Restaurant Week: Whampoa Club1

★★☆☆☆

Shanghailanders are currently in the middle of the Hai’s first ever Restaurant Week.  With prices for lunch at 150元 and dinner for 250元, this week has been a great chance to try out some of Shanghai’s swankiest eateries without bursting your bank account.  I was excited to see the city’s legendary Whampoa Club on the list of participating restaurants, and recently cabbed it over to the Bund for their lunch set.

Don’t be fooled by their set’s price tag of 118元 – they add an additional 10% surcharge because hey, let’s face it, the unobstructed view of Pudong is pretty magnificent these days and doesn’t come cheap.

The décor of the Club seems to be loosely based on a kaleidoscope, with sheets of colored glass creating the impression that the decorator was completely tripping on acid, dreaming of the futuristic Pudong skyline in hues of neon green, pink, and blue.  Although psychedelic, they helped make the view that much more spectacular.

We started with an appetizer trio of marinated river shrimps with scallions, a cucumber salad with a mild garlic dressing, and Shanghainese sweet and sour pork ribs.  Each portion was just a bite larger than an amuse-bouche, and so although tasty, they barely wet our appetites.

Our lunch was then served.

Resembling the feng shui of a neatly placed airline dinner tray (or even a TV dinner), the stir-fried shrimps, braised pork spare ribs, kale, and shrimp dumplings with noodles were all served in individual plates atop a ceramic tray.  To prevent the clanking of porcelain, the dishes were actually glued onto the tray with fondant.  This was either ridiculously avant garde and contemporary, or completely cheesy – I have still yet to decide.

The pork was succulent and tender.  If the view wasn’t as good as it is, I’d still pay the 10% service charge just for this dish.  Braised in a spicy soya sauce, the meat fell off the bone with a mere breath.  The shrimps – stir fried with lilies – were crisp and clean and served as a perfect contrast to the pork.

The shrimp wontons, however, were less than desirable.  The wrappers were tough, the noodles bland, and the inappropriately dubbed “superior” broth unimaginative.  The kale, though crisp, was overpowered by the intensely flavored dried fish.

I was then presented with my dessert – a deep fried sesame ball with lotus seed paste, and an osmanthus and red date jelly.  The former was standard, the latter was smoky and a bit confused.

What I found hysterical about this experience was that the décor of the restaurant, not unlike Shanghai itself, is larger than life, but the food served is smaller than a Lilliputian’s serving.  But thanks to the Whampoa Club, I finally understand why it is the more you pay, the less you get (in terms of food), because the electric bill of the giant chandelier alone is probably pretty outrageous.

• ¥¥¥¥
• Whampoa Club
• 5/F Three on the Bund, 17 Guangdong Lu near Zhongshan Dong Yi Lu
• The Bund
• 电话: +86 6321 3737