Sophistication and Elegance - Shanghai Style

Before I start, the title is not only to describe one of my best friend’s from exchange Solveig who was a joint reviewer on my foray into Mr and Mrs. Bund. The title is to describe the restaurant itself, a fine dining establishment specialising in late-night dining, located in the heart of Asia’s new preeminent financial hub.

With guest reviewer Solveig!

Upon entering the restaurant, staff take your coats and the décor blends French style with modern chic. Big chairs, boxed cutlery, red walls, colonial style windows overlooking the bund and waiters and waitresses dressed in jeans, white shirts, suspenders and red Nike sneakers. It might all sound odd, but the combination works. In the background was classical hits music including Elvis, ABBA and The Beatles. It was perfect setting and prelude for an indulgent 11pm meal, Shanghai style. Although the music made you want to dance, the only thing that danced that night were our taste buds. 

 Table Setting

 Looking into the Kitchen

Late Night Dining at Mr and Mrs. Bund works as follows. 2 Courses for 200RMB (US$32). 3 Courses for 250RMB(US$40). Being a glutton, three courses it was. You can select any item on the menu, with the main dish accompanied by your choice of sides.

Before entrée and even before ordering, you are immediately presented with a bakery of breads (which I did not eat too much off trying to be good!) and a tantalising and delectable fish mousse with bread crisps. My mouth just watered on my keyboard craving more! And this was before the main event.

 Fish Mousse with Bread Crisps

 Bread - with Butter of course for good measure!

For entrée I ordered the House Smoked Salmon. And I have to say that this was unequivocally one of the best tasting and creatively presented smoked salmon dishes I have had ever. The waiter sliced the smoked salmon at the table.  The waiter then dressed the salmon lightly with some olive oil and lemon juice.

 Waiter slicing the Smoked Salmon.

 Delicious on a plate!

 Then accompanying the salmon was an orchestra of eight accompaniments. This included dill sour cream, chopped egg, capers, finely diced onion, horseradish, lemon salt and more! This was creative dining at its best – who would have thought salmon could taste so different based on what accompanied it. My Norwegian friend Solveig was equally impressed. So that is definitely a sign that this Salmon dish struck the right note. 

Salmon Accompaniments.

Solveig’s Beef Carpaccio, with Parmesan grated in the table was nice, but given the fantastic salmon dish did pale in comparison.

Beef Carpaccio

For main course, I ordered a Beef Bourginon stew that was accompanied with mashed potatoes that were so smooth they literally glided on my tongue. The spinach with garlic on the side was a perfect accompaniment. 

Delicious on a plate Mark Two

Healthy Accompaniments

My friend Solveig ordered Grilled Salmon with a side of stir-fried vegetables. The salmon dish contained notes throughout of ginger and other spices, perfectly accented with a base of ginger and other spices. Once again, each bite was different. Once again, our taste buds were dancing. Wonderfully executed main courses.

Salmon - very yummy

And onto Dessert! My Chocolate Very Melting was that, melting chocolate. So much melted chocolate was packed in that when I broke open the fondant I thought I splashed my shirt! 

 Very Melting Chocolate

The raspberry sauce based cut through the rich chocolate perfectly as did the homemade vanilla bean ice cream. 

Solveig also remarked that her Strawberry Chantilly was a highlight.

Strawberry Chantilly

And here is that explosion of Chocolate!!

 Heaven on a Plate

And we chatted, and ate, and drank and before we knew it, it was 1.30am. With the warm atmosphere, joyful music and sophisticated food it made both of us enjoy the elegant evening, feeling like we were Mr and Mrs. Bund ourselves!

Now, most people who know me that I rarely give anything 10/10.  And whilst Mr and Mrs. Bund got close, it gets a 9.5. There are two reasons for this

1)   The Beef Carpaccio seemed only good and not great compared to other dishes. That may have been our mistake in ordering, but it is a tiny point to fault.

2)   At the end of the meal, there was confusion on retrieving our jackets (as we were never given a token)  - a small thing, but this detracts from perfection.

Will I be back though? Absolutely! Mr and Mrs Bund will definitely be on my list for any future trip I make into Shanghai.

Coming Soon

·      The world’s best Peking Duck? – Quanjude in Beijing.

·      Many Hong Kong Restaurants.

·      The good, the bad, the ugly and the China Eastern of airplane food.

And much more - thanks for reading!