Jardin De Jade    蘇浙滙  

Since most of the previously previews are in Chinese, thought I would do this in English so to allow english-speaking foodies to have a peek at this newly opened Shanghai restaurant.

I think this will be a place where foreigners from overseas would like, it has modern decor (a bit grand, with tall mirrors around) and most importantly- English menu (plus plenty of photos to help!). We came here with some relatives from Canada who doesn't read/ speak Chinese, and I love the fact that the menu allows them to participate in ordering food.

Honestly I think all dishes taste more or less the same, the very typical Shanghainese sauce. From the marinated pork belly to the vegetarian dishes... I am personally a great fan of Shanghai food, but towards the end of the meal the sauce are just a bit too heavy. We pre-ordered their signature duck (Chang-Cha duck). Love the Smokey taste of it, this is the only dish that doesn't come with the shanghainese sauce.

Overall the food are OK, and it is a place where you can enjoy some nicely presented shanghai food comfortably (Chinese food usually stress on the taste of the food more than the presentation of it), tables stand quite apart from each other. But for me personally, I would return to the more traditional old Shanghai restaurants.

we chose our venue this time at jardin de jade (蘇浙匯) in wanchai, hong kong branch of contemporary shanghaiese restaurant chain. the shanghai-based jardin de jade was founded in 1999 and now operates 15 stores in beijing, shanghai, suzhou, macau, and hong kong was the latest addition. its macau branch was awarded a michelin star in the 2010 red guide, which raised expectations for the hong kong branch as well. similar to maxim’s group, jardin de jade has different brands for its upscale and mid-class restaurants, and food quality is fairly consistent across stores. the group has a central kitchen in xujiahui district that prepares half-finished products every day and transport to individual outlets for final steps or assembly. i never visit shanghai without eating at jardin de jade near shanghai pudong holiday inn (the best one IMO) at least once. anyway, we arrived at jardin de jade in wanchai at 1pm and found the restaurant packed. overheard mandarin here and there too…

zhejiang style sweet sour pork (糖醋小排) - my favorite cold appetizer at jardin de jade. but the bite-sized pork rib here was a little overdone and too firm; taste was skewed toward sweet side and the vinegar was not aged and aromatic enough. a bit disappointing…

sweet radish - a very pleasant appetizer. sweet and sour radish was very crunchy but a bit soft and chewy inside.

mocked abalone (素伴鮑魚) - a signature dish at jardin de jade with soy sauce/wasabi served alongside. the mocked abalone was actually produced in the shanghai central kitchen and shipped to hong kong; its texture closely resembled canned abalone, crispy and slightly spongy, while the “flesh” was refreshing and delightful.

steamed fish in wine-sauce - my favorite dish for the lunch. the fish was fresh and crispy, unlike some other places where the fish could be mushy and falls apart when you pick it up. the wine-infused sauce was a bit thick and very fragrant.

spicy beef - it’s a bowl of sichuan pepper-tainted beef slices with bean sheet noodles and cabbage. the beef slices were criss-cross cut to fully absorb the spicy soup. but they had to spicy up the dish A LOT MORE in order to call this a spicy beef dish… it was also too oily for my liking.

crab roe xiaolongbao (蟹粉小籠包) - positve was that the skin was thin but firm and chewy; negative was everything else: there was not enough crab roe stocking, and the minced pork was too lean.

food quality was above average shanghaiese food; i can’t call it contemporary style exactly because it is too oily to be considered contemporary while flavor is not powerful enough to be considered traditional. more importantly, it has lost certain delicacy in the hong kong version – overall lower execution precision, and they cut corner here and there, such as a lower quality vinegar and rice wine… that said, it was still good food for a chain.

full post with fotos: http://randomnomad.wordpress.com/2010/10/14/jardin-de-jade/

service is v poor, lack of staff and delivery of ordered food is a big mess, hv appetizers, main dishes and dim sum, noodles etc coming all at the same time- Dai Pai Dong style with a lot of MSG
shanghai fried noodles is TERRIBLE
extremely disappointed. totally chaotic

As a Shanghainese living in Hong Kong my family was excited a famous Shanghainese Resto opened a loci in HK. My dad wa sso excited we invited 15 guests to join us.

1) 1/2 their menu was no available-----------not only for big dishes like roasted duck, even standard dishes like DUMPLINGS and FRIED BUNS DRUNKEN CHICKEN were not available????????????????????????

2) service was ridiculous, no one pouring tea, changing plates

3) waiter inexperience, couldnt tell us how big the portions are and how he can accomodate a big table

4) the shanghainese fried thick noodles came out------it was thin noodles, it had bean sprouts in it (tasted like the fried noodles you eat in the morning with ur congee.

Overall a, $5000+ meal was not worth a penny.

The restaurant was due to open officially on Friday and I was looking forward to try so I made a call to book on Tuesday so that we could try out the new restaurant on Sunday. When we got there at 6pm on Sunday and the receptionist told us that they were only offering set menus for 5 people and 10 or above parties that night. When I asked her how come I was not informed when I made the booking, she did not show any sign of apology and told us that they tried to call me at 2pm, 4 hours before our booking and left a voice mail. There were only two of us so we had no choice but to leave. What lousy service! I hope they would improve. Service quality is so important no matter how enticing the food is. I was very very disappointed.