Shanghai Blues

[Suzi Edwards]

I stumbled past this place the other night and decided to pop in after a very long day. I think the words "shanghai soup dumplings" must have caught my eye as I was hurrying along, but clearly I was compelled to go in.

The restaurant decor is more Hakkasan than Royal China, and if reports are to be believed, the refit from library to restaurant cost £2.5m. They are clearly just bedding in at the moment, so they're offering 40% off the food bill, but early indicators suggest this might be a place worth keeping an eye on. I'm going back on Tuesday, so I'll post more about the food then, but from my snacks last week I prefered the soup dumplings to the ones at The Chinese Experience.

Shanghai Blues,

193-197 High Holborn

London

[Winot]

This is great news; just round the corner from work.

Slightly off topic, but does anyone know if there are any Szechuan restaurants in London? I'm in Toronto at the mo having just been in NYC and I'm enjoying trying a few non-Cantonese Chinese places.

[Jon Tseng]

This is great news; just round the corner from work.

Slightly off topic, but does anyone know if there are any Szechuan restaurants in London?  I'm in Toronto at the mo having just been in NYC and I'm enjoying trying a few non-Cantonese Chinese places.

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In a word no,

although I hear from the grapevine that theres a place near kilburn tube which is run by a sichuanese family - they might be able to do stuff off-menu if you ask...

l8tr

J

[vytoh]

I went to Shanghai Blues for a dim sum lunch on Saturday and can report the quality of the cooking is excellent. The service was outstanding as well - very attentive and polite, and the management went to great pains to explain the dinner menu is even more extensive and unusual. I was impressed with their enthusiasm.

My favourite Har Gao (and a measuring stick for all dim sum restaurants) had a fat prawn nestling within its crystal pastry with neat pleats in each. I would say that perhaps only Hakkasan is slightly better on that dish in London from my experience, just because of the sheen of the pastry? However, the har cheong fun (prawn with chives) was outstanding and filled with more fat prawns with crunch.

The Siu mai (another standard) were good - not outstanding - but they came with a piece of crab leg on top for some extra flavour, and I detected a small hint of salted duck egg as the orange dot on the top of each dumpling, which was a nice change.

I very much enjoyed the soup dumplings. We tried 2 types - the standard Xiao Long Bao which were nice but could have been a 'bit' more soupy. Perhaps the tops were just a little dry by the time they came out to us...but I LOVED the seafood version which had pieces of scallop and king crab in it. Much more delicate in texture and flavour. The seafood was cooked perfectly within each and the soup within the dumpling came out of the seafood juicily. A joy to eat.

Shanghai Blues offers a lot of dim sum dishes that aren't standard and we had great difficulty in choosing what to order as we wanted to try them all. We tried to stay away from the standard dishes, apart from those I've described so far, in an effort to see what else they could offer! I only wish we had more than 2 of us dining that day.

I also liked the steamed scallop dumplings in spinach juice pastry (ie. green translucent rice flour pastry), and the fried pumpkin dumplings filled with mince pork were visually entertaining (shaped like little pumpkins with a sprig of coriander as a sprout. Kind of like a play on the traditional "hum shui gok"...again, I apologise but my cantonese is terrible ). I give the chef marks for presentation.

I didn't think the grilled pork belly was that special - very tasty and certainly not dry or overcooked. Just not overwhelming (not that it was underwhelming by any means). I just wish we'd tried the razor clams with jellyfish dish instead.

A new fun dish for me was the deep fried cuttlefish with chicken liver pate with crispy bits (sorry - can't remember the exact name of it but it's not far off that). Loads of fun to eat and the cuttlefish was tender and juicy - only a little spot of pate in the middle but prob enough to get the idea.

We had about 8 dim sum dishes in total (they're mostly about £4-5 from the lunch menu) including the pork belly dish that was a little more, and the red bean & tea jelly pudding to share. We also shared a pot of oolong tea and the total bill came to £47, less 40% discount. Service was applied after the discount was applied which made the whole meal incredible discount - I would have been more than happy to tip on the full amount.

They also include a dish of roasted peanuts, a dish of pickled cucumber and some curry(?) flavoured prawn crackers complimentary when you are seated. They also gave us a complimentary fruit platter. Perhaps they felt we ate too much meat?! I am used to complimentary oranges or in season fruit at chinese restaurants but not a fruit plate on the menu worth £6 list price. Not that I was complaining - We literally rolled out of the restaurant late afternoon....

Overall, I think Shanghai Blues is a worthy contender for the likes of Yauatcha and Hakkasan for dim sum. They do try hard to offer a great experience with some dishes that are a little different, but they don't lose out on quality for the sake of it.

I am looking forward to returning for dinner with a group of people to try out more dishes. Sorry I can't comment on the drinks/wine menu either but the bar did look fully stocked. Tarka?

I hope for all our sakes that Shanghai Blues succeeds - they certainly deserve to. Please go and report back!

[Suzi Edwards]

What a lovely post! Welcome to eGullet!

I too returned to Shanghai Blues last week and was able to deflower a friend of his Shanghai Soup Dumpling virginity. The look on his face as he supped the soup was almost as good as the dumplings themselves. Well, perhaps not quite.

We concentrated on seafood this time as they say it's their speciality; steamed crab with garlic, black bean and dace, scallops with abalone sauce and then some bok choi with garlic. The crab was sublime, served roughly chopped into huge sweet chunks, just perfect messy finger food. The scallops were perfect specimens, coated in a rich, deep sauce and served with shitake mushrooms that were a great textural compliment. Even the rice was great!

Drinks beforehand in the bar were less sucessful and I have a sense that the bar is just bedding in. The cocktail list is short and kind of strange. There are several cocktails made with spirit I'd never heard of before (and am having a mental block on at the moment. Begins with an X) I tried a sort of mojito that basically tasted like children's cough medicine, so I quickly moved onto champagne. My friend had "Purple Bubbles" a vodka/cassis cocktail that slipped down too easily, but that looked like something you'd serve at a children's party.

I hadn't noticed before, but the room is huge, with a mezzanine floor and another large room off to one side. It's dark and sexy, just perfect for winter nights, but I do wonder what its charms would be like in the summer or during the day.

However, for the moment, Shanghai Blues is my favourite restaurant within hopping distance to my office. It's expensive, and I'm not convinced it's at Hakkasan levels yet, but I would rate the dim sum at the same level and I'd like to go with someone who knows a lot more about Chinese food than I do (Jon!!!) to try out some more of the menu. On my two visits I know that I've liked everything I've eaten so far.

[vytoh]

What a lovely post! Welcome to eGullet!

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Thanks! Glad to contribute a review for once - I have to admit I've done my fair share of lurking on the board and reading (mostly drooling over) the many wonderful reviews written by eGullet members.

Thanks for the review of your seafood....now I really can't wait to go back to try it myself! Will be curious about the wine menu - I have been wondering how Shanghai Blues will fare against its competition down the road in Soho. Hakkasan and Yauatcha both serve solid, and mostly always excellent, dim sum - and sexy cocktails to boot. This seems to hold great appeal in this day and age. If SB can't deliver great cocktails then the wine menu will have to hold up.

IMO, the decor is stylish, but in the daytime it's much like just being inside a curtained room with the lights on (not surprisingly) - but perhaps that's just because it was quite empty on a Saturday mid afternoon. I would imagine it would work well when filled with people, or at night.

But honestly - I wasn't there for the decor. The food spoke for itself and now I can't wait to go back and try that crab for myself.

Thanks for the excuse to go back!

[origamicrane]

just got back from this place

Decor - nice but definately a hakkasan's poorer relative

Food - good quality but not spectacular

Portions - small to average portions

Variety - some interesting additions to the menu but not as wide a variety as hakkasan or chinatown and at 2.30pm they had run out of at least 3 dishes that we had ordered.

Service - very slow and inexperienced, we were in a half empty restaurant at 2.30pm and it took us several attempts to flag down staff to top up the tea and dishes came out very slowly.

Price - with the current discount the prices are good but when this discount is discontinued they competing directly with yauatcha and hakkasan and afraid they just not good enough.

Overall impression is a good attempt but its lacking in several departments

maybe they improve with time aas they still only 1 month old but definately room for improvement. In fact it better improve in the service deptartment if it is to stand a chance.

I place this restaurant's food level with Royal China but its charging prices in the hakkasan territory must do better but i will definately try it again in a few weeks time.

edit:

just got a review from the rest of my party that went

The overall impression from them was that Shanghai Blues didn't meet up to expectation its decor, food and service it just didn't deliver the wow effect for the prices that they will charge.

just wanted to add the desserts are pretty good as usually i dislike chinese dim sum desserts the green tea pudding was lovely i believe it was green tea pannacotta to be precise

Edited February 7, 2005 by origamicrane (log)

[Jon Tseng]

Dropped in on the way back from work... last chance had to catch the discount before it blew up.

Thoughts in no apparent order:

Decor - yes, uber-Hakkasan, down to the dark wood pattern panels in the dining room and the need to have a halogen flashlight to navgiate your way round the loos. Actually I swear the slate sinks are identical to Hakkasan. Can Alan Yau sue for copyright?

Nibbles - picked cucumber and roast peanuts. Peanuts had a slight ducky flavour

Xiaolongbao (the porky one). Good flavour but not enough soup. A bit lumpy - filling ball too big.

Honey roast eel. A bit rubbery and honey paste didn't add enough flavour, although I would add always get this slight rubberiness when order eel in Chinese joints - only the Japanese seem to be able to pull melting soft bbq eel off properly (cf the ambrosial Eel Nigiri at Sushi-Hiro)

Emperor stir fry - a claypot of various goodies - abalone, sharks fin (minuscule threads), mushroom, fish maw, sea cucumber. Nice taste - though much down to the ingredients I guess.

Pipa duck - served with nice steamed finger things to wrap the duck in and topped with hoisin sauce. Basically a cross between peking duck and braised duck. Nice enough - seemed to be all leg meat which is both a) cheaper for the kichen and b) moister and more tasty for the diner.

Salt belly pork stir fried with garlic shoots. Poor choice by me - basically bog standard stir-fried pork, but with garlic shoots. Thankfully I like garlic shoots a lot.

Overall slightly superior, but not outstanding Chinese food. Certainly not worth the prices they are charging without the 40% discount. In their defence I would say I probably didn't order that well (should have gone for more seafood; wasted one bullet on the pork) and it is early doors.

I shall definitely figure out how to go back for dim sum at some point. The dim sum menu looked interesting.

Services was good.

l8tr

J

[Yquem]

Jan Moir's given it a nice review in yesterday's (Feb 12) Telegraph. Final paragraph:

'Shanghai Blues is most definitely going to swim. It's in my good books for having a little bit of restaurant magic and a terrific kitchen. Yes, it takes elements from elsewhere, but remains uniquely itself. Book now or else you'll never get in.'

[Suzi Edwards]

Great review from Fuschia Dunlop in Time Out as well but I don't think they post online. Will see if I can get permission to reproduced in some way.

[origamicrane]

Shanghai Blues is definately a good addition to the upmarket chinese restaurants in town but i'm not sure on its longevity?

Don't get me wrong i think this place is good and definately on par with Royal China, just not up to the level of hakkasan and yauatcha for comparable price.

Should be interesting on how this place evolves over this year.

I'm prediciting that service will be more efficient, prices will come down and the food quality will slip a bit too but no alarmingly so.

[Winot]

I popped in for a bite to eat last night at about 7.15pm. They were booked till 9pm but managed to find me a place in a corner behind a pillar in the bar area. I'm not proud.

I had three dishes:

1. Crispy squid with salted egg yolk (£8) -- lovely tender squid (about 6 bits); the egg yolk turned out simply to be a batter. I had been hoping for something wackier (should've asked). Nice but not exceptional.

2. Shanghai Xiao long bao dumplings (3 for £5.50). I agree with Jon's assessment. Nowhere near those I had in Yangsee River in Flushing, NY a couple of weeks ago (clang!); perhaps not even as good as in Golden Dragon last Sunday.

3. Shanghai marinated duck -- supposedly served with tofu but actually came with peanuts. Very tender, quite tasty duck served with a nam pla style dipping sauce. Didn't come with anything else. £15.

I asked the maitre'd if they had any Szechuan dishes and he said not many -- he mentioned a beef dish and a lamb dish but I looked afterwards annd they weren't on the menu so I guess you've got to ask.

Over all I thought the food was good but not exceptional and overpriced. I won't comment on the service/ambience as I'd intentionally placed myself in difficult spot. On this taster though I'm not sure I'd bother returning -- for that style of meal I can't see that Shanghai Blues offers Hakkasan much competition.

W.

[Suzi Edwards]

I've been going here quite regularly for Dim Sum lunches and had continued to be very impressed. The turnip puff is exceptional as are both the char sui pork buns and the baked pork buns. Monday was a disappointment for me though as we had to send back both the pork and seafood Xiao Long Bao as they didn't have any broth in. The replacements were a little better, but still not up to their early high standard.

I'll continue to go back, but at this time my enthusiasm is waning a little.

[Suzi Edwards]

Giles Coren eviscerates Shanghai Blues in The Times

[origamicrane]

Giles Coren eviscerates Shanghai Blues in The Times

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rather harsh coming from a casu marsu maggot excrement eating critic

of course the restaurants standards could have just bottomed out as i predicited

BTW there's a new chinese dim sum place out near heathrow airport

can't remeber the name but it was pretty nice

nothing spectalcular but pretty respectable dim sum and beats the hell out of the crap they are serving in the airport terminals.

Think its called London Hong Kong restaurant or something

I will get the name and address of the place

so next time you jet off or get back to heathrow and fancy a bite go there.