[Radar]: South Beauty Private Kitchen

 

Area: South Beauty Private Kitchen is in the Xintiandi.

It ate the souls of both The Collection and the sniffy Planet Caviar, merging the once-separate spaces. You'd get there either by heading towards KABB, where the smaller back entrance is, or by the main entrance on Huangpi Lu, next to Xinjishi. There's two stories of brilliant plate-glass windows abutting the sidewalk. You can't miss it.

What it is: First, what it isn't: private. The name is more of a reference to Hong Kong's one-time craze with small-scale restaurants in people's homes than a door policy. Shanghai never really got the whole private restaurant thing (there's this one -- not very good, though). But Shanghai gets exclusivity and that's where they're going with this one. South Beauty Private Kitchen is supposed to be a step above your neighborhood South Beauty, i.e., more expensive. It is -- how to say -- "financially private" and the homelier fare of Sichuan doesn't cut it for that. Hence a milder menu of Shanghainese and Zhejiang dishes and the moneyed airs.

Atmosphere: It really couldn't be more different than The Collection. South Beauty dynamited the old space and started over again from scratch. They lightened up one side, the Huangpi Lu side, with huge plate-glass windows and shelves of vintage collectibles (antique desk fans, toy cars, lacquered steamer baskets and that kind of thing), and formalized the other side with cream-colored paneled walls and stately, subdued private dining rooms. It feels very residential. There's also a table for eight or ten out on the third floor terrace. That'd be a good one to reserve.

Damage: Two hundred to two fifty per person. What’s nice about this one at the moment is that there’s no minimum charge for the private rooms. South Beauty usually charges for those. Try to snag the one on the second floor with the window nook that looks back towards Xintiandi’s main artery.

Who's going: Those private rooms are for Official People and People with Official Business. It'd be great for wining and dining the fancier classes and probably good for taking the parents. Tourists, too.