Stillers Restaurant and Cooking School

Another excellent meal at Stillers back in March.  Gee I'm so far behind!!!

Some salmon-theme pre-appetizers.  
The dill cured trout(RMB145) was so good I had to order it again.

Sear scallops with curry pumpkin and champagne sauce(RMB175).  A bit stingy on quantity and nothing spectacular on quality.

The 36 hours slow braised beef cheeks (RMB245) was excellent on the other hand.

My beef tenderloin with truffle crust(RMB310) was significantly smaller in size than the one we had last time.  A little disappointing but the juicy and tender cut made up for it.  

Tonight's pre-dessert: some yogurt-like fruit mixture.  

Black forest cake.
Stillers Restaurant

The Cool Docks, 505 Zhong Shan Rd. South, (nr. Fuxing Rd.), Shanghai.  Tel: 6152-6501

La Creperie

The crepe for the very greedy (i.e. me). You could not possibly fit more stuff in/on.  Sausage, egg, ham, cheese, and mushrooms.

There was still room for dessert of course.  Toffee ice cream and caramel.  It;s the real reason why I keep going back to the place.
La Creperie

1 Tao Jiang Rd. (nr. Fenyang Rd.), Shanghai.  Tel: 5465-9055

Ding Tai Fung

Another quick lunch at Ding Tai Fung.  Quality seems to be pretty consistent but if I remember correctly they have put the prices up once again.  I 'd say there must be something like a 70% increase over the last 3 years.  Since when the official inflation rates in China add up to 70%?

Our favourite cold appetizer with bean sprouts, tofu, vermicelli and seaweed.

Deep-fried pork chop.  Juicy and meaty as always.

Pork dumplings.  Maybe it's me, or maybe these dumplings were not as nice as they used to be?

Stir-fried Chinese veg.

Egg fried rice.  It was the best dish.  I love eggs to begin with so I'm probably biased.  

Anther order of pork chop.  We liked it so much we got one for each of us so we didn't have to fight over it.

Chicken soup with noodles.  Loved the hand-made noodles and tender chicken.  

Beef noodles.  If the beef wasn't so fatty it would have been nice.  
Lunch for two was around RMB350.  I get the feeling that the place is getting more and more touristy each time we visit.  What a shame.

Ding Tai Fung

2/F South Block, Xintiandi, 123 Xin Ye Rd.(nr. Huang Pi Rd.), Shanghai.  Tel: 6385-8378

Haiku by Hatsune

Some things are just better when you have them on the spot in a restaurant and sushi rolls have to be one of them.  Everything tasted so much better on this visit compared to the delivery we had.  Even the freebie starter, chicken marinated in wine tasted great.

Edamame.  I wished they'd serve the salt seasoning separately. 

On top of the sushi rolls we thought the chicken terriyaki should also be made a signature dish. 

Butterfly roll with tempura shrimp, snow crab, avocado and cooked eel.    We liked the mix of texture with crunchy (tempura) and soft (avocado).  The eel on top was sweet and fresh too.

King Kong roll with snow crab, cucumber and a bunch of other stuff which I don't remember.  Not the best roll compared to the rest.

I believe this is called summer roll with raw salmon, yellow tail, tuna and avocado.  Fresh and yummy.

Another creation with soft-shell crab.  Loved it.
Lunch for two came to around RMB400.  I'd say it was better value than the FCC.

Haiku by Hatsune

28B Tao Jiang Rd. (nr. Heng Shan Rd.), Shanghai.  Tel: 6445-0021

Club Vietnam @ FCC

I found myself back to Club Vietnam again since there isn't a whole lot of choices of Vietnamese eatery in the city.  Although a bit pricey I have to say the food is not bad, especially when you compare it with the other places in town.  

With my husband's help I got to try a few more things this time around.  The spring rolls were pretty crispy and not overly greasy at all.  I will happily order them again next time.

My husband would not pass the opportunity to have prawn cakes.  These got his approval.

Beef pho.  Portion was so small we ordered one for each of us.  Nice broth with a good cut of beef, I could have this everyday.

Beef curry.  Mediocre but edible.  

The very small serving of rice (see spoon as scale) which came with the curry.

Crispy roast chicken.  I am not sure how Vietnamese this dish is but it was very tasty.  The meat was juicy and tender.  And even though we didn't eat the skin the seasoning/marinate set deeply in the meat somehow.  It was probably one of the best roast chickens we had had in SH.
Lunch for two came to RMB350.  Ouch!

Club Vietnam @ FCC

889 Julu Rd. (nr. Changsu Rd.), Shanghai.  Tel: 6445-8082

Stillers Restaurant and Cooking School

A relatively new addition to the SH dining scene, Stillers has had all the hype and I was more than excited to try it out.

I was impressed with the bread basket.  I love a full basket of bread on the table.  Places which try to serve you bread almost never replenish it often enough, and I always feel rushed to pick something.  

Butter and bread spreads.  Loved the pesto one.

Small starters.  Everything tasted quite delicate and I knew we were onto a good start.

Duck foie gras Berlin style with apple, onion and potato-mash (RMB165).  My dad said it was excellent.

Dill cured trout fillet with smoked potato salad and horseradish sauce (RMB145).  It was the best trout I ever had.  I was worried that it would be a little dry and salty -as it's the impression I had with cured fish.  This dish, however, totally redefine everything I ever knew about cured fish.  The flesh was ever so delicately moist it flaked off the fork easily.  It was juicy with hints of flavour but at the same time I could taste the fish.  I would go back just to have this dish!

Beef tenderloin with truffle crust(RMB310).  Our jaws dropped when we saw the size of the beef.  Three-inches thick and the size of a (big) palm, one had to put the food pyramid behind for a little while.  The steak was cooked to perfection and it was so tender it melted in my mouth.  Outstanding!

the potato dish on the side.

My half lobster with asparagus (RMB250) from the recession menu.  It was not bad but it wasn't nearly as not as good as the one I had in Laris.  

Our pre-dessert with some kind of sorbet.  

Even though I was bursting I decided to cram some bread-pudding in.  It was worth it.  Sweet and almost glutinous it was a perfect dish to finish the meal.

Dinner for two came to just over RMB1400.  Service was friendly and relaxed but efficient, and our waiter actually had a great sense of humour!
Stillers Restaurant and Cooking School

The Cool Docks, 505 Zhong Shan Rd. South, (nr. Fuxing Rd.), Shanghai.  Tel: 6152-6501

Da Marco

Thursday night at Da Marco and the place was packed out!  We were lucky we didn't have to wait for a table.  I think i will leave my future visits to lunch time as it's way too busy and smokey in the evenings.  

To start we had the must-have antipasto(~RMB70).  It was very generous in portion and the selection was good for a meat-lover like me.  I wouldn't mind a little more vegetables though and I never thought I would say that.

Mussels and clams in white wine sauce (~RMB50).  Everything was fresh, which made up for the little-to-the-bland-side sauce.

Spaghetti with clams in wine and garlic sauce (~RMB60).  My dad loved it and he polished the whole thing off in no time.

Angel hair pasta with seafood in tomato sauce (~RMB65).  I liked mine also but I was way too full to even finish half of it.  I did like the whole plum tomatoes and the variety of seafood.  

Since my dad insisted in trying the sorbet I thought I'd join in.  His coconut one (~RMB35) was more creamy than icy and he loved it.

My mandarin  one (~RMB35) on the other hand was refreshingly blizzard-y.  Just what I needed with my nearly-popping tummy.

Da Marco

1/F, 103 Dongzhu An Bang Rd. (nr. Jiangsu Rd.), Shanghai.  Tel: 6210-4495

Park Hyatt Shanghai

I finally got a chance to visit Shanghai's tallest building/hotel.  With all the hype surrounding the new Park Hyatt I guess I went in with some expectation.  It was a mistake as I left very disappointed.

We occupied the top private dining room and the view was not bad that day.  It'd probably be more impressive at night.

The luncheon had two appetizers to choose from and these were my friend C's choices:  Caesar salad and Australian sirloin with cream spinach and fries.  She was not impressed with them at all.  The salad looked worse than what mine would look like if I spared 2 seconds to throw it all together.

The steak was also very mediocre according to her, although it didn't look too bad.

I chose hot and sour soup and grilled salmon with glazed carrots and mashed potatoes.  The soup was not bad, just like another hot and sour soup you get in a Chinese restaurant.  

The salmon was pretty tasteless and the texture was in such a pappy way that it was obviously frozen previously.  carrots were overcooked but at least the mash was creamy.  Still it was sub-par.

And there was no dessert!  We left hungry.  All in all we thought teh food quality does not match up to the type of establishment they are trying to be.  If they are charging these prices perhaps they should deliver a bit more.  It's easy to slack because customers would probably keep flooding in anyway because of its location.  Not us in a million years though.

Park Hyatt Shanghai

91/F, 100 Centuary Ave., Pudong, Shanghai.  Tel: 6888-1234