I held off on writing a review the first time I went. Same thing the second time I went. After having gone a third time last week with pretty much the same experience as the last two times I feel comfortable giving my two cents on this bad boy.

But I would like to first say, that all three occasions were during -lunch-. So if things are different during dinner time, someone chime in! Now that this is all settled, on to pensees:

Decor/Ambiance:
First and foremost, I'm going to restraint myself from giving on thoughts on the "ambiance" of the place. I've always felt that knowing full well how a place "feels" it's good to experience it both in the day and night. Since I haven't been under the cover of darkness yet, I'll say that for business lunches, the environs are quite sufficient. I like the small patio? they've got, nice for my friends who smoke. I've joined them the first two times with my cup of coffee in tow.

There isn't TOO much to say on the decor except that it fits nicely with the rest of the hotel. I'm not sure how the Waldorf designates itself (either as business or luxury), but if I were to venture an opinion, I'd say it feels "more business" than not. One the whole, nothing overtly offensive about the decor, but nothing extraordinarily legendary either. It is a solid "good!".

The Food:
First off, I love my mother. I love her DEARLY. But if we're honest, she wasn't really a star in the kitchen (to her credit, she always redeemed herself for the holidays, and her meatloaf was usually always on the good side). As a result of my upbringing... I'm blessed with a palate that is easily pleased. Basically, everything tastes good to me. With this in mind, I'm surprised these next words are coming forth from my fingers... the food was consistently and bewilderingly UNDER-SEASONED.

I will say as kudos to the chefs that being cautious with seasoning is always better than being overzealous. The Bouillabaisse definitely had a delicate flavor. A little too delicate (I felt silly with the amount of salt I had to add, which is something I rarely do). And am I being too picky on the temperature... it was luke warm. Am I uncultured, or do most people expect their soup to be steaming when arriving? Someone enlighten me! Anyway, the chicken salad was nice, nothing special, meaning that I could have made it at home. My friend was largely unimpressed with her bleu cheese salad, and rightly so, it was sparse and unremarkable.

Shame on me, but the last two times I went, I ordered my mains from the grill. No complaints there really. Cooked to order, and the beef had an acceptable amount of fat. The fish was also, cooked well. I can't remember what I had the first time around. One friend ordered a pasta, again... good, but not remarkable (and it needed a touch of salt).

The sweet and sour prawns which my friend ordered was the best dish on the table. A good balance of flavors, good presentation, all was cooked properly. It was on the lighter side of fare, but hey... bread service, mei you guanxi.

The Service:
The staff is professional and well trained. Water service was on par with what I would expect for a place within the Waldorf. No issues with language barriers, and requests were accommodated in a polite manner within a reasonable amount of time (including on one occasion when the floor was noticeably busy).

Conclusions and Such:
On one occasion I was entertaining business friends for whom I do consulting for in luxury services. Upon finishing the meal, I asked them what they thought, and one's remark is something that pretty much summed up my notions as well "The venue is nice and has potential. If they kept their food selection as it is, reducing prices by 10% would make this place match its production value." I have it in mind that a venue such as Grand Brasserie wouldn't want to shoot for reducing prices, with that said there are no critical errors for which I woud discourage people from trying this place. They can definitely improve if they just get the seasoning right. Chefs, taste your dishes!

It's a decent place for business meals. A date would be a far stretch, but again, I haven't been there at night. Friends? Mmm, perhaps for the older crowd, I don't honestly see young professionals like myself hanging out here. It is a settled, conventional place. If you're aching from an escape from Shanghai's modern chic, not a bad place to visit.

Cheers,
Mr. Flowers

Now, Sunday brunch has become a ritual for me. Waking up to a lazy Sunday = taking that nice hot shower after a long night out...getting dressed and planning on enjoying the last day of my weekend.

So, after the bf decided to treat me out to one the most expensive brunches in Shanghai, I jumped on it, who wouldn't right? Who knew what a disaster it was going to be.

Made the reservation for 11:30am, we were ushered into the Long Bar (their brunch is an interesting concept) where you are allowed to imbibe champagne and whatever drink to your choosing complete with a 3 plate stack of finger foods...shrimp, smoked salmon, tuna with crushed sesame and of course, fresh oysters. The tiny buffet offerred was ok. Not exceptional, not horrible, just that dreaded "ok". The unagi cut rolls were definitely, DEFINITELY pre-cut I don't know how many days ago.

Service was nice, English speaking staff that made sure you were comfortably seated and introduced the concept of the buffet. At noon, we made our way down to the Brasserie and were seated by a nice wait staff (there was a slight confusion on our reservation, but it was "taken care of").

So, the brunch goes something like this: there is a small menu with three categories, Omelettes, Pancake/Waffle, and Mains. This menu is part of the brunch, you can order as much as you like whenever you wanted. Then there is the buffet: they offer a limited selection of food, the highlights were probably the fresh shucked oysters and the desserts. Again, we were greeted by friendly, engaging and very professional wait staff.

The food.
Well, let's start at the beginning: my omelette, the Provencal Omelette, was not really.. an omelette. It was a quiche, lukewarm and unappetizing at all. This "omelette" was one extremely sad rubbery excuse of an omelette. It tasted like it was left in the fridge for a couple days: a stale... day old flavor, with a lingering refrigerator aftertaste that permeated the entire quiche, to make things worse: my second bite was cold. After giving up on my quiche I decided to see if the buffet had anything that would cleanse my palate, while I was browsing through the limited carving section of pork belly, lamb and chicken, I heard the chef call out to one of his staff "Make another Provencal Omelette and make it extra hot", I watched his staff take a slice of "omelette" pre-cut and placed it in the oven. I never got it, just so you know.

I tried my boyfriend's pancakes and waffles next.

Pancakes were cold, dry and rubbery. How hard is it make "buttermilk pancakes"?? It was a FAIL. Sorry, even I could make better tasting pancakes with bisquik mix in my own sorry little kitchen. The waffles. I took one bite and spit it back out, it tasted like waffles-gone-bad, sour, fermented taste. I don't know what went bad, but it did not taste like waffle. Fortunately, the maple syrup was maple syrup. The only thing that tasted right! How can you F up maple syrup right?

The Carving Section: Dry, tasteless, cheap. Where's the ribeye? Where's my imported USDA/AUSTRALIAN grain-fed premium cow? For the premium my boyfriend's paying for this brunch I honestly thought they would be serving higher QUALITY meats.

Oysters and the local beluga caviar.
Oysters, really, the only way you can F this one up is 1. untrained staff or 2. bad supplier. Honestly, it was good. But this is standard brunch offerings. Good job Brasserie, unfortunately this was definitely expected.

Caviar: Considering I dislike caviar I have nothing to say except to repeat what my boyfriend noticed. The caviar started off like pretty good caviar, but it had an awful aftertaste, that clay, dirt taste that really ruined the caviar. Really, Waldorf-Astoria? Where's the quality? Money's worth?

Rigatoni:
Salty. Salty. Salty.

Wagyu:
Canteen food. Cafeteria food. Unimaginative.

Chef's signature:
Goose Liver Torchon. Creative peanut butter foam, nice presentation. Unfortunately, very bland. No flavor, not marinated, no salt, no pepper, not creamy, NOTHING just goose liver, instead of a creamy texture it crumbled. It actually just tasted like peanut butter and jelly. Unimpressed. Please visit and do some market research Brasserie.

Tiramisu.
Did not taste any mascarpone. The cream was over-powering.

Verdict:
Service is impeccable. Very nice staff, well-trained, proficient English.

The Food
Maybe because this place doesn't see much customers...resulting in a lot of the food...being conserved in the refrigerator? Irregardless of the reason, Grand Brasserie, for the premium you're charging- please adjust the quality of your food accordingly. I wonder where the money you're charging your customers go.

Honestly, I hope some changes take place.