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Our Favorite Dishes this Month

2018-01-25 Cristina Ng ShanghaiWOWeng

Every year, January comes around and we are faced with our healthy eating resolutions. While running around Shanghai (counts as cardio, amirite?), eating can be a challenge to our attempts at a healthy lifestyle, we managed a fairly balanced month. It’s nice to know that ban ban by Sproutworks has us covered when we need a nourishing meal with Asian flavor. We also checked out new locations from some of our favorite restaurants: Brut Cake Café, Light & Salt Backstage and Oriental House. Then we rounded of the month with a visit to Bund staple, Mercato before finishing up with some new seasonal pastries from The COOK Bakery


If you notice that this list is a tad smaller than usual, it’s because we ate less. Aren’t you proud?


ban ban by Sproutworks


ban ban has just added four new bowls for winter that will take your taste buds on a culinary journey around the world. We loved the spicy Tom Yum, rich with flavor from the prawn heads. It’s the perfect bowl for cold and wet days. Kan Na Sri Lanka is a curry rice bowl that combines light flaky fish with a rich and fragrant sauce. 


24 Hours in Bangkok (RMB 68)


Kan Na Sri Lanka (RMB 68)


They’ve also added ban ban snacks since our last visit and we can’t wait to go back and sample things like beef & kimchi quesadillas, thai fish cakes and skewers. 


Address: Rm. L5-518, 5/F, iAPM Mall, 999 Huaihai Zhong Lu

Tel: 021 3363 7737

Hours: Daily, 10am-10pm


Brut Cake Café


Fans of the homey food at whimsically decorated Brut Cake Café, will be happy to know that they have just expanded to a second location on Zhaojiabang Lu. They will have many of their most popular dishes as well as working on new additions to court the dinner crowd. Did we mention this location has wine? 


Sweet & Savory (RMB 82) regularly tops the “best chicken and waffles” lists 


Speaking of their most popular dishes, the Sweet & Savory, is a long time favorite of ours. Who can turn down perfectly fried, spicy battered, chicken on top of a crispy and fluffy waffle accented with pickled watermelon radish and organic jujube honey? Not us. 


Halibut with white beans & sambal butter 


Spicy dark chocolate cake


We are also really excited about the new menu items especially the halibut with white beans and sambal butter. The fish is flaky with an excellent crisp skin. The beans in spicy, pungent sambal butter are comfort food with Asian soul. A slice of rich deep chocolate cake topped with delicious ganache and a bit of spice is perfect either after dinner or with coffee. On our visit, the dishes were so new that they haven’t been officially added to the menu, so prices are to be determined. 


Address: 238 Zhaojiabang Lu

Tel: 021 6422 7356

Hours: Mon-Fri, 8am-10pm, Sat & Sun, 10am-10pm


The COOK Bakery 

 

If you have never had pastries from The COOK Bakery at the Kerry Hotel Pudong, we highly recommend you try them. Last month we fell hard for their log cakes. This month they have a few tasty, seasonal treats perfect as gifts for Chinese New Year or that special Valentine. Who are we kidding? We will probably just keep them on hand to make our own tea times sweeter. 

 

Mom’s Whisper (RMB 138/6pc, RMB 25/1pc)


64 Shades Darker (RMB 98/6pc, RMB 18/pc)


Normally we prefer chocolate to cheesecake, but it was hard to pick a favorite after sampling these two treats. Mom’s Whisper is a tea infused milk cheese tart made with Zesta tea leaves and premium cream cheese. They have a unique variety of flavors and are not too sweet. Plus we love their crunchy base. 64 Shades Darker is, as the name suggests, a deeply dark (64% to be exact) chocolate cake studded with cacao nibs for texture. It’s just the thing for your favorite chocoholic. 

 

Address: 1/F, Kerry Hotel Pudong, 1388 Huamu Lu

Tel: 021 6169 8886

Hours: Daily, 10:30am-9:30pm


Light & Salt Backstage


Light & Salt Backstage is the newest of the Light & Salt family to open (although they are always working on something new) and they had us in recently to try their new brunch menu. We were extremely impressed with the brunch menu designed by their new Singaporean chef. Some of our favorite dishes were more on the breakfast side of brunch. It’s also pretty good value.


Omelet burger (RMB 88)


Scrambled egg and shrimp gratin (RMB 88)


They are doing eggs very well at Light & Salt Backstage, which is exactly what you want to hear about brunch. The soft scrambled eggs and plump shrimp in a decadent, cheesy Mornay sauce served with crisp garlic toast is probably meant to be a shared appetizer, but we were tempted to order another as a main. It is that good. The omelet burger is simple, but the caramelized onions and soft squishy bun make this breakfast sandwich a thing of beauty. 


Gianduja pancake (RMB 68)


Indulge your sweet tooth with some of the fluffiest pancakes we’ve ever had stuffed with gianduja and topped with carmelized banana and rum anglaise. Totally worth the calories. Totally. 


Address: 4/F, 139 Nanjing Dong Lu

Tel: 021 6330 7223

Hours: Daily, 11:30am-10:30pm


Mercato


There are so many good Italian restaurants in Shanghai that you might forget about Mercato by Jean George all the way over on the Bund, but that is a mistake. Big mistake. They are still doing food as delicious (maybe even more delicious) as when they opened and the prices are very fair for the location. On our most recent visit, we rediscovered our love for two Mercato classics. 


House made ricotta with cranberry compote, olive oil, grilled bread (RMB 98) 


There’s no getting around it, this dish is brilliant. It’s so simple yet perfect and a non-negotiable must order dish. The compote is changed seasonally and we quite enjoyed the tart cranberry with the fresh spreadable ricotta with fragrant, super high quality olive oil. 


Lobster and shrimp ravioli, olive oil, lemon, herbs (RMB 138)


Rarely is a pasta dish described as light, but we find the lobster and shrimp ravioli at Mercato surprisingly so. Tender sheets of fresh pasta encase lobster and shrimp that is then finished with fresh herbs, lemon and olive oil for a dish so delicious we could eat it daily. 


Address: 6/F, Three on the Bund, 3 Zhongshan Dong Yi Lu

Tel: 021 6321 9922

Hours: Daily, 5:30pm-10:30pm


Oriental House


Chinese fusion restaurant, Oriental House, has been talked about a lot since it opened on Anfu Lu. They have recently taken the leap and opened their second location in the Jing’an Kerry Center. We went and found it cooler than the average mall restaurant (although we should probably get over our snobbiness given mall restaurants are clearly Shanghai’s future). 


Spicy Chicken with Peanuts (RMB 50)


While Oriental House is known for creativity, this spicy chicken with peanuts is a pretty straightforward Chinese dish and yet it's so good one of our dining companions took one bite before waving over the waiter to order another for takeaway. 


Fresh sashimi with grapefruit and balsamic dressing (RMB 65)


While the menu calls this dish 'sashimi,' it is much more of a whitefish Carpaccio. The dish combines halibut and red snapper and we enjoyed the tart dressing with plenty of bold flavor from the herbs and capers. 


Address: Rm. N3-26, 3/F, North Area, Jing’an Kerry Center, 1515 Nanjing Xi Lu

Tel: 021 5271 5727

Hours: Daily, 11am-midnight


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