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Type: Chinese
Prices: Appetizers, soup $2.50- $6.95; all-day specials $4.95- $5.95; entrees $5.95-$16.95.
Good choices: Crispy fried tofu; littlenecks in black bean sauce; pork with hot garlic sauce; lobster with spicy salt and pepper; grilled sea bass with Shanghai sauce; Shanghai chicken.
Hours: Sun.-Thurs. 11 a.m.-11 p.m.; Fri.-Sat. 11 a.m.- midnight.
Reservations accepted. Smoking allowed downstairs.
Credit cards: All major credit cards.
Access: First-floor is accessible.
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SHANGHAI CAFE
232 Tremont Street, Boston
(617) 338-8686
Restaurant reviewed 08/27/98 by Alison Arnett
Emotional attachments to restaurants run deep. No matter how much we enjoy the thrill of the new, we return to old favorites, craving the familiar, the tried-and-true. So for diners who hold dear a special place, the news that the restaurant is branching out can be wrenching. Will the new offshoot be as good? Will the established one suffer? Will the talents of the chef and staff be stretched too thin? We think quite selfishly in these situations (and there's nothing as selfish as the human stomach).
Chef C.K. Sau and his partner Jackson Cheung opened New Shanghai in Chinatown in 1993. The broad menu showcases Sau's masterful cooking, with sparkling Shanghai specialties not seen elsewhere and the most elegant dim sum in the area. Last December, Sau and Cheung opened another restaurant, only blocks away on the edge of the Theater District.
Shanghai Cafe looks almost austere: Its cleanly designed, two-level dining room is in pale colors, with wood walls, comfortable seating, and only a few decorative elements. The focus of the place and menu definitely turns away from Chinatown toward the West. Missing are the more exotic dishes (to Americans anyway) such as braised fish head and crispy eels with sweet sauce. Instead, there are many Chinese dishes recognizable to Westerners plus a section of grilled fish and meats, and lobster with a choice of 10 sauces. Unlike many Asian restaurants, a full wine list matched to the spice of the food is offered along with beer.
Luckily, Sau's culinary presence imbues this new venture. He comes in daily to make sauces, manager Cheung said in a phone interview, before going to New Shanghai. And his disciple, Ke Chen, a Shanghai native who has worked with Sau for 10 years, is the Shanghai Cafe chef. Though I missed some of the Shanghai specialities at this newer restaurant, Shanghai Cafe's food was excellent, and at times stretched the boundaries of Sau's repertoire.
The grilled sea bass with Shanghai sauce was a case in point. The presentation with its one big slice of bass, which the waiter said had been cut from a 60-pound fish, was dramatic. A dark sauce covers the fish, sprinkled with scallions and coriander, and surrounded by broccoli and carrots. Perfectly grilled, flaky but moist, the fish benefited greatly from the mahogany-colored sauce, redolent with black pepper, soy, and a spritz of ground red pepper. The flavors flirted with the tongue: not sweet but on the verge, not biting hot but on the edge; bold yet letting the taste of the grilled fish show through.
A bright red-hot chili and onion sauce on sauteed sea bass was another delightful surprise. It looked almost like one of those too thick and too sweetly cloying sauces often found in Asian restaurants. Instead, Sau's version had plenty of slightly sour-sweet tang and a bracing amount of onions, over excellent fish.
Lobster was served in its shell under a crust of spicy salt and pepper, and its flavors blended into chow foon noodles underneath. These broad, thick, rice noodles are the rage with chefs in all kinds of restaurants across the city. They're much trickier than a noodle would seem to be, though, and often turn into a sodden mass on the plate, unappealing and difficult to eat. Here, tossed with onion slices and doused with the sauce and juices from the lobster, the noodles retained their shape and distinctiveness. In another version, ginger and scallions gave a different tone to the lobster and the fettucine underneath.
That distinctiveness marks other dishes. Littleneck clams with black bean sauce, each clam graced with a fine dice of red peppers and green onions, positively sang, so fresh were the shellfish and so tangy the sauce. A stir-fry of pork in hot garlic sauce surrounded by triangles of pan-fried scallion cakes zinged, unabashedly hot with chilies. Pretty to look at and irresistible to anyone who likes spicy heat, the dish was distinguished by the quality of the tender pork. Lamb with ginger and scallions again proved the point that good ingredients _ the lamb was excellent _ elevate even commonly found dishes.
The very simple proved memorable. Tofu cubes were creamy inside and crisply fried outside, a lovely textural contrast against the pure flavor. These dishes brimmed with vegetables, from shredded lettuce under the appetizers to black mushrooms, peppers, and onions with a lovely chicken stir-fry. Simple vegetable dishes, especially with dark greens, are sometimes difficult to find on English menus at Chinese restaurants; here, though, you can find a dish of sauteed spinach and another of Chinese peapods in a garlic sauce.
Only a couple of the appetizers fell flat. The scallion pancakes filled with five-spice beef were dull, not greasy but tasting as though they'd been made too far ahead, and the pan-fried potstickers were only average.
Dessert can be a letdown in Chinese restaurants, since fortune cookies _ even if they're chocolate _ are a bit less than Western palates are accustomed to. Here, the chef sent out crisp, just-fried squares of pastry with sweet bean paste, a wonderful rounding out of all the strong flavors in the meal.
I interviewed C.K. Sau and his partner Cheung several years ago, and though I didn't announce my intention to visit beforehand, I was recognized upon arriving. The service was excellent, solicitous, and prompt _ and seemed to be so throughout the dining room. However, on an earlier luncheon visit, time lags between courses were quite long, presumably something that has improved over time.
Two restaurants can't be the same, and shouldn't be. Although there are some things I'm fond of at New Shanghai, especially the cold appetizers, Shanghai Cafe has plenty of appealing ways with food. Sau and his chef have managed to keep the quality and integrity high. I'll return to New Shanghai, of course, but I'm glad for the choice of a younger sibling.
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