On The Radar is a weekly SmartShanghai column where we profile 2-3 new venues that you might like to know about. Here are the facts and our first impressions.
Lotsa heat in this week's OTR. Shanghai F&B industry bigwigs spreading their empires. How many restaurants is enough for you people!
Cobra Lily
Quick Take: The latest offering from partners Lee Tseng (Boxing Cat Brewery) and Kelley Lee (a lot), combining pan-Asian flavors with craft beer.
What is it: Cobra Lily, a mysterious young woman, is the fictional personification of the restaurant. Supposedly, the restaurants dishes and decor are experiences through her eyes. That aside, the big draw here is combining Asian cuisine with local brewed craft beer. Seven of Boxing Cat Brewery's beers are on tap, plus three more guest taps that rotate periodically. The soft opening menu has interesting fusions like foie gras sticky rice, smoked duck pastrami salad, and beef tartare served with chips and pho soup in sake cups. They also do cocktails -- there's one with coconut milk that makes you think of Thai curry, but it still works. Yes, there's some pretty clever stuff going on, yet it feels casual, like you could go in just for a beer by the bar. Those are 50rmb a glass. Dinner will run you around 300rmb a person.
First Impressions: The soft opening's dishes are nice and the cocktails are excellent. They've got a unique, modern design with different styles in different corners and the right lounge music. And they've got spy profiles of Ethan Hunt and Jack Bauer (probably Cobra Lily's old pals) written out on the mirrors of the bathrooms. That seems weird, but it's actually the right balance of trendy and tacky -- and be sure, you need a touch of the tacky if your primary clientele are Xintiandi tourists.
-XZ Palmer
Mercado de Waima
Quick Take:Secret Chilean wagyu beef butcher south of the Cool Docks. Dine in or take-away huge slabs of meat and cheese.
What is it: An apparition really. A mirage. A phantasm. Mercado de Waima is a butchery and deli a block or so south of the Cool Docks (remember those?). It's tucked away against a DHL delivery depot, a few dusty vacant warehouses, and half a block of stacked temporary housing for migrant laborers. It appears out of the night, ghost-like, like a Steven King short story -- a haunted deli staffed by the cursed specters of James Dean, Humphrey Bogart, and Marilyn Monroe. I'm going overboard. It's a butchery slash deli with a really iffy location. They do specialty meats, cheese, oysters, wine, and miscellaneous.
Their main thing is Chilean Wagyu beef, a relatively new development in the world of red meat. Mercado de Waima stocks striploin, chuck, rump cut, karubi, and more at M6,M7, and M8 standards -- the good stuff -- for between 78rmb and 110rmb for 100g -- as well as Iberico pork tenderloin, foie gras, and a host of others. For price points comparison, I went down to the City Super where they do Australia and Tianyi Wagyu for 1.5 and 2 times the price, breaking 200rmb for 100g at the same standards. Big Jo talked up his Chilean Wagyu. It's quality for a significantly reduced price.
First Impressions: ...And so we got him to cook us up one. And it was pretty damn fine, for sure. We ending up plopping down 300rmb and saying, "give us as much as you can for 300. Bunch of different stuff." We got enough Wagyu M7 steak for two, 4 generous slabs of brie, and two bottles of Estrella Galicia Spanish beer. It was a good first impression. At the end of the day, Mercado de Waima -- it's in an inconvenient location but if you're serious about your red meat and want quality for less, it's worth checking out.
-Morgan Short
Highline
Quick Take:All-day drink and dining from a dream team of Shanghai restaurateur and clubbing types. With a Cali state of mind.
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