7 best deals at Shanghai Restaurant Week
Organized by Diningcity.com, Shanghai Restaurant Week is the best time of the year to check out the city's fine dining scene without breaking the bank.
This section of restaurant week, running from September 5-11, offers three-course set menus at 80 of Shanghai's top restaurants in two groups.
The upper tier, including the higher-end restaurants, charges RMB 118 for lunch or RMB 248 for dinner. The second group of restaurants charges RMB 78 for lunch and RMB 168 for dinner.
Here are our picks of the seven best deals from all the menus.
1. Lunch at T8, RMB 118
This Xintiandi mainstay has had a quietly elegant presence for the past 10 years.
Head chef Adam Liston’s restaurant week menu treats diners to tantalizing dishes like a green asparagus veloute with smoked potato foam and bacon powder as an amuse-bouche, sake-cured salmon with wasabi-infused meringue or quail eggs with spiced polenta chips for starters and, for mains, a 24-hour braised Wagyu short rib or black cod with red pepper purée.
Liston tries to use local ingredients whenever possible with a particular fondness for greenery, and the Wagyu main is accompanied by what is described on the menu as “young leaves and flowers.”
Considering T8’s three-course lunch sets are normally priced RMB 238, that’s one RMB 100-bill saved in your wallet.
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Building 8, North Block Xintiandi, Lane 181 Taicang Lu, near Huangpi Nan Lu 太仓路181弄新天地北里8号, 近黄陂南路, +86 21 6355 8999, 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m., 6:30 pm-11:30 p.m., www.t8shanghai.com
2. Lunch at Jimmy’s Kitchen, RMB 118
Opened in Shanghai in the 1920s, Jimmy’s Kitchen has made a glorious return, taking up residence in the Jin Jiang Hotel -- where President Nixon’s delegation stayed when he visited China.
Dubbed “Shanghai’s oldest Western restaurant,” the venue gives you three choices for each course.
Starters include chilled cucumber soup and marinated red tuna tartar.
Choose from a veggie curry Madras, braised chicken leg in red bell pepper compote or prawn linguini in mild chili oil for the mains.
Finish your meal with fruit salad, orange cheesecake or the sinful house-made nougat ice cream with raspberry coulis for dessert.
For comparison, the top-level regular weekday lunch set, which is RMB 158, includes a soup and ciabatta set, your choice of a Wagyu beef burger, risotto or fish and chips and dessert.
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Jin Jiang Hotel, 1/F, 59 Maoming Nan Lu, near Changle Lu 茂名南路59号锦江饭店1楼, 近长乐路, +86 21 6466 6869, 12-3 p.m., 6-11 p.m., www.jimmys.com
3. Dinner at Ming Court (明阁餐厅), RMB 248
Ming Court at the Langham Place Hotel in Hong Kong has two Michelin stars and its sister restaurant, newly opened in Shanghai's Xintiandi, hopes to follow suit.
In the kitchen is Kwong Wai Kung, who comes from Hong Kong with 35 years of experience, and Tony Su, a Shanghainese chef who has worked at the Grand Hyatt and Four Seasons.
For Shanghai Restaurant Week, the pair put together a selection that should impress even your most pernickety Cantonese friend.
Whet your appetite with fried prawns and vegetables, whelk in chili sauce, or double-boiled sea cucumber with mushrooms and cabbage.
Then dig into double-boiled scallop with egg white, pan-fried cod in goose liver sauce, or sautéed egg noodles with agrimony, onion and ginger.
Loosen your belt a notch for a tray of delicate pastries and fruit, which you’ll need to clean up your palate.
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5/F, Langham Xintiandi, 99 Madang Lu, near Taicang Lu 马当路99号新天地朗廷酒店5楼, 近太仓路, +86 21 2330 2428, Lunch: 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m.; Dinner: 5:30 p.m.-10.30 p.m., www.xintiandi.langhamhotels.com
4. Dinner at Sir Elly’s, RMB 248
This is The Peninsula’s flagship European restaurant and the service is top-notch, with prices to match.
The views are knockout: because you’re at the top of the Bund, you get the Pudong-side skyline fanning out before you, with the curving Huangpu River and glimpses of the Suzhou Creek.
Come at night and it’s like staring into an overflowing jewelry box.
Helming the kitchen is Arnaud Berthelier, who cut his teeth at several three-star Michelin restaurants and 10 years at the Ritz-Carlton.
For Shanghai Restaurant Week, he’s prepared a watermelon salad with basil or goat cheese and piquillo for starter; bamboo chicken or risotto with cepes and marrow for main; green apple sorbet or an apple brûlée with sea salt caramel foam for dessert.
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The Peninsula Hotel, 13/F, 32 Zhongshan Dong Yi Lu, near Beijing Dong Lu (Enter on Beijing Dong Lu) 中山东一路32号半岛酒店13楼, 近北京东路, +86 21 2327 6756, noon-2.30 p.m., Sunday-Thursday: 6 p.m.-10.30 p.m.; Friday-Saturday, 6 p.m.-11 p.m., www.peninsula.com
