Mr and Mrs Bund Revisited

Mr and Mrs Bund - the entrance

Hub touched down at Hongqiao airport after a tiring week away and ordered his driver to bring him to Mr and Mrs Bund for lunch - with me. The diet I was supposed to start (9 years ago) was once again to be postponed, though I did try to burn a few calories walking round Xintiandi before the meal. Until I chanced upon this Japanese supermarket and bought 2 boxes of dark chocolate macadamia nuts from Meiji...Yummy.

Staircase of the historical building

Anyway this was the first time we went to the restaurant in daytime, the other 2 occasions having been for dinner. View of the Bund at night was breathtaking for there is often a certain haziness in Shanghai's daytime weather. But nothing beats natural daylight when it comes to food photography.

The last time we dined in the restaurant our table of 9 ate up all the lobsters they had. I must say that they were absolutely delicious, skewered on a lemongrass stalk and steamed in a jar to preserve all their natural goodness, moist, very tasty - one of the best that I've ever eaten. We were invited to dinner on that occasion by a former supplier of Hub's. Former - for Hub never accepted such invitations from business connections when he had direct dealings with them. Now that he has nothing to do with the guy, we could privately enjoy his company and delightful company he was.

View from our table

Back to lunch, we had a table with a view of the river and of Liujiazui on the opposite bank. The lunch menu was a bargain compared to the dinner one - I must return with the girlfriends another day.

Bacon caesar salad

Foie gras crumble - savoury, sweet and slightly acidic

Hub and I shared all our courses so that we could taste more of the menu. We started with the foie gras crumble and a very good bacon caesar salad, followed by grilled scallops on a bed of truffled mashed potatoes served with truffle cream sauce on the side. I had steamed black cod with cantonese sauce and it was very perfumed, delicate, flesh firm and fresh. I would love to try the meat courses, but it was always difficult to resist fish when you see it on the menu of a reputable restaurant. We had a glass of house wine each and both wines were quite decent.

Grilled scallops, truffles, mashed potatoes

Steamed black cod with cantonese sauce

Service was fast and efficient as usual, one can see that the service staff takes pride in their work. On the way to the bathroom you can see the kitchen in action and I liked to do just that, it was fascinating. MMBund is run by French Chef Paul Pairet who used to work at Jade on 36 in Shangri-La Pudong. He is known for his pairing of local and foreign ingredients in original and surprising ways and is on the verge of opening a new restaurant in Shanghai known as Ultraviolet where a group of diners will sit together around a table and share a tasting menu.

Molten chocolate cake, vanilla ice cream, strawberry sauce

Strawberries, strawberry sorbet and cream

We are really happy to have found a good French restaurant so quickly into our stay in Shanghai. Now we need to work on the Italian and Chinese ones...

View of next building from terrace

Finally, the restaurant has a terrace for smokers and/or admirers of the Bund. Lovely to take a break from the meal to take in some (not-so-fresh) air and admire the busy world outside. The Bund normally has crowds of tourists, being able to admire the views without being jostled or rolled over by mobile photography carts was a pleasure.

View of Liujiazui from Mr and Mrs Bund