Lynn Modern Shanghai Cuisine
99-1 Xikang Lu
Shanghai, China
PRICE: ????
RATING:

Lynn Modern Shanghai Cuisine (whew, what a mouthful!) is a chic restaurant boasting a fabulous location in the middle of the ritzy part of Jingan. The Art Deco decor boasts a modern interior, dark wood tables, and charming private rooms for large groups. We were here specifically for the all-you-can-eat yum cha lunch, though were quite disappointed when we found out that it was now 88? (up from 78?). Still, the clean and neat restaurant and delicious food made up for it.

The dishes were all excellent. You’d expect sub-par quality for all-you-can-eat, but the quality was fantastic. Most of the dishes were delicious, with only a few ‘misses’. In particular, I adored the smoked egg, which sounded plain on the menu but we immediately fell in love upon first bite – it’s basically a soft-boiled egg, the yolk all creamy and slightly runny. Another winner was the dan dan noodles, slippery smooth noodles resting in a delicious creamy spicy soup. The egg tarts, deep-fried red bean pancake and black sesame sticky rice balls for dessert were also stunners.

The only downside is that whilst the 1st round of dishes came out swiftly, they steadfastly dragged their feet with latter rounds – with some dishes just not appearing at all, or coming way way way later. This is the ‘issue’ many all-you-can-eat places fall into – they purposely don’t rush on the food, in the hopes you fill up and order less. That behaviour drives me crazy! That said, my girl friend noted that when she came on a previous occasion, the food did come out swiftly.

Still, a great place for yum cha, with top notch food. Just bring the price back down to 78? please!

Fruit juices and chrysanthemum tea

Smoked eggs – one of my fave dishes. Loved the creamy yolk!

Veggies wrapped in chilled tofu (I think) – awful, tasted like an ash tray

Drunken chicken – nice and silky

Panfried dumplings – delicious, and so tasty

Dandan noodles – loved this. Yummy smooth noodles and great flavour!

Lotus root with sticky rice – others liked this, but too weird for me

Pork terrine – really just pork in jelly stuff. Too weird for me too

Crispy eel – oh my, this was divine! Crispy and slightly sweet

Rice – this was awesome

“Xiao Long Bao” – bad. The skins were dried out!

Crispy shallot pancake – delicious but fried in a bit too much oil

Deep fried dough sticks wrapped in rice noodles – yummy!

Deep fried crispy tofu – wow this was unexpectedly good, so crisp and not oily!

Egg tarts – pretty good, could have been a bit more custardy though

Black sesame sticky rice ball – ooohhhhhh delish!! So sweet and warm and sticky.. mm..