I am visiting Shanghai for the first time seeing a childhood friend who (full disclosure) is a part owner of the Element Fresh chain.

Beent to two different locations now and the portions are huge, service excellent, and food fresh. The menu is american/ "pan-asian-lite", so you won't find anything exotic. But it's some good resonably priced chow if you're an ex-pat wanting something that is pretty close to home.




ps --- three element fresh locations opening in Beijing by this summer too.

They actually took a space in the complex next to the City Hotel ~6 months ago, but a French bakery openned in its place.

BTW, my friend Trevor (hair stylist) also hangs out with those guys. If you see him, tell him I send my best.

My friend is Matt (big guy , blues guitarist)

Just got back from Shanghai and I can report on Jean-Georges (3 on the Bund).

Food: I had the full chef's tasting menu, with wine pairings (we'll get to that later). It was delicious, though rather conservative. The amuse bouche was the most radical part-- while most amuses are light and cleansing, this one centered your palate by way of the extremes. Notable dishes were the frog legs with a salty-tasting broth (I am a sucker for the injection of local flavors into menus like these); and the monkfish.

Service: Impeccable. As to be expected from a top-tier restaurant, it was attentive and timely, but with a genuineness that reminds me more of Europe than NYC.

Wine: Disappointing. I came to China braced for a wine nightmare, and that's basically what I got. The wine pairings were selected on-the-fly by an assistant manager, since the sommelier quit a couple of months ago (how can a place with Vongerichten's name take so long to replace a sommelier?). The wines were mostly Australian and Californian, although I specifically requested an emphasis on Bordeaux and Rhone. They were hollow, fruity, and cheap. As I tasted each one with the meal, I easily listed 3-4 French wines in my head that would have gone better with the dish and which retail for $30 or less.

Atmosphere: Mixed. There is no dress code whatsoever, and I think this is a bad thing. Touristic families came in with children wearing athletic wear and flip-flops. Remove all the people and the dining room has the ambiance of a classic French 3-star restaurant, while the bar/lounge area looks more like a NYC lounge (e.g., The Modern) with slightly thicker cushions. Add the people, and it feels more like Las Vegas (especially with the bright lights of the Pudong skyline pushing through the welder-tinted windows)-- classy couples, loud families, quartets of businessmen, and slimy porn producers all scattered around the place.

On my next visit, I will try Laris, in the same building a couple of floors up. The menu looked spectacular and the atmosphere and service at least as good as J-G's.

You won't be disappointed by Laris. Great food and fresh atmosphere and an awesome passion fruit desert. Their oysters are the freshest and best tasting in all of Shanghai.

That's first I have ever heard of porn producers in China..I don't think so

Have you been to Vegas?

Vegas..ie: avn convention?