Zen Chinese Cuisine - Shanghai

Zen Chinese Cuisine, Life Hub @ DaNing, Shanghai (China)
http://www.daningdaning.com/


Note: the website given above is about the location of this restaurant, rather than the restaurant itself.

DaNing (just one of the many buildings)

Usually, when individuals/familys 'return' overseas, they bring gifts back for their families and friends. We go back too often for Australian souviners to have any appeal and aside from sheepskin and lanolin oil, there really isn't much you can get in Australia that you can't get in China.

The current solution is that we don't bring anything back but for courtesy, we shout the family a large meal. When I went back in Feb 09, my mum asked my aunt to chose a nice restaurant. The one we were going to visit was too full and we didn't want to wait around for an hour. It was located in 'DaNing' which is a bit like the Pentagon in Shanghai. Basically, there's a collection of buildings that are full of shops and restaurants. At DaNing, the streets connecting these buildings are pedestrian-only walks and the whole complex is quite nice to walk through and explore.

Zen is the restaurant we ended up going to.



This restaurant was HUGE. It was really really big. I thought for a moment that the walls were lined with mirror - to create the illusion of more tables. No... they actually WERE more tables.

I've been to Zen in Conrad Jupiter, Gold Coast and it was a pleasant experience. Zen in Shanghai was also pretty good. The food was of high standards and the service was friendly(not easy to find in China). I didn't enjoy all the dishes that much but I feel like this is because my aunt didn't order perfectly to my taste. I would be happy to return to Zen and pick my own dishes in confidence that they'll turn out well.

As per traditional Shanghai style, we started off with the cold dishes.

Peanuts with salted vegetables

Black fungus in chili oil

Cold mini-clams

Tiny dried fish

Crab claws

I thought the spicy fungus was pretty awesome although many of my family members can't handle chili food.

The hot dishes came next.

Zen-style sticker buns

One major lapse in service is that we ordered a pork leg and it never turned up. The kitchen actually forgot all about that order so we just canceled it. Also, my aunt made a big deal about the sticker buns but in all honesty, my mum and I thought the Xiao Yang sticker buns were much superior, even though they are about 5 times cheaper.

Tofu & mushroom pot with qi chai

Seafood tofu

French-style beef with mayonnaise

In particular, I liked the 'French-style' beef with mayonnaise. You'd think that it's impossible to go wrong with a dish of crispy deep fried dish but I've had it in more than 1 place in Shanghai and I thought Zen made it better. It wasn't too oily and the beef was lovely and tender.

Pork mince wraps

I liked the wrapped pork mince too. You eat this Peking duck-style by wrapping up a bit of the mince with some shallot in a pancake. I've had this dish before but at that time, we wrapped the pork in mini steamed buns. My mum tried to make this when we got back to Australia - the pork part was OK but she got the pancake wrong and for some reason, wrapped avocado in with it. Very poor fusion of East and West.

Sweet and sour mandarin fish

The sweet and sour mandarin fish was also well received. Everyone dug into it and while we were waiting for the pork leg (that never came), my uncle even devoured spoonfuls of the sweet and sour sauce... soon, the plate was clean!