Restaurant Review: Bon Vivant

What: Chef Justin Quek’s culinary experience returns to Shanghai

Where: 3F, Lippo Plaza, 222 Huaihai Zhong Lu, near Songshan Lu. Tel: 3330 0717

Why: Set dinners give you more bang for your French food buck

One of Asia’s most highly-touted celebrity chefs is back in town. After selling off his trio of Xintiandi restaurants back in 2009, Justin Quek was noticeably absent until he quietly soft-opened Bon Vivant in early January. Although he’ll only be in town six times a year to oversee the menu, Chef Quek’s influence is obvious at first glance. Hidden on the top floor of one of Huaihai Lu’s faceless luxury malls, Bon Vivant is quietly serving meticulously-prepared modern French cuisine with Asian accents to diners in the know.

The restaurant group hails from Singapore and is attempting to employ its food court expertise to bring a touch of mall fine dining to Shanghai. Not an easy task in a city accustomed to to polishing off plates in 1920s era villas and Bund view institutions, but Bon Vivant’s design team manages to pull off the improbable. A skylight brings in natural light during the day, and a transparent wall of staggered wine bottles separates diners from shoppers. Inside the flying ceiling of curved panels draws the eye upward – it’s a nifty trick.

The menu is divided into several set menus to make ordering easy. For RMB 338 or RMB 388, you can score a three- or four-course dinner respectively that features a duo of the chef’s signature foie gras xiao long bao (RMB 98 for five, when ordered a la carte). The elevated street food is a Quek staple as diners who frequented La Platane will remember. The buttery rich duck liver filling is made even more extravagant with a heady dash of truffle oil. Even the delicate folding of the skin leaves a noticeable gap at the peak of the dumpling – making it all the easier to slurp down the indulgent soup in an upscale setting.

It seems impossible to escape a decadent meal with this menu. More than half of the entrees feature foie gras, including the salade gourmande (RMB 138). The mixed bag of baby arugula, celery leaves and budding flowers adds peppery, bitter and sweet notes with each bite, managing to balance out the heaviness of the goose liver and duck rillettes that top the salad.

For mains, we sampled the lobster capellini (RMB 288). The perfectly al dente pasta was perfumed with lobster oil and outfitted with generous chunks of sweet Maine lobster. A slab of crackling suckling pig (RMB 268) rounded out our savoury orders. You don’t want to miss this hulking cut of pork. After you crack through the crispy, browned skin, a layer of unctuous fat awaits, giving way to the exceedingly tender and slightly gamey meat. Bon Vivant serves the dish atop a yuzu and black pepper sauce, but it gets lost in the trio of porcine textures.

The pastry of the Gran Marnier soufflé (RMB 80) puffed precariously above the rim of the serving cup, and the chef was heavy-handed with the liquor, giving it a citrus punch you could actually savour, but the real winner was the apple tarte (RMB 138). Designed for two, it is served with flair in a skillet, and layers of filo dough made it one of the flakiest apple tartes we’ve had in recent memory.

With lunch deals ranging from RMB 68 – 138 and afternoon tea and happy hour specials every day, it’s safe to say Bon Vivant won’t remain a secret much longer despite its location. Welcome back, Chef Quek!