Shanghai Bunny: Laris

Sunday, February 11, 2007

Laris

People like Laris because it's hip and the food is reasonably nice. The view is stunning. There is the oyster and caviar bar, and the chocolate factory. The Vault Bar with the white marble walls and floor looks unique and trendy, although it's not really my cup of tea. I always feel like I'm in a morgue or something. Anyways. We go to Laris because it's the place where you can have seafood in Shanghai. I don't know why we don't get more fish in the city? Consider all the hotels are serving oysters (and I assume they are being flown in) so why not some barramundi or trout?

Our early Valentine's meal started with the complimentary appetizer - prawn tartare on the left and potato mousse on the right. Both tasted interesting and delicate enough. My husband pointed out the red flake on the potato mousse was parma ham. Très très fancy!

My husband had the king prawn wrapped in pancetta on a bed of cucumber. He said there were Thai spices on the prawns and they were nice and fresh.

I had the skate wing grilled with paprika. The fish was very meaty but the paprika was way too over-powering. My husband said it tasted a little like armpit. (!)

He then had the wild turbot fillet with some green sauce but he had no idea what it was. I think he liked it as he wolfed it down pretty quickly.

Here's the reason why we came to this place: the dungeness crab, broiled and served with 3 dipping sauces. It was my first ever dungeness crab and I thought it would be a little bigger. It's always sold out during our previous visits and this time I was smart enough to reserve one when I booked the table. It didn't disappoint. The meat was sweet and fresh. A very time-consuming dish though and I felt sorry for my poor husband who had to wait for me.

For dessert I picked the chocolate cake with chocolate chip ice cream. Both were not too sweet and the cake had a warm and soft centre. Yum. I had fun scraping the chocolate off my plate also.