Review by Ryan Sutton
Feb. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Some New Yorkers have long hoped for a great, high-end Chinese restaurant. Shang is not that restaurant.
It’s hard to aim high when slaw seems to be your signature dish.
What happened was that acclaimed chef Susur Lee ventured out from his Toronto venues, came to New York’s Lower East Side and opened a hip eatery called Shang in a hot hotel called Thompson LES Hotel. Gourmet Magazine threw a big party. Media types talked about Canada’s loss as the U.S.’s gain.
Drawn by the to-do, I stop in. And I try the $16 slaw.
You have to. If you don’t, the wait staff might take personal offense. If you say no thanks, that you’ve already had it on a previous visit, they will encourage you to order it anyway for the sake of your other guests. If you come back for a third visit, they push it again. If you get the “starving artists” prix-fixe for $35, you have only one option for an appetizer: slaw.
Minimalism isn’t practiced here. The slaw is a slew of 19 ingredients: crispy taro, carrots, daikon, jicama, cucumber, tomatoes, crispy noodles, toasted brown hazelnuts, toasted sesame seeds, fried shallots, daikon sprouts, cilantro sprouts, opal basil, confetti mix, pickled ginger, scallions, pickled red onions, salted plum dressing, and pansies. Whew.
It’s a good mixture of sour, sweet, salty and crunchy. It goes down easy and doesn’t fill you up. You’ll forget about it minutes later. In other words, it’s everything a slaw should be. But is even this gussied-up version of an unassuming side dish worth $16?
Nothing Really Wrong
At the jet-black bar, I try the spicy, earthy mix of gin, lime and galangal (a ginger-like root). It’s usually empty here, maybe because you can’t order off the full menu at the bar.
So I move to the gorgeous box of a dining room. Reds and golds dominate. I order the $20 foie gras and chicken-liver pate -- because that’s what the waiters push, the least Chinese dish. Like the slaw, the foie tastes fine.
And for the most part, there’s nothing really wrong with the food, but alas, Shang is about as exciting as Canadian rocker Bryan Adams, which is to say not very. I didn’t experience any tongue-numbing excitement like at New York’s peppercorn-studded Spicy & Tasty or Grand Sichuan Eastern. There are no life- changing dumplings like those miracles at Chinatown Brasserie. Shang bills itself as “global Chinese.” I bill it as dumbed down “hotel Chinese.”
Mongolian lamb chops taste like every other lamb chop I’ve had. They’re big, juicy, heady and rare. No Peking Duck here. But there is decent squab breast with foie gras; the pigeon comes with Asian-like pancake wraps. What makes lobster bisque Chinese? Curry, apparently. The reasonably tasty concoction evidences a little lobster, a lot of curry.
West Indies
There’s a small Chinese population in Jamaica. That explains the presence of Jerk Chicken on the menu. The tender roulades of thigh meat and the unmistakable sting of scotch bonnet peppers make it a worthy substitute for traditional versions.
Turnip cake could be the menu’s most classic preparation. It’s a starchy, chewy block, with salty black bean and heady mushrooms. Perfect.
Other dishes evoke your local takeout buffet with heat lamps. I couldn’t even taste the oyster in my over-fried oyster. A few balls of chewy fried lobster cost $19. Shang’s pork belly does nothing to improve upon this ubiquitous cut of pig. It’s just a droopy mess slathered with a murky sauce. Japanese Wagyu showed none of the beef’s signature marbling and tasted like any other sirloin. Cost: $29 for a few tiny slices.
Michelin-starred European chefs like Alain Ducasse and Gordon Ramsay faltered when they first came to the states, then found their grooves some time later. Let’s hope Canada’s Susur Lee will also find his way.
Rating: *
Excerpt from: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601093&sid=aEIjejA1nzNY&refer=home
Feb. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Some New Yorkers have long hoped for a great, high-end Chinese restaurant. Shang is not that restaurant.
It’s hard to aim high when slaw seems to be your signature dish.
What happened was that acclaimed chef Susur Lee ventured out from his Toronto venues, came to New York’s Lower East Side and opened a hip eatery called Shang in a hot hotel called Thompson LES Hotel. Gourmet Magazine threw a big party. Media types talked about Canada’s loss as the U.S.’s gain.
Drawn by the to-do, I stop in. And I try the $16 slaw.
You have to. If you don’t, the wait staff might take personal offense. If you say no thanks, that you’ve already had it on a previous visit, they will encourage you to order it anyway for the sake of your other guests. If you come back for a third visit, they push it again. If you get the “starving artists” prix-fixe for $35, you have only one option for an appetizer: slaw.
Minimalism isn’t practiced here. The slaw is a slew of 19 ingredients: crispy taro, carrots, daikon, jicama, cucumber, tomatoes, crispy noodles, toasted brown hazelnuts, toasted sesame seeds, fried shallots, daikon sprouts, cilantro sprouts, opal basil, confetti mix, pickled ginger, scallions, pickled red onions, salted plum dressing, and pansies. Whew.
It’s a good mixture of sour, sweet, salty and crunchy. It goes down easy and doesn’t fill you up. You’ll forget about it minutes later. In other words, it’s everything a slaw should be. But is even this gussied-up version of an unassuming side dish worth $16?
Nothing Really Wrong
At the jet-black bar, I try the spicy, earthy mix of gin, lime and galangal (a ginger-like root). It’s usually empty here, maybe because you can’t order off the full menu at the bar.
So I move to the gorgeous box of a dining room. Reds and golds dominate. I order the $20 foie gras and chicken-liver pate -- because that’s what the waiters push, the least Chinese dish. Like the slaw, the foie tastes fine.
And for the most part, there’s nothing really wrong with the food, but alas, Shang is about as exciting as Canadian rocker Bryan Adams, which is to say not very. I didn’t experience any tongue-numbing excitement like at New York’s peppercorn-studded Spicy & Tasty or Grand Sichuan Eastern. There are no life- changing dumplings like those miracles at Chinatown Brasserie. Shang bills itself as “global Chinese.” I bill it as dumbed down “hotel Chinese.”
Mongolian lamb chops taste like every other lamb chop I’ve had. They’re big, juicy, heady and rare. No Peking Duck here. But there is decent squab breast with foie gras; the pigeon comes with Asian-like pancake wraps. What makes lobster bisque Chinese? Curry, apparently. The reasonably tasty concoction evidences a little lobster, a lot of curry.
West Indies
There’s a small Chinese population in Jamaica. That explains the presence of Jerk Chicken on the menu. The tender roulades of thigh meat and the unmistakable sting of scotch bonnet peppers make it a worthy substitute for traditional versions.
Turnip cake could be the menu’s most classic preparation. It’s a starchy, chewy block, with salty black bean and heady mushrooms. Perfect.
Other dishes evoke your local takeout buffet with heat lamps. I couldn’t even taste the oyster in my over-fried oyster. A few balls of chewy fried lobster cost $19. Shang’s pork belly does nothing to improve upon this ubiquitous cut of pig. It’s just a droopy mess slathered with a murky sauce. Japanese Wagyu showed none of the beef’s signature marbling and tasted like any other sirloin. Cost: $29 for a few tiny slices.
Michelin-starred European chefs like Alain Ducasse and Gordon Ramsay faltered when they first came to the states, then found their grooves some time later. Let’s hope Canada’s Susur Lee will also find his way.
Rating: *
Excerpt from: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601093&sid=aEIjejA1nzNY&refer=home
