My last pre-covid lockdown meal outside was on 12th of March 2020, at Hutong Dubai (one of the newest spots in town at that time). My first meal out post lockdown was on the 2nd of July 2020. I never remember birthdays but these dates are etched in my memory, and understandably so. Shanghai ME and Indochine have both been on my radar for a while but opportunity to dine there has thus far evaded me – thank you part covid and part procrastination.
I finally crossed Shanghai Me off my list the other day and it was an absolutely delightful pick to break the lockdown dry spell with. I knew I had to make my first meal out count, and this one did. Thankfully, the terrace is still open during the scorching hot Dubai summer, because they’ve covered and air-conditioned it.
Here’s what we had:
Zesty, tangy, refreshing, plump, juicy lobster tacos- just the kind of lunch fare I want during summer!
Yellowtail carpaccio with black truffle. A for effort, but even though I love truffle, I found myself longing for a hint of yuzu or acidity in this, and would’ve liked for the fish to have been a few degrees cooler.
Beef tataki- beautifully presented but again felt a little under seasoned and left us longer for a stronger presence of ponzu. Is it the summer that’s making me crave more acidic and tart notes?
Prawn tempura maki- a safe choice but a good one. You shouldn’t need extra soy sauce with a well-balanced and well-crafted piece of sushi or maki, and I certainly didn’t need it with this plate.
Prawn Har Gao: plump, juicy, bouncy prawn filling in a delicate skin. I didn’t mind the dusting of gold for that quintessential Dubai touch.
I avoid drawing comparisons and have never met a mushroom rice claypot I didn’t like, but it’s hard not to set Reif’s mushroom rice pots as a benchmark in my mind, starting from his Zuma days. This rice pot felt like it had too much vinegar in it and we had to do the most abominable thing a diner can do: we asked for salt/soy sauce. It was never brought out to us and we hoped we hadn’t offended the chef, but the dish lacked balance.
The miso yuzu Black Cod, however, more than made up for the mushroom rice pot. Flakey, glossy, tender and juicy, this was by far the best piece of Black Cod I’ve had till date. I have no choice but to draw a comparison again, but this was MUCH better than the iconic and wildly famous Miso Black Cod at Nobu. I find the latter to be too sweet and this one had a much more balanced and multi-dimensional flavor profile to it. We didn’t even need or want the extra sauce that came with it as we found that to be too sweet.
Last but not the least, our biggest mistake of the meal: ordering only a single portion of dessert to share because it was so good we could’ve had 3 (each)! Make no mistakes, the portion was massive but this Black sesame ice-cream atop a mango passionfruit compote and tres leches was ridiculously good. We wolfed it down in seconds and this alone is reason enough to return to Shanghai Me!
Is Shanghai Me going to be my new favorite restaurant/the pan-Asian spot Dubai has been in dire need of for ages? I think that’ll be a bit of a stretch, as most of the menu items we tried weren’t wildly bold or creative and mostly just played it safe, but were certainly well-executed. That being said, it’s surely one of the better contenders in town, and judging from how packed it was at lunchtime on a weekday and how lovely their terrace is, it’s here to stay.
