Opening a luxury hotel in Paris goes way beyond the glamour of the opening itself, or the quantity and quality of the beds offered, mainly when we’re talking about a Palace Hotel with an Asian name on the signature, once looked over with a certain distrust, or we wouldn’t be talking about the capital of luxury and service quality.
But truth is, nowadays, Asians are the new benchmark concerning hospitality, and Shangri-La Paris (see) was one of the first hotels to show it.
And if the hotel fascinated me before, the will of knowing the cuisine of its Shang Palace just kept getting bigger, while waiting for a return to the city of light.
The restaurant revolutionized the way the chinese cuisine was seen in town, since its opening in 2011, tracing for the cantonese dishes the same level of demand and quality of any major haute cuisine restaurant in Paris, becoming the first Chinese restaurant to get a star in the French Michelin guide.
The decoration, similarly to the rest of the hotel, is flawless, making us travel in space to any sumptuous table in an Asian capital. The golden, the wood, the beautiful decoration pieces or even the live music sung by a gorgeou chinese harp, nothing is left to chance!
And so, in a mixture of exaltation and anxiety we got installed and went through the huge menu in charge of the young talented Samuel Lee Sum, who after several years at Shangri-la took on the demanding cuisine of the Parisian restaurant.
“Lo Hei” Salmon
Quickly the first dish came to the table, a classic of the restaurant, Lo Hei, a dish typically served in the chinese new year’s, with raw fish strips served with a series of laminated vegetables and a delicious sesame and peanut sauce, representing prosperity, abundance and vigor. An excellent way to start the evening, with a simple combo, rich in flavors and textures.
Cherry tomato, plum, mint and thai basil sauce
Meanwhile, some sides arrive to the table, like these fantastic cherry tomatoes, peeled and marinated, with plum, mint and thai basil sauce, resulting in a fresh combination with excellent balance of acidity and sweetness.
Marinated cabbage rolls, mustard sauce
Cooked and marinated cabbage, with an excellent mustard sauce, spicy and sour enough. Very good!
Fried squid with lime sauce, grapefruit and lime zest
Mollusk nicely fried, dry and crunchy, with a moist interior in the right texture, accompanied by a full of elegance and freshness sauce, perfectly cutting the greasiness of the frying.
Crunchy piglet, shrimp pancake and caviar
A dish revealing all the rigor and technique they use, with the high quality of the igredients. A super light pancake with a basis of shrimp and very little flour, with a thin and super crunchy layer of piglet and the sumptuous caviar. A combination of earth and sea, combining the sweetness of the shrimp and the pork with the salt and sea of the caviar. A dish of extreme elegance, difficult to stop eating. Delicious!
Scarlet shrimp, fava bean, chanterelles, egg white foam and alcohol gelatin
Perfectly cooked shrimp, a dish a bit distant from what we usually see in the chinese cuisine. An apparently weird mix of elements that results in an interesting combination – a good game of textures and flavors with highlight to the lightness of the foam covering the bottom of the dish.
Harmonizing was a white Sancerre, a 2015 from Domaine Vacheron, a wine of organic production, quite dry, unlike the other wines that make the region famous, 100% Sauvignon Blanc, with a quite aromatic nose and a rich mouth, with highlight to the minerality and acidity. Very good!
Sauteed green beans, minced pork and XO sauce
I love the usual sauteed vegetables at chinese restaurants, but here that was taken to an extreme, tender but crispy beans, spicy and with an excellent XO (famous sauce of Hong Kong’s cuisine, with a basis of dry seafood), combined with minced pork that gives volume and flavor to the dish. Top!
Mushroom soup
I can’t resist a nice broth, and here was not the exception, with a clear and tasty poultry broth enriched with mushrooms, with highlight to the strange and peculiar bride’s veil, and small pak-choi cabbages. A delicate and tasty dish, like every good soup should be.
“Shang Palace” Rice in a lotus leaf
The apparently “poor” and traditional rice dish is one of the signature marks, and at the first bite you already know why! Flavor is almost indescribable and is certainly one of the best rice dishes I ever tasted. Enriched with shrimp, chicken, duck and vegetables, the secret is for sure in the broth it is cooked in, impossible to stop eating…
Charolais calf, king trumpet mushroom, shallots and chives
Sauteed in the Wok, with a juicy meat nicely paired with the mushroom and vegetables. A classic of the Chinese cuisine, where the spotlight belongs to the sauce connecting all the elements, as well as the texture game achieved by the crunchy “nest”.
Almond Cream in a sesame crust
To finish this already long tasting, arrives another classic, a crunchy sphere, perfectly achieved, made of sesame, water and flour (and much likely a bit of lard??) that hides a custard made with almond milk. Light, warm, and very, very delicate!
In the glass, a Burgundy Morey-Saint-Denis 2013 of François Feuillet, a light and elegant red that served well the harmonization with the demanding dishes like the Charolais sautée.
Speaking of wines, the list is an impressive one, with all the great French references, highligh to the Burgundy and the Bordeaux, and with severeal harvests from the main worldwide names.
The service went flawlessly, to the good way of a great Parisian restaurant, the team showing great knowledge of the dishes, besides all the technical rigor – seeing them prepare a Beijing duck on the table next to us was a little delight.
But once there was still time and stomach to a final moment, nothing like a toast to a great dinner with a bit of Portugal, so we took a beautiful Graham’s 30 years that was the motto to a toast and a small talk with the chef Samuel Lee.
Graham’s 30 anos perfectly complemented by sweet ginger straps with chocolate
And these are the moments that make everything worth it, when we are able to make a bit of our culture shine alongside others so different. A great wine that would come to surprise not only the chef (used to Port in the kitchen) as well as the room team and the sommelier.
Final Remarks
I like to believe the West is opening its eyes to the haut Asian cuisine, particularly the Chinese, for sure one of the richest and most evolved in the world, that looses some points for being seen as low cost and with poor quality ingredients. But restaurants like this Shang Palace or the group Hakkasan in London (see) reset that connotation of the Chinese cuisine and give it the highlight it should have. Now we just have to wait to know the Dim Sum menu (one of my perditions), only available at lunch.
A special and mandatory restaurant, transporting us to the other side of the world for a few hours. At the level of the best this city has to offer!
Shang Palace – Shangri-la Paris
(33) 1 536 7992
Avenue d’Iéna, 10 – Paris
Text: João Oliveira | Photos: Flavors & Senses
Disclaimer
We were at Shang Palace by invitation of Shangri-la Paris, whereas this not alter our work, being the opinion and the text of the exclusive responsibility of the author.
Graham’s 30 anos courtesy of Graham’s Port.
