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August 31, 2005
Jean Georges Shanghai
I've wanted to taste Jean-Georges Vongerichten's flagship restaurant for years, funny how I finally get to try it half-way across the world in Shanghai. The menus are identical as far as I can tell. The tasting menu we ordered definitely is identical in content to what is served at the corner of Central Park West. (I may not have eaten at Jean Georges, but I have certainly read enough reviews of it to know what is on their tasting menu.) The only difference is the price. Here the tasting menu is 748RMB/US$92.35 per person whereas in New York it is US$125, about 25% cheaper.
Years of anticipation sharpened by counts of absolutely glorious reviews had us all primed for an unforgettable dinner. Yes, yes, we were in "Dalu", not exactly a place where I have ever encountered good Western cuisine (or even many Chinese ones, for that matter, but that's a rant for another day), but I thought: How bad could it be? From the way everyone practically foams in the mouth in awe for the food at Jean Georges (The Original), even if this can approximate that, it should be more than exceptional. The executive chef Eric Johnson worked under Vongerichten for many years and I'm assuming he knows what he is doing. Same menu, same chef, same techniques, best available ingredients: let's go!
I arrived in Shanghai Thursday night. On Friday I gave the restaurant's reservation line a ring. One ring. A woman answers. This never happens in a top New York restaurant. One ring? One ring and it's answered? Never.
Okay, I'll bite. Let's see if they have table for the day after, Saturday, for 8 p.m. As prime a dinner reservation as you can get.
No problem, would you like smoking or non-smoking?
I guess they aren't doing such great business. Saturday 8 o'clock reservation on one-day's notice? Are you kidding me?! Try doing that in New York. It ain't happening unless you are Bob (DeNiro).
I suppose that's not such a great sign.
Saturday night came and we still went in with a mix of curiosity and excitement. Mostly excitement.
The restaurant was about 3/4 full at 8. Not that bad I guess. It was a predominately white crowd. I almost felt like I was in the real thing by Columbus Circle.
The restaurant is rather large. It takes up an entire floor of the building. There is a big bar and lounge space and the dining room I would guess holds around 100 to 125 seats. Being on the Bund means there is view of the river and the skyscrapers across in Pudong, but the windows aren't that big so the view isn't all that impressive. Michael Graves, who did the renovation for the building, designed the interior of the restaurant, and it certainly looks very... Michael Graves-y. Meaning: horrendously garish post modern look. It's dark wood in dim lighting with gold ceilings paired with these amazingly jarring blue and red and yellow broad stripped chairs. Look at that the top image of this page and imagine that everywhere and you have an idea of what this restaurant looks like. Oh and don't forget to add in some garish blue and red and yellow stripped chairs.
After being seated and given the menus, I asked for the sommelier, who happens to be a young Chinese woman. I mention her age and sex because I wonder how she is accepted in such a male chauvinist world as China. Would her opinion really be trusted? Anyway, she recommeneded a bottle that I was going to order anyway (I didn't tell her which I was looking at, just a general description of what I was looking for). We got a 2003 Cambria Julia's Vineyard Pino Noir for a whopping 800RMB/US$98.77. Thank you overpriced wine in Asia. This probably goes for no more than US$50 in a restaurant in the States.
The amuse came and we were told to eat from left to right. The first thing was some sort of foie gras, which had no foie gras taste. It barely registered anything on my tongue, taste or texture. It was just so teeeny.
The second item supposedly had some uni in it. Again, nothing. Had no idea what I was eating. Not much taste or texture.
The final item was a peach juice. The only thing that tasted like something. But it was just juice. Maybe it had something else done to it, we couldn't tell in any case.
The amuse was cleared. We were thoroughly underwhelmed. Though to be fair, amuses generally aren't that good. I can hardly recall any restaurants that served me anything memorable for amuse.
The first course was egg caviar. A hollowed out egg shell filled with lightly cooked scrambled eggs and topped with whipped crème fraiche and caviar. Just a perfect dish. Now we were wowed. What a perfect combination of saltiness, egginess and creaminess. Okay, show us the money!
The second course was sea scallops with caper-raisin emulsion and topped with caramelized cauliflower. It was scallops. Nothing special about it. It tasted like any run-of-the-mill grilled scallops at any decent restaurant, caper-raisin emulsion or caramelized cauliflwers notwithstanding. The cauliflower did impart some nice contrast to it, but it barely registered.
That was followed by young garlic soup with thyme with sautéed frog legs on the side (frog legs not pictured). Garlic soup was, well, garlic soup. The frog legs were nicely done, crispy on the outside and moist and tender on the inside. Dipping them into the soup was nice. But again, not an impressive dish.
The fish course followed. A turbot with a Château Chalon sauce, topped with tomato and zucchini on top. Perfectly cooked fillet and pleasantly flavored. But that's about the most enthusiasm I can muster for describing the dish.
After that was the lobster tartine with lemongrass, fenugreek broth and pea shoots. Very Chinese tasting, and the lobster was a touch on the tough side.
Final savory course was the broiled squab with onion compote, sautéed foie gras and corn pancake. The squab was cooked to medium well, as requested. It was another fine, but uninspiring dish. The best thing about it was the corn pancake topped with foie gras.
The desserts weren't that memorable either. Like the main courses, none of the desserts were bad, per se, but neither were they that good. We had a choice of three and, being that there were three of us, we went for one of each to sample the whole lot.
All the deserts came on a big plate with four small compartments. Each plate had a theme.
This one's theme is "peach". It has peach milk shake with sable breton; fresh white peach with thyme cream, balsamic and almond; orange flower flan tart with peach and ginger; and peach tatin with black pepper ice cream and apricot coulis.
This one is called "Tropical". It comes with a coconut-yuzu frappé; ginger-lime soufflé is matched with pink grapefruit sorbet; a orange salad of pineapple, carrot and cardamom ice cream; and milk chocolate and caramelized banana tart.
The "Chocolate" was the best tasting of the trio. It had hot chocolate with coffee and cardamom marshmallow; a "black forest" in a cup; chocolate sorbet with macadamia, cinnamon and coconut; and a warm chocolate cake with salted caramel ice cream.
Finally, a shot of the petit-fours. Some chocolates and nuts.
And a word on service. It was by far the best service I've experienced in Dalu/China. (That's not saying much, by the way, since restaurant service here is not up to First World standards.) The pacing of the courses was a little erratic. And a couple of times they neglected to explain what we were being served. But generally speaking they stayed out of the way and let us enjoy our meal. Though at no time did I feel like I was in the hands of an expertly trained 4-star restaurant staff. Not incompetent, just not quite at the level that I'm used to in similar restaurants in the West.
The final bill, after tips, was 4,600RMB/US$567.92 for three (we had another bottle of wine). The lower price of the tasting menu is more than made up by the exhorbitantly priced wine. Though to be fair, it's not just this restaurant, all wines in Asia are exorbantly priced.
I know that sometimes the difference between a good dish and a great one can be razor thin. Maybe a few seconds more or less during cooking. Maybe a dash more spice. Maybe cutting something thicker or thinner. Maybe the raw ingredients in China just aren't good enough. I'll give you all that. But maybe, just maybe, Mr. Vongerichten's menu just isn't all that. I really don't think it's the quality of the ingredients at play here. Or the techniques. The tastes just aren't that sophisticated. I fail to imagine how much better this exact same menu would taste on the first floor of Trump International. I certainly am not spending another US$200 per person to find out. Nothing tasted bad, not by a long shot, yet at the same time, other than the egg caviar, nothing titillated my senses in any way. The best I can say about it is that it was a very expertly prepared and thoroughly unoffensive meal.
And you know what? Now I've been to three of Jean-Georges' restaurants, this, 66 and Spice Market and frankly, none of them are anything special.
Jean Georges, Three on the Bund, 4th Floor 3 Zhong Shan Dong Yi Road, Shanghai, (021) 6321-7733
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Comments
Where are you from? You seem to have such "Dalu" hatred but I wonder how much time you've actually spent in this country to have a real understanding of it. I'm from NYC and I've live in Shanghai now for over three years and I can tell you, if it weren't for the language and cultural differences, I face the same annoying frustrations in both places. We all have our "China days" but damn, you just seem to have indiscriminate loathing.
Although, I understand that China is not for everyone but really, do you need to be so harsh towards the Mainland? Are you Taiwanese or something?
Posted by: shc at September 2, 2005 3:36 AM
Ha ha ha ha ha ha...
shc, you crack me up!
Posted by: Yutai at September 2, 2005 5:01 PM
Wow, that kind of $! That's annual income for some in Dalu. Shame on you! :) You should instead head to Per Se in nyc.
Posted by: Peter at September 7, 2005 11:32 AM
Admire your attitude, not irony. When receiving too much education, we always try to persuade others in a calm and ordered way, so leads to endless conflicts and suffering. In fact a world full of generalized labels, like communist China, lazy Frenchman, chaotic Hongkong, shallow-brained Yankee, etc., are much more simple and happy.
呵呵，不太认同你对一些地域问题的看法，但你的建筑摄影确实不错，这两不相碍；就像我们不同的背景或多或少带来这样那样的偏见、标签，但这也并不妨碍我们成为一个出色的建筑师一样。
Posted by: Visitant at September 17, 2005 9:15 AM
We've eaten at Jean Georges in Columbus Circle a number of times. The caviar egg, scallops and cauliflower, and frog's leg garlic soup are dishes that are served at the NYC flagship restaurant. We loved them.
Both the scallops and the frog's legs rely on French style, high heat, butter based pan searing for their flavor. This is a tricky operation, and I've burned, and ruined, lots of stuff at home trying it. It sounds like the renditions at the Shanghai branch just weren't very good. At least you didn't get the burned stuff, the way we did when we tried to recreate these dishes. It is definitely worse than the bland, under-seared alternative.
You are absolutely right. Jean Georges' style of cooking depends on precise execution to an amazing extent. Some cooking cannot be cloned.
We were totally unimpressed with Vong and loathed Spice Market, but we really liked the mother ship, what with the Unisphere replica outside giving that touch of Queens ambience. Still, Jean Georges was never a patch on Jean Louis down in Washington, or Guy Savoie or Lucas Carton in Paris. I imagine Jean Louis Palladin on his death bed, explaining to his children "Dying is easy, haut cuisine is hard."
Posted by: Kaleberg at October 12, 2005 7:22 PM
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Posted by: architecture tutorials at October 23, 2005 10:07 AM
Hmmm. Can you explain your hatred for China? I lived in NY for 3 years, then Beijing for one year and now I am back in Manhattan but I still crave for many dishes back in China. So much so that I'm going to spend $1100 to fly to Beijing to retaste the REAL Peking Duck. You can't get this in NY anywhere - and it's only 60RMB for a full duck!
Shanghai is a great city of great tastes. For only 200 RMB I had a fabulous meal just north of Ren Min Gong Yuan (off of Nan Jing Lu). I'm allergic to shellfish but I ate the fatty crab for 4 days in a row because it was so ridiculously delicious.
Next time you want to go out to China let me know - I'll recommed you some places that will surpise you.
Posted by: simon at October 30, 2005 6:31 PM
Read that and confirm that you want me to make a reservation please.
There is another restaurant Sens and Bund which is well rated too.
Tell me and call them today :)
Bisous
Posted by: catherine at February 9, 2006 10:48 PM
I'm 17 and have can safely say that I haven't been to many great restaurants, but come on... did you expect to have an orgasm at the table? Or sudden and unexplained giddiness. its haute cuisine, what's special is not in what's seen/tasted but what's unseen... anyone can prepare the run of the mill, its the exceptional that often gets unnoticed. Eitherway i agree with Catherine. Sens and Bund is not bad... though honestly if you're expecting culinary epiphany, then maybe you should be looking for the sommelier in heaven, or possibly the chefs burning down in hell *afterall they can't cook so much, propagate so much gluttony that they go up there right?:)*
Posted by: Jerrick at March 5, 2006 7:19 AM
I recently started reading your food blog, and I share your enthusiasm for food...but something that threw me off is your very obvious disdain towards everything "dalu", mainland china. Speaking as a chinese girl raised in Shanghai and California, I feel that your judgement of Dalu is myopic due to limited experiences. Yes it is a third world country. Yes bad service does occur, as does everywhere including "first world" countries, where apparently even sister restaurants under same ownership have better service due to higher Western "standards". But to make sweeping generalizations about dalu, especially the statement that "everything is horrible" is ill-founded and dismissive, especially considering the culinary genius and service of many restaurants, the natural and architectural beauty, and the growing cultural awareness of the people. Consider the progressive changes that have allowed that young Chinese woman to become a "trusted" sommelier now, instead of 40, 50 years from now. Consider what her status would have been 20 years ago. Dalu has come a long way even though the government in title still follows dead communism and it is an antiquated response to think of Dalu as a backward third world country chock full of chauvinistic men, with no emerging female power. I would even say China surpasses the west in many respects, especially in the culinary arena where family farms, crop and animal variety and direct availability from the source mean fresher and usually organic ingredients.
Your statement that dalu is horrible, that the service is somehow constantly more crude compared to Western standards paints an hasty and superficial image of Chinese culture and its people as insulting less. Please consider that Chinese people follow different customs than maybe what you are use to. The fact that china is a developing Nation, should provoke encouragement rather than easy scoffing and condescension. There are many wonderful things about Dalu for those with a mind towards acceptance rather than perfection. If you want any tips about where to go in Shanghai for delicious food, feel free to email me. Or maybe ask that sub-standard waiter where he goes to get the grub. He’ll probably be a lot nicer once he sees that you are really about finding the good stuff, rather than judging his community and all his actions based on a proclaimed hatred of dalu and personal disdain.
Posted by: Joanne at March 8, 2006 10:20 PM
You can't be 48123 serious?!?
Posted by: Max Ballstein at June 16, 2006 4:59 PM
People please. Liao Yu Sheng you did a fabulous and great great review of a restaurant and the food you had there. Come on people, this review has nothing to do with China hatin. I really enjoyed your critical review and understanding of food. Have you thought of being a food critic? LOL. So damn sensitive. It has nothing to do with the Chinese or China; it has all to do with the food food food, and the restauarant of course.
Posted by: Herbert at July 1, 2006 8:28 PM
Absolutely! One thing is clear. They charge an arm and a leg for something just ok. I think they should really get their butt of the chair and start treating the customers with some respect. And to those who goes to Jean Georges still, Please spend your money elsewhere! Hotel is definitely doing a better job in putting quality back on the dining table. I highly recommended the Yi Cafe in Shangri La and The Stage at the Westin Hotel. If you work hard enough at your restaurant, I might come back again.
Damn you,
Jean Georges,
Sens and Bund,
The Bella Napoli,
Toscana,
HFZ,
and all those you are reading, but not taking care of the customers outside!
Get out and get working!
Posted by: Soup of God at August 7, 2006 6:54 AM
two quick comments:
A. all non-U.S. "Jean Georges" restaurants are franchises. JG was paid for his name and to train the staff. He has nothing to do with the restaurants after that.
B. Vong, Mercer Kitchen and Spice Market are universally agreed to be JG's worst NY restaurants. Imho, the only ones worth eating at (and two of the best restaurants in the city) are Jean Georges at Columbus Circle and Perry Street.
Posted by: Nathan at September 27, 2006 5:44 PM
I've only eaten at Jean Georges for events, am shocked to find how much that privilege costs!
Food is so-so. The service there is awful. I was once there with some Chinese friends who didn't speak English, and the staff were really condescending to them. One friend asked for chopsticks, and they said it "wasn't allowed". And were really rude about it.
Interesting blog, but rather ruined by your snobbery towards the Mainland. You're just showing your ignorance, man.
Posted by: Lisa at October 1, 2006 3:51 AM
i want to find out how many year is the marshmallow came....
can u help me whit it??
i wish u guys can help me
Posted by: Theresa at November 1, 2006 8:02 PM
I enjoyed the post! I'm chinese, yet I still enjoyed reading it. I actually found myself laughing to myself halfway while reading.
And to all Dalu people...the cultural bondage to preserve "mian zi" or "face" will only put a dent into your overall personality and charisma in the long run. Loosen up and laugh at yourselves once in a while...and don't be so uptight :-D
Posted by: Chinese Cruiser at December 11, 2006 12:18 AM
Chinese Cruiser, you are completely missing other people's point, probably due to the fact that you were so busy laughing your ass off and not paying attention to what others are criticizing about. Liao's review on the JG in Shanghai is cogent and well put, however the whole article is peppered with condescending remarks with extreme prejudice toward mainland China, not its government and political structure but the culture, society and the people. Come on man it is so obvious you got to be smoking weed to miss that!! His negative speech may not be intentional, or maybe he was pissed off by something else that triggered his "anti Dalu" attitude, nevertheless, this article has more taste of abhorrence than food.
Posted by: diswayster at January 3, 2007 6:15 PM
That's too bad. Not all of JG's places can be the same. Perry St. is a little clone of the JG mothership. Vong and Spice Market are completely different from JG and Perry. Which is why he creates such drastically different restaurants. If you don't like one kind, you will like the other.
I am lucky... I have been to Vong, JoJo, Jean Georges, Spice Market, Mercer Kitchen, Perry St and 66. All had a dish I didn't like.
What a curse...to be that good but can't be cloned!!
Posted by: Stevie at February 3, 2007 10:35 PM
LOL. All these self-appointed defender of China! Liao's article is well written and he is entitled to his opinions. I mean come on people, "hatre for China"? "peppered with condescending remarks with extreme prejudice"? ""anti Dalu" attitude"? "scoffing and condescension"?
What's really condescending is some of the commenters' attitude that they think China, with its great and tenacious culture stretching back 5000 years, requires their hysterical defense. No, China and its people can definitely stand up to criticism and reality checks.
Posted by: Dennis at February 28, 2007 2:02 AM
Nice comments. Could you provide me with the email address of jean-georges Shanghai. I would like to make a reservation. Thanks.
Charles
Posted by: Charles at March 15, 2007 9:29 AM