Closed Door
808 Changle Lu,
French Concession
Shanghai, China
PRICE: ????
RATING:

We seem to just love Edurado Vargas-owned restaurants. He seems to own half of the Western restaurants in Shanghai, with more popping up each month 😉 We hit Closed Door for Sunday lunch on a double-date with some friends, and were surprised that the place was a full-house throughout the 2 hours we were there. Why? Because it is, literally, a closed door. This French Concession restaurant’s entrance is a heavy wooden door with a small doorbell on the right – no signage, and certainly doesn’t look like a restaurant. When you ring the bell, the waiter comes scurrying out to open the door and let you into the cozy courtyard where the restaurant is. A bit of a hassle for the poor staff that have to keep running to the wooden door every time someone buzzes in, but a very cute gimmick nonetheless 🙂

The restaurant is small, with a few tables under the glass skylight, and an area with soft couches further in. A large bar area serves up drinks and is where the antipasti buffet is served. It’s a bit cramped, but adds to the casual, homely atmosphere. I particularly like the menu, which is encased in thick cardboard and opens from the top and bottom. Only downside? They need to give their menus a regular wipe, mine was dirty and sticky.

We opted for the Brunch antipasti buffet + 1 main course + choice of beverage + bread basket, which is 128? per head. A great deal, no complaints there! I am fascinated with the Multigrain toast with fresh mascarpone and blackberry jam, as I’ve never had mascarpone and blackberry jam together before. The mascarpone is very subtle but lends a creamy texture, paired very well with the sweetness of the blackberry jam. The multigrain toast, despite being nice and thick, seems to cheapen the dish, though. Some freshly-baked baguettes or rolls would be preferred.

My Shrimp sandwich with avocado-dill aioli, blue cheese, arugula is outstanding, despite being incredibly stingy on the shrimps (it needed double the amount). The bread was fluffy and fresh, and the aiole and blue cheese mix was a powerful combination – creamy in texture, and very rich and strong in flavour. It’s divine, and I enjoy every bit of it.

The Signature mushroom risotto with truffle infused oil is another must-have. The risotto is cooked well, and has a beautiful flavour of truffles. It’s creamy and smooth, beautiful comfort food. I like the 2 small slices of black truffle sitting jauntily on top of the risotto, and the dish, while small, is very pleasing.

The Seared beef tenderloin with 2 eggs sunny side up, beet jam and potato-onion confit looks a little lonely on the plate, as each of the ingredients are placed separately on it. I noted that the ‘beet jam’ is a very very sad little amount on top of the steak. I’m surprised the beef tenderloin is so thin, as I was expecting a thick juicy steak. However, I didn’t taste this dish so I can’t comment 😉

I’m usually a fan of Penne with beef ragout and shaved parmigiano so I was eager to try this dish. Oddly, the sauce was very watery. I suspect the ragout had been cooked before and refrigerated, then heated back up and placed on pasta when we ordered. I prefer my ragout to be chunky and with a thick gravy (instead of an almost-clear liquid one). Despite this, the flavour is still good, though it does not permeate into the pasta since the sauce was too watery.

One thing to note is that Closed Door happily provides cucumber-spiked water for diners. I point this out because often restaurants here want to pressure you into ordering drinks, or insist you pay for water. Closed Door not only gave us the chilled water, but also made the effort to flavour it. What a nice touch!

The closed door at… Closed Door. Knock covertly to gain entry!

The novel flip-open menu. Shame it was so dirty/sticky.

Lovely looking bar with the antipasti buffet

Multigrain toast with fresh mascarpone and blackberry jam

Shrimp sandwich with avocado-dill aioli, blue cheese, arugula

Signature mushroom risotto with truffle infused oil

Seared beef tenderloin with 2 eggs sunny side up, beet jam and potato-onion confit

Penne with beef ragout and shaved parmigiano

(expensive) Voss mineral water, and sangria

Adjourning for Trivial Pursuit at Cotton’s. Check out the fireplace in the background!

A deliciously alcoholic coffee + chocolate, whilst lazing away the Sunday afternoon