Kathleen’s 5
Kathleen’s 5 is located on the top floor of the Shanghai Art Museum. Originally, the museum only had four floors, but this restaurant was entirely added on top—a glass-walled structure surrounding a central open atrium, offering an unobstructed panoramic view of People’s Square right next door… However, now that the museum has moved out, the entire building stands empty, with only this one restaurant still operating upstairs. It feels quite eerie to visit at night~~~~ Who knows what the old museum building will be converted into in the future…

Take the elevator to the 4th floor, then you have to climb the stairs up to the 5th floor to reach the restaurant.

I also have to mention that photographing the dishes here is genuinely difficult. There’s almost no ambient lighting in the restaurant; each table just has its own single lamp. Since these lamps emit warm light, the color temperature in the illuminated areas is quite low. If you adjust the white balance in post-processing to correct those spots, the unlit areas end up looking purple… As a result, editing this set of photos was very complicated, and the final results aren’t great either—so please bear with them….

The pre-meal bread was rather hard and just average.

Classic Caesar Salad—it was honestly quite mediocre, with absolutely no highlights.

Seafood Cream Cauliflower Soup—the flavor was actually pretty good.

Australian Beef Cheek Braised in Bordeaux Red Wine—the taste was acceptable, but the beef cheek was prepared somewhat like Chinese-style spiced braised beef: extremely soft and tender, completely lacking the typical texture of beef. Not highly recommended…

Premium Angus Beef Short Ribs—both the meat quality and flavor were excellent; I was very satisfied.

Lemon Tart served with raspberry ice cream—both the tart and the ice cream tasted really good.

Nougat Ice Cream Cake with Dark Chocolate Sauce—a very distinctive dessert with great flavor and texture, and not overly sweet either.

Overall, while the service at this restaurant was decent enough, it didn’t leave a particularly impressive impression. The ambiance inside is quite nice~~~ It’s very quiet overall, though the walk from downstairs up to the restaurant wasn’t very pleasant—the area felt quite worn-out. Still, coming by for afternoon tea during the day or grabbing drinks at night would both be good options.

BON VIVANT

This restaurant was named Best New Restaurant during Shanghai Restaurant Week from September 3rd to 9th, 2012. It’s located in Lippo Plaza, which sits directly across from Hong Kong Plaza—an area now filled with all sorts of luxury brands… The shopping mall section of Lippo Plaza itself isn’t very large, only three floors high, and this restaurant occupies part of the third floor. Some seating is arranged along the corridor outside the main dining area, and these seats are actually quite nice—they’re all sofas, unlike the cramped seating inside the restaurant itself. The corridor sees very little foot traffic, making it relatively quiet as well. Plus, there’s a transparent glass ceiling overhead, so visiting during daytime should be lovely~~~~

The pre-meal bread was of good quality—crispy on the outside and soft inside—but they skimped on the butter, providing only one slice for two people.

Mushroom Soup—tasted really good, and interestingly served in a coffee cup~~~

Appetizer: Deep-fried Shredded Scallops with Sautéed Wild Mushrooms and White Truffle Cream Sauce—a very creative dish.

French Salad (mixed greens, duck liver mousse, confit duck leg meat, duck gizzards, and crushed hazelnuts)—just average.

Main Course: Grilled Beef Tenderloin with Red Wine Shallot Sauce—the flavor was decent, but the beef quality wasn’t great; it lacked the rich aroma of beef and had an overly soft texture. A thick-cut, medium-rare fillet turning out like this basically points to issues with the meat quality itself…

Apple Tart with Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream—delicious! Both the apple tart and the ice cream were excellent, and I hadn’t expected at all that the ice cream would be homemade~~~

Classic Opera Cake—aside from being slightly too sweet, everything else was satisfying.

Also worth noting, this was the only restaurant among all those we visited during Restaurant Week that didn’t provide complimentary water… Although their 800ml VOSS water costs only 50 yuan—even cheaper than on Yihaodian—it was their sole beverage option available, which definitely detracts from their service rating~~~~ Overall, under normal circumstances, I probably wouldn’t have much reason to revisit this place… since there are plenty of other restaurants offering better value for money.

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

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