Guilty Pleasure
66 Shanxi Bei Lu
Shanghai, China
PRICE: ???
RATING:

A new-ish restaurant Guilty Pleasure had such a cute name we couldn’t resist. Featuring international cuisine with a modern twist, the restaurant decor is sleek and minimalistic. With high ceilings and a cool massive painting on the back wall, it’s makes us feel as if we’re dining in a massive hall. Perhaps it’s also due to the fact that we’re one of only two tables of customers. It’s not an ideal location, which I suspect is why the restaurant is not pumping with customers.

We’re presented with a plate of complimentary canapes which are delightfully colorful against the plain white plate. I’m not a fan of antipasto, so I can’t appreciate the baby octopus, marinated peppers and olives. Perhaps a better idea would be to serve more commonly-palatable canapes that please the masses?

My Eggs benedict is divine. Though it arrives rather dubious looking – a thick shroud of flourescent yellow cheese sauce laid thickly over the meal – it is absolutely delicious. I enjoy the warm toasted muffin base (only place so far in China that doesn’t use plain ‘ol toast), tasty layers of ham, a PERFECTLY poached egg whose yolk oozes out delicately, and the rich creamy sauce. It’s fantastic comfort food, with the rich flavour off-set by a fresh salad dotted with cherry tomatoes, ham slices and olives.

Chris’ Clam pasta could be a larger portion, but fortunately it is generous with the clams, with around 10 little clams in the dish. It’s a simple dish with a splash of olive oil, salt and pepper, and the ingredients, but it works. Tasty and satifsying.

The cupcake with strawberry icing is absolutely adorable! A soft vanilla cupcake topped high with a jaunty swirl of sweet strawberry cream. We enjoy it thoroughly. I actually prefer the cupcake to the chocolate lava cake, which I find is heavily undercooked – the cake itself is merely a thin shell, and once we cut it, so much chocolate oozes out it drenches the plate. We basically have to scoop up the chocolate with our spoon and drink it up – not what I’d expect a molten cake to be (which is usually at least 60-70% cake). I might as well melt some chocolate and drink it myself, which I can easily do at home. The vanilla ice cream it comes with is a nice touch, but is nondescript (cheap?) vanilla ice cream, not the rich vanilla bean flavour I’d expected.

Their drinks really hit the spot. Whipped up by a bartender near the front of the restaurant, our martinis are delicious. The sweet, yet tart, flavour is a pleasant way to cap off our meal. Guilty Pleasures is reasonably priced with very decent food. Just a few tweaks here and there and they would be outstanding!

Guilty Pleasure restaurant

Complimentary canapes

Eggs benedict

Clam pasta

Cupcake with strawberry icing

Chocolate lava cake

Martinis