Shop 402, 4/F, Exchange Square Podium, Central
Tel: 2180 7288
Open: 11am-3pm, 6pm-11pm
Cuisine: Shanghainese
Price: about HK$300 without drinks and the service charge.
Ambience: the hostess first tried to seat us next to a trio of musicians, but I asked for a table as far away from them as possible, and we were given a comfortable booth. The restaurant is tastefully decorated in earth tones.
Pros: a menu of classic Shanghainese dishes, with a few offerings from Beijing and Sichuan.
Cons: almost all the dishes were served within 10 minutes of being ordered, and many of them hadn't been fully heated and were tepid. The diced dried bean curd and vegetables (HK$65) - normally a lightly textured dish of finely minced Indian aster, well-flavoured with sesame oil - was too cold, too dry and too dense. The string beans with minced pork (HK$78) hadn't been properly de-strung. Braised lion's head with vegetables (HK$98) was a striking presentation - one huge meatball that the waiter cut into wedges - but it was cold at the centre.
Recommended dishes: a cold plate of wheat gluten with black mushrooms and bamboo shoots (HK$62) was absolutely delicious - the sponge-like gluten had soaked up the rich flavour of the sauce. Pan-fried perch fillet with spring onions (HK$260) was thick and succulent, wrapped in strands of desiccated, intensely flavoured spring onions. We ordered one Sichuan dish: poached chicken with chilli in spicy and pungent sauce (HK$108) - a huge vat of well-balanced, not-too-spicy broth with chillies, chunks of moist chicken and wide pieces of mung bean sheets. Dessert of doufu fa (HK$58) was warm and soothing, with delicate bean curd.