New & Noted Restaurants

The COOK

What: A new breed of hotel dining

Where: 1388 Huamu Lu, near Fangdian Lu. Tel: 6169 8886

Why: There’s an entire room of cheese. What more incentive do you need?

Too often all-day dining restaurants in hotels conjure up images of limp vegetables kept lukewarm under a heat lamp. Not so with the newly-opened Kerry Hotel, a five-star establishment that manages to break the mould right down to its F&B outlets.

The COOK imports cuisines from around the world to make up its ‘theatre dining kitchens’, but that’s where the similarities to its F&B peers end. Instead of an all-you-can-eat affair, diners are armed with a swipe-as-you-go card, assigned to not just your table, but your seat as well, ensuring your organic salad doesn’t land on little Johnny’s placemat when it’s delivered to your table.

Each station (and there’s 11, for those who are counting) is manned by a preternaturally friendly group of chefs – from the fromager who espouses poetry about the manchego in the cheese room to the sushi master who reaffirms your every sashimi decision with an approving hai! There’s so much quality and variety even the pickiest of eaters and the snobbiest of gourmands will find something to love.

Take the Curry Laksa. The best hawkers from the markets in Malaysia were hand-picked for the Asian Noodle station where they deliver their signature street food with five-star ingredients. The result? A bowl of unparalleled flavour. Charcoal roasted chicken wings from the Chinese Station rightfully garner lines of swipers who can’t resist ordering a chicken coop worth of the chili sauce and lime seasoned poultry. The Western station delivers hearty portions of meat and potatoes, from ribeyes and lamb chops to truffle fries and mash. Toro flown in fresh three times a week from the Tsukiji market, coffee beans ground on site, an entire leg of Iberico ham – the culinary wonders never cease.

The best part? It’s all cooked-to-order and delivered piping hot by service staff who flit from station to table. If this is hotel dining, sign me up.

Urban Thai

What: Authentic, neighbourhood Thai – just like it promises on its business cards

Where: 938 Changle Lu, near Wulumuqi Lu. Tel: 3250 3863

Why: Because watered-down isn’t in your vocabulary

Shahla Salih is stickler for authenticity. Opening her own restaurant after five years in Shanghai’s F&B industry, she asked her mother, a Thai native and chef extraordinaire, to train the staff. When the cooks couldn’t recreate the flavours of Salih’s childhood, she convinced her mom to stay and head up Urban Thai’s kitchen – a decision that has paid off.

The menu reads like a who’s who list of Thai cuisine, but that doesn’t mean it caters to foreign taste buds. Sure, you can order the ‘toned-down’ versions of the dish, but ask for it Thai style - just make sure you order a glass (or five) of the homemade Thai Iced Tea, easily the best in Shanghai. The palate salving elixir tastes like smoked honey with a gentle squeeze of liquid sunshine.

The usual favourites deliver like a restaurant in downtown Bangkok. To get your lips tingling, order the papaya salad. It encompasses the holy trinity of Thai flavours: sweet, sour and spicy. The pad Thai is big on taste, with none of that overpoweringly fishy taste. A big bowl of red curry comes packed with roast duck and pineapple to create a satisfyingly rich rice-soaker. Our throwaway order, a cold spicy beef salad, is a new favourite with its carefully balanced fired-up steak and cucumber. Our only complaint of the evening was the texture of the deep-fried chicken. The dish was a bit tough, but unwrapping the chicken’s pandan leaf sheathing released an aroma that was so mouth-watering, the misstep was quickly forgiven.

The flavours are all there, and Urban Thai nails the ambience, managing to be casual without sacrificing its chic factor and small without feeling cramped. The environment is intimately cosy, service is prompt and the food comes out fast. It’s everything you could ask for in a neighbourhood restaurant.

Full House

What: Contemporary Shanghainese cuisine

Where: 221 Shimen Er Lu, near Xinzha Lu. Tel: 6209 1686

Why: You like your local food with a side of style

Ambience is what Edwin Ng does. Bali Laguna has its lake, Thai Gallery, its art. Full House, the latest hand in the restaurateur’s deck of cards, has a waterfall and the same authenticity diners have come to expect from the Hong Kong native’s other restaurants.

After convincing a chef from the partnership behind Old Jesse restaurant, a Shanghainese institution, to join his culinary family, Ng set about designing a menu and a restaurant that pays homage to tradition while moving the cuisine into the city’s up-and-coming dining scene. Red scrolls with daily specials hang on walls built up from reclaimed bricks, and neon-lit dumbwaiters carry bowls of shredded jellyfish marinated in aged vinegar from the kitchen to the bustling dining room. The decor could easily have turned into a visual clash of eras, but the effect is time-honoured modernity and it works.

House specialties and ‘Shanghai Notable Dishes’ populate the menu, reassuring uncertain diners and promising an authentic experience. The inevitable bowl of hongshao rou is vivid, full of silky smooth slices of unctuous pork and, if the orderer is wise to the optional add-ons, texturally fascinating knots of tofu skin. Vegetarian duck, really just tofu and mushrooms in a clever disguise, is softly fried to a near crisp. The dangerously rich crab roe with river shrimps offers sweet, bite-sized crustaceans swimming in a liberal serving of bright orange roe.

Typical Shanghainese meals end with a soup and a sweet, and Full House ensures you won’t want to leave without a taste of either. The salted pork and bamboo soup was thick with savoury slurps we couldn’t get enough of, but the real treat is dessert. Their specialty deep-fried glutinous rice balls filled with peanut puree taste are like tangyuan’s hedonistic cousin. No matter how full of Shanghainese food you are, you won’t be able to resist.

Il Nascondiglio

What: An Italian dinner party with strangers

Where: Address sent upon reservation. Email: [email protected]

Why: You’re in need of a home-cooked meal

In London, New York and Paris, pop-up restaurants in private residences have been all the rage for years. Just catching up to the times, Shanghai’s first underground eatery has launched its clandestine operations deep in the French Concession. Without the help of a degree in the culinary arts or even an oven at the moment, Fabrizio and Ting spend their weekends feeding strangers with home-cooked Venetian cuisine.

Buffeted by one of those creaking, old staircases, the tucked away lane house they found to call home (and restaurant) has been meticulously kept up, which the couple attributes to the fact the house was once owned by Chiang Kai-Shek’s family. Rumour has it Chiang proposed to Soong May Ling in the house, adding romance to the already-charming building. Fabrizio and Ting have brought their own flavour to the room, softly lighting the space with candles and outfitting it with enchanting Venetian masks.

As the guests arrive, usually pair by pair, the nervous introductions give way to toasts as the hosts pour aperitifs to break the ice. By the time the first course arrives, pleasantries reach a common ground, usually musings on the plate at hand, and conversation begins to flow between strangers. A hired musician scores the experience with lively piano music on Fridays.

Currently, Fabrizio serves either a carne or pesce menu. Squid was the fish of the day for our dinner and we ate three courses of it in addition to fresh ravioli bulging with sea bass and a sweetly sour lemon meringue tart to send us on our way.

Is it the best Italian food in town? No, but the plates are comfort food at its best, and the environment draws you in. It’s no wonder they named it Il Nascondiglio, ‘The Hideout’ in Italian; they’ve created a world you never knew existed in Shanghai.