CITY GUIDE >Food Reviews
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CITY GUIDE >Food Reviews
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Pick up some Chinese fusion
By David Evans (bestfoodinchina.net)
Updated: 2008-11-11 17:04
Out in Hongqiao district towards the airport is the relatively unknown Maggie's 5. The restaurant comes under the category of "Chinese fusion" and serves Chinese nouveau cuisine, so don’t expect massive portions. The restaurant is spread over three floors. The ground floor is a large open plan restaurant with a huge grand piano next to the entrance. The second and third floors are made up of private rooms catering for anything from four to twenty five people. The restaurant is full of antique furniture, be they chairs, tables, cabinets or the aforementioned piano. All are very extravagant. The walls are painted with views of the sea and gives the restaurant a Mediterranean feel. This could result in it appearing tacky and tasteless. However, I feel the opposite is true and it gives the restaurant a warm, romantic atmosphere. The menu is full of interesting choices and bad translations, but don’t let this put you off. As unappetizing as some of the dishes may sound, I can assure you that they will taste excellent. We started the meal off with a Caesar salad (68rmb). This may have been fairly simple with lettuce, pasta and a very nice salad dressing but was a good light way to begin the banquet that was to come. This was followed by a collection of cold Chinese dishes all reasonably priced at around 25rmb. The selections included duck, lotus root, chicken skin and a sort of fruit, all of which were very nice and prepared the pallet for the more exotic dishes to come. The first of these was the Yuyan Sydney fried red wine (98rmb). This was a soft flavourful goose liver pate with a red wine sauce and slices of peach soaked in soy sauce. The three in combination were a true treat for the taste buds. This was followed by grilled sea cucumber and thick fish lips with scallops (328rmb). Fish lips are not something I have ever tried before. They were a bit chewy but were served in a rich gravy sauce which was very tasty. The lips were imported all the way from Spain. House special beef eye fillet (188rmb) was a very tasty piece of New Zealand beef that, although a little cold, was still full of meaty flavour. We rounded the feast off with a fairly non-descript mango pudding (28rmb) and some juicy watermelon, after which we all fell back in our chairs quite satisfied after a very good meal. This restaurant is by no means cheap and a lot of the main courses come with a very hefty price tag. The setting and the quality of the food do, however, warrant the cost. The food is fresh, interesting and tasty; three things that are important when visiting any restaurant. If you want to take business clients somewhere impressive or have a romantic meal, Maggie’s 5 is worth a visit. Maggie’s 5 This article is brought you by Best Food inChina, the first and leading English website about local Chinese food and restaurants. For more information, please visitwww.bestfoodinchina.net
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