Restaurant Week 2004 has begun~~~ Restaurant Week is held almost every year, with over a hundred participating restaurants. A large portion of them usually cost 300-500 RMB per person, but for this event, they basically offer a 3-course set menu: appetizer, main course, and dessert. The prices are fixed: 128 RMB for lunch and 258 RMB for dinner, or 78 RMB for lunch and 168 RMB for dinner. It provides a chance to experience these restaurants that are normally too expensive to visit.

However, because Citibank credit card holders could start booking 3 days earlier than regular users this year, most of the famous restaurants were fully booked. If you’re just thinking about booking now, your only hope is essentially someone else’s cancellation.

Four Seasons Hotel Shanghai Steakhouse

The Four Seasons in Puxi is far less popular than the one in Pudong, and the hotel is showing its age, but it still feels quite nice. This steakhouse doesn’t seem to accept walk-in guests normally; it mostly handles banquets and events. The Puxi Four Seasons is located on Weihai Road. With Line 13 subway construction right next door, you have to walk past a massive construction site after exiting from West Nanjing Road Station before arriving. Enter the hotel, go upstairs, and walk all the way in to find the steakhouse.

Appetizers and soup are self-served from the buffet station.

The bread had been sitting out for too long and was already hard; it didn’t taste good.

I grabbed some random appetizers; the taste was rather average, and the pumpkin soup wasn’t good either.

Although the steak is imported from Australia, the meat quality was average. Premium beef on the menu costs extra.
I ordered mine medium, but it was still a bit tough. However, the flavor was excellent, and both the sauce and side dishes were delicious.

For dessert, the chocolate lava cake was served with coconut pudding. It tasted really good,
but by the end, I was getting too full to finish it…

The crème brûlée was also very delicious~~~

In summary, the ambiance is quite classical, and the service is excellent, though a 15% service charge applies. As for the food, the buffet section had no highlights—the bread was even quite bad—but the steak and desserts tasted amazing. It’s a pity the steak’s meat quality was just average; otherwise, it would have been perfect.

Jing An Shangri-La Café Liang & Mezzanine

Café Liang at Jing An Shangri-La spans two floors. The first floor is a buffet restaurant with a fresh atmosphere, featuring a predominantly white and green color scheme. The Japanese cuisine section is on the second floor, where dark brown tables and sofa armchairs create a steady, understated vibe, offering views of the scenery through the floor-to-ceiling windows.

The appetizer, spinach salad with scallops and shrimp, was excellent in both ingredients and seasoning.

The main course, wok-fried lobster with wasabi sauce served with chawanmushi, featured half a small spiny lobster stir-fried and presented in its shell. The flavor remained excellent.

Sushi and maki rolls came with spicy seafood soup. This was the letdown: the sushi had been prepared too far in advance,
and the sashimi was sliced too thin. Although the freshness was acceptable, the texture suffered, and the spicy seafood soup wasn’t tasty.

Dessert was crème brûlée again. Well, it tasted great, and the portion size wasn’t too big. Very satisfying without being overly stuffed.~

All in all, this place was much better than the Four Seasons Steakhouse mentioned earlier. Aside from the sushi, which was mediocre, everything else was largely satisfying. Portion sizes were well-balanced—I was full but not stuffed. Service was excellent, albeit with the same 15% service charge. The chef from Hong Kong kept coming out to ask for feedback~~~ Plus, the ambiance was so much nicer~~~~ Also, there were only three tables of guests for dinner, yet checking the website showed subsequent slots were fully booked.

P.S. There are peach blossoms outside the hotel. They’re artificial, but they look pretty nice… Probably put up for Valentine’s Day.

Photos in this post taken with SONY NEX-5R + 35mm f1.8, post-processed in Lightroom.

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Restaurant Week, Steak