[Radar]: Mr & Mrs. Bund

 

Area: Mr & Mrs. Bund is... on the Bund. Bund 18 to be exact. It takes up the location newly vacated by Sens & Bund, in between Bar Rouge and Lounge 18.

What is it: "A modern French eatery by Paul Pairet" is the tagline. It's also brought to you by the VOL group, Shanghai's famous purveyors of "high-end hospitality." Pairet is the Shanghai-based, avant-garde French chef erstwhile of Jade on 36, and probably the one chef in town most associated with the term "genius" in various media, both local and galactic. The modifying term of said "genius" -- from what I gather -- tends to oscillate between "demented" and "inspired", depending on whose doing the tasting.

Mr. & Mrs. Bund are downplaying the reputation of the chef for arty culinary theatrics, instead presenting him as an idiosyncratically uncompromising student of world cuisine: "global French, if you will."

And the menu. The menu is gigantic, obscure, intimidating, humbling, almost inscrutable, and completely and utterly over my head. About as large as an issue of Shanghai Talk in size, it's comprised of basic categories -- "Appetizers, Seafood & Miscellaneous, Meat," and so on -- and these are broken down into subsections, which are broken down into subsections, which are broken down into subsections. The end result is an exhaustive list of food and about three or four variations per dish -- e.g. two kinds of charred eggplant, three kinds of grilled capsicum, eight kinds of potato sides, Chilean blackcod (five varieties), a large selection of Dalian turbot, Australian Angus steak (several), Canadian short ribs (several), Boston lobster (several), pork from Jinluo (several), Dutch-style milk-fed veal, Southern Australian lamb -- it goes on and on and on.

It's really quite a magnificent document. In my sheltered travels I've never seen anything like it. It's either a painstakingly-done collection of the finest foods in the world or one of the most fabulous pieces of concrete poetry I've ever read.

Atmosphere: Sort of a modern regal. Chicly aristocratic. It's done up in slick silvers, blacks, and reds, with all the side tables, lamps, bits, and pieces comprised of shiny and austere silver. It's a massive restaurant, as it always was, with patios, a bar and a lounge area, but the centrepiece is a large palatial 16-seat communal table.

Selling points: The chef. The building. The vision. The menu. The sheer balls of it all.

Damage: 50rmb per person, excluding Tsingtsaos.

No. Just kidding. It's a bit more than that. Modest seafood mains are in the 150rmb range and up. Most meat mains are 170rmb up to around 350rmb-400rmb. Steak is around 500rmb. Expect to spend around 1000-1500rmb for two, especially if you're planning to meet this bitch head on.

Whose going: Everyone whose anyone and a few nobodies who win the lottery. Well as one of those big Shanghai events -- of the variety that divide the amoral, decadent expats from the altruistic, culturally-sensitive ones -- I expect everyone will go and then sound off with either raving approval or reproachful reprimand.

Huzzah!