building houses a Japanese shabu shabu restaurant and a club, but seems to be fairly unknown right now, so the seafood place generally isn’t too busy. Get in there while you still can!

Details:
49 Huai Hai East Road
East Huai Hai International Building, 3rd Floor
Tel : 6333 6188

Almost 2 years after opening it’s first mainland China store in Shanghai, M&S now have two, the second store being in the touristy Yu Gardens. It seems like an odd location choice to open a second store. I was expecting somewhere like the retail meccas of Huai Hai Road or Xu Jia Hui rather than this location, which is jam packed with (mostly) domestic tourists who are unlikely to have any interest in buying a jar of pesto sauce.

Dingle had informed me that this store doesn’t sell food, just clothing. He was told this buy a friend of his who works for M&S. Undeterred, I decided to go see for myself, especially since it’s basically across the road from my apartment and low and behold, there was a nicely laid out food and wine section right on the ground floor.

As very few expats live around here, the store was quite empty apart from a few curious locals like this woman who was still wearing her pyjamas, a habit that is still popular with Shanghainese. The store itself is slightly away from the main part of the Yu Gardens in a quieter mall called Yu Fashion Garden on Fangbang Middle Road. The same building also has a Zara and H&M as well as a Tesco Express and premium dumpling chain Din Tai Fung.

I’m not sure this location is a going to pay off as it’s certainly not a shopping destination for locals. But time will tell.

It’s currently restaurant week in Shanghai and I decided to try the JW Marriott Grill, taking advantage of the 250 rmb promotion to try somewhere new.

On arrival, I announced to the receptionist that I had a reservation through the restaurant week website. She looked very confused and ran off to find someone else. Eventually and to my relief, she came back with someone who knew what I was talking about and we were seated. We were promptly given a drinks list but there was no sign of the fixed price menu. Eventually, after ordering some wine, I asked the waiter what we would be getting for the 250 set and he verbally ran through the menu : a rare tune nicoise salad to start, steak with asparagus as the main and then a panacotta dessert. There were no alternative options, so I am not sure what you would do if you didn’t eat meat, but I’m not that fussy (who doesn’t enjoy a good steak) so I gave him the nod and we were all set.

There were only about 8 tables and about 20 waiting staff but everyone seemed to be in a constant state of panic and many of the junior waiters were literally running back and forth which was very distracting for diners as well as making it hard to relax and enjoy the meal. I was quite surprised that in a 5 star hotel there was no manger to keep things organised.

The salad was very well prepared – a very contemporary lightly seared tuna Nicoise sprinkled with freshly ground sea salt. It wasn’t very big but I’m not a big eater so it’s not an issue.

Then came the steaks. It had occured to me that we were not asked how we wanted them cooked and I suppose I should have mentioned this but I assumed they knew what they were doing (maybe they prepared it at the table and asked you at that point). Sadly, this wasn’t the case and my heart sank when the steaks arrived. As I cut in to the meat, I realised it was quite well done and no true steak afficiondo would eat something that well cooked. What a pity because it was a quality cut of meat.

The dessert was lovely. A trio of panacotta, berries soaked in alcohol and some kind of crumble. All these descriptions are my own, since as I have already mentioned, there was no menu available to read through. I did enjoy the dessert, although the panacotta tasted suspiciously like a passion fruit mousse.

Another minor irritation : every table had an oil lamp on it. Ours had gone out and not once did anyone think to relight it until I eventually asked one of the waitresses to do so. It went out again a few minutes later and I gave up on it.

All in all then, the meal wasn’t bad, but the service was well below what I was expecting for a 5 star global brand like Marriott. The staff were very polite and enthusiastic, but just seemed to have no training whatsoever as well as no senior supervision. With the drinks, the bill came to just under 700 rmb, which is far below what it would have been without the restaurant week promotional price so it wasn’t a total disaster, but I’d be quite unhappy if it was a normal evening at normal prices.

For more on restaurant week, check out Beverly’s post about M1NT’s 250 rmb dinner. Seems like a much better deal!

Yes, today is Saint George’s Day, England’s national day, although it’s not really acknowledged as much as China’s national day which falls in October. In England we certainly don’t start wheeling out all our weapons and parade them down the streets! Does that mean the English aren’t as patriotic as the Chinese? Probably.

Anyway, enough of that I just wanted to let anyone who doesn’t already know that next week is Shanghai Restaurant Week and many of Shanghai’s top restaurants are offering lunch for just 150 rmb and dinner for 250 rmb. This includes some of the most expensive restaurants in the city, including Mr & Mrs Bund, Jean George, T8, Laris, M1NT to name but a few. To take advantage, you need to book via the website.

Restaurant week leads nicely in to the May labour day holiday and the beginning of the Shanghai World Expo which of course opens on 1st May and runs till the end of October.

So as you can see, we’ve got it all to look forward too and hopefully the weather is starting to get warmer too, so all that’s left is for me to wish everyone a good weekend. I was going to list a few Iceland volcano jokes, but I think it’s too soon, it’s probably better to wait for the dust to settle!

This is an open letter to the management of Pret A Manger:

Dear Sir,

I love the simplicity of your products. Simple basic sandwiches made with fresh, high quality ingredients. Every time I visit Hong Kong (or England), a stop at Pret is an absolute must. Mature cheddar and Pret pickle, wild crayfish and rocket salad, Coronation chicken – they were all fabulous. The all day breakfast sandwich with sausage, bacon, egg mayo, ketchup may not be your healthiest sandwich, but it’s still another winner. I love that you make “slim” half sandwiches, so I can have two varieties. That makes the choices less agonising, but it’s still hard to narrow it down when you only have one meal every few months. When I was in Hong Kong at the weekend, I solved the problem by eating two types and then buying another four, yes, four, sandwiches which I packed in my hand luggage to be enjoyed on my return to Shanghai. I probably broke a few Chinese food importation laws, but it was worth the risk. And I should mention that your coffee puts Starbucks to shame.

I only have one more comment to make : please, please can you open a store in Shanghai in the very near future. I will promise never to visit Wagas or Starbucks again for as long as I live.

I look forward to your positive response.

Sincerely,

WoAi.

PS I forgot to mention the brie, tomato and basil leaf baguette. I’d like one right now. But sadly, it’s going to be months before I taste one.

Shanghai has Carl’s Jr, but as of today, Beijing has California-based Fatburger which opened amidst considerable fanfare from bloggers and media (CNN were there for the opening apparently). Beijing’s certainly come a long way from those early days when I was living there and the best we could hope for was a burger at The Den or perhaps Chef Paul’s Steak and Eggs. Right, this is making me hungry …

As we once ordered McDonalds live on our podcast, I can’t deny I occasionally surrender to the urge to eat junk food, mainly as it’s convenient when I don’t have time to go out myself to buy some lunch.

So today I ordered a big mac meal and 5 chicken nuggets and as is usually the case, the delivery guy arrived in about 10 minutes with my meal. Every past order has been dealt with so effectively I don’t bother checking what’s inside and this time it came back to bite me – there were no french fries.

I ran out to the lift lobby but the delivery guy was long gone. So I called the hotline (4008-517-517) and told them what had happened. They apologised and said they would arrange for the fries to be sent.

A few minutes later I got a call from the actual branch. They said they realised they had forgotten the fries and that someone was on their way to deliver them to me. Excellent. Then she asked if I would mind cancelling the call to the hotline, which puzzled me somewhat.

“Er, what do you mean?” I asked.

“Well, can you call back the hotline and tell them we didn’t forget the fries?”

“But you DID forget the fries” I replied.

There was a nervous laugh on the other end of the phone and then she simply said okay and that the fries would be with me shortly.

The delivery guy arrived and was again very apologetic, explaining the fries were in a different compartment and that’s why they were missed. He also asked if I could call the hotline to cancel the missing fries order.

I suppose they get punished if a customer complains, perhaps even have to pay a fine. But I’m sorry, I’m not going to call back and say it was MY mistake and that the fries were in the bag all along. I’m surprised they even asked. Okay, I’m not THAT surprised!

You may or may not be familiar with Japanese fast food chain Yoshinoya. They have many outlets in north America and China, selling mainly chicken and beef rice sets in a fast food format. I don’t go often, it’s not the pinnacle of fine dining but now and then, when I need a rest from 10 course lunches at one of the many Bund establishments, I slum it and head to Yoshinoya.

It’s lunch time so there’s a fairly long line. The woman in front of me has ordered food that comes to 27 and passes 30 rmb to the cashier. Now this is one of my pet peeves coming up right here. In England if it came to 9 pounds and 1 penny the cashier might ask if you happen to have a penny so she can give you back one pound change from 10. But here they take it to extremes for the simple reason that many establishments cannot seem to get the hang of preparing small change in advance. So the cashier pulls a funny face and asks the customer if she has 2 rmb coins so that she can give her a 5 rmb note back rather than use up precious coins. So the customer opens her back and rummages around for 5 minutes trying to scrape together a couple of 1 rmb coins while the queue gets longer behind me.

From experience I can guarantee you the cashier had 3 rmb but wanted to conserve the coins and therefore decided it was better to try and squeeze a few more coins from the customer.

Meanwhile, the customer in the next line had ordered his meal and took out a 100 rmb note to pay. The cashier looked at him and asked if he had anything smaller. The customer replied that he didn’t and even opened his wallet to show the cashier. Then to my surprise the cashier asked if he could pay by credit card instead! But it gets better. The customer indicated he did not possess a credit card and asked if any of the other cashiers had some change? To my horror and amazement, rather than ask his colleague if she had some change, the cashier said to the customer “I don’t know, you are welcome to try” and then waved him off. The shell shocked customer just walked over to the end of the next line and queued up again. If I was the customer I’d have taken off the silly hat the cashier was wearing and forced it down his throat.

I often feel I could make a fortune as a consultant to places like this, giving them advice on how to improve service and efficiency and ultimately drive profits. The only thing that’s stopping me is I don’t know if they’d be interested.

The irony is, there’s a huge ICBC bank branch right opposite this restaurant!