The best Shanghai New Year's Eve dinners
It’s just a few days before the start of another year in Shanghai, our city at the center of the world. We’ve made it. That’s no easy feat considering the "work hard, play hard" ethic of Shanghai life.
Before the contained chaos resumes in 2011, it’s time to celebrate all that we’ve accomplished this year and welcome what’s to come.
Here are the best Shanghai New Year’s Eve dinners to help you ring in 2011.
Mr Willis: Permission to be silly
“We’re all 40-year-old silly buggers that want to have fun,” says Craig Willis, chef extraordinaire at Mr Willis.
“Rather than New Year’s Eve and champagne and caviar, we’re going to do an ‘anti-New Years Eve.' We start cooking around 8 p.m. and then around midnight, we’re giving everyone a funny hat and permission to be silly.”
More on CNNGo: "Top 3 Shanghai dining trends of 2010"
Dinner might start at 8 p.m., but the party goes to midnight.
RMB 580 gets you a glass of Louis Bouillet Perle De Vigne and access to a smorgasbord for food that includes smoked salmon, sauteed scallops with tomato chutney, mushroom risotto, cassoulet and roast chicken.
For dessert: chocolate truffles and Madeline cookies.
Mr Willis, 3/F, 195 Anfu Lu, near Wulumuqi Lu 安福路195号3楼, 近乌鲁木齐路, +86 21 5404 0200
Table No. 1: A chiefly feast
Seven courses at Table No. 1 mean one thing: a ton of flavors by chefs Jason Atherton and Scott Melvin. If you’re planning a feast to send off 2010, Table No. 1 is a good option.
The seven-course New Year’s Eve dinner (RMB 668 plus 15 percent without wine; RMB 988 plus 15 percent with wine) starts with champagne and gets more spectacular from there.
There’s braised chicken leg with pumpkin volute and gingerbread foam, beef tartare with eggplant, pimento and juniper, steamed sea bream with smoked razor clams and roast duck with sweet potato and pomegranate sauce.
Dessert includes homemade sweets, a date and vanilla parfait with poached clementines and Dundee cake.
Table No. 1, 1/F, The Waterhouse Hotel, 1-3 Maojiayuan Lu, near Zhongshan Nan Lu 毛家园路1-3号1楼, 近中山南路, +86 21 6080 2918
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