The opportunity finally came and we thought we'd give it a go. The place was relatively busy for a week night around 8pm, so the food couldn't have been bad?
The menu was not really inspiring at all, it had all the usual items which you'd find in an old "western restaurant". It actually reminded me of places I went to when I was a kid in the 70s. We both decided to pick from the set dinner menus, mine had 4 courses at RMB178 (I didn't realise it at the time) and my husband's got 3 at RMB108.
He started off with a salad. It was very simple and nothing special.
My escargot was more sensational and created more of a stir than the salad for sure, not in a good way should I add. First of all why were they so big? I was frightened when I took a first look. Upon closer inspection the shells didn't look right either...they did look like the stuff you see in the garden. I freaked out even more. For science I took one out and debated whether I should try one. I felt like I was on Fear Factor. at the end I cut a tiny piece out and had a bite, just for the sake of it, and left the rest there. It was scary. Never again.
Then a soup came and I guess that's the extra course I didn't know about. It was very plain and it honestly didn't taste of anything. I called it the cream of blah.
My husband's roast duck leg. He said it wasn't too bad actually, although the pile of mushroom sauce was a little odd.
My grilled lamb was actually more like a lamb stew. It was actually quite tender and nicely cooked, with the meat easily falling off my fork.
Then came the best dish. The chocolate cake was fluffy and moist, too bad it didn't come with ice cream.
Dinner came to RMB286. We thought it was a little pricey for what we got- for that amount of money one can get excellent Chinese food. I guess it is the problem with eating in Shanghai: non-Chinese (or non-Asian for that matter) food is usually over-priced and mediocre.
Chartres
855 Hua Shan Rd. (nr. FuXing Rd. West), Shanghai. Tel: 6212-8085
No comments:
Post a Comment