T8 Fusion Cuisine Restaurant, Shanghai

T8 Shanghai

I haven't told you about T8. Hub brought me there - was it in November? Goodness, time does fly, doesn't it? We are now moving into February...

Anyway he went there once with a few colleagues for a business dinner and thought that I would enjoy trying it out. It's sweet when Hub displays such little acts of thoughtfulness. After more than a decade together, you fear sometimes that you have become part of the wall paper together with the resident spiders and flies. But if he still wants to bring you out to dinner and share every order, you know that he still cares. Hub's not into gifts and sweet words, but he's big on gourmet cuisine.

Still, I thought that maybe we hadn't needed to go for the big tasting menu @ 1398rmb pax. The kids are growing up really fast and one may go to college soon - and we have nothing saved up yet. But Hub said he may die of a heart attack tomorrow and would rather enjoy life while he could. So we ate and we drank.

Spiced and roasted pumpkin soup

Salmon Tsunami

The restaurant specialises in serving European food with an Asian touch and is located in the trendy Xintiandi area. It had dim lighting which while creating atmosphere spelled doom for food photography. It contained an open kitchen in the middle of the dining hall and you could catch the cooks in action. Like 2 of them (Chinese) taking turns to shuck oysters - and not managing it.

Cold lobster lasagna

Shanghainese hairy crab meat with squid ink pasta

The serving staff was friendly and good looking - but as usual sometimes clueless. The high turnover in Shanghai with jobs aplenty probably doesn't help create trained personnel no matter where you go, whether it be a restaurant or an electronics store. And many of them have no concept of hygiene, etiquette or product safety, like this cleaner I saw the other morning cleaning the glass walls of a swimming pool - dipping her scrapper in it...I digress as usual.

Passionfruit sorbet

Australian Wagyu beef striploin grade 9+

The food was good as were the wines that came with every dish. I still dream of the wagyu beef grade 9+ that came in a very small portion but melted in my mouth...I must admit that I've never really eaten wagyu beef before because it tends to be so expensive, but once I've tasted it, I keep thinking that I must eat it again soon! And as luck would have it, we were invited to dinner in an Italian restaurant the other evening and I had wagyu beef grade 6 for my main course. Better than lobster, in fact it did cost more than the latter actually. Another expensive taste on the way to being cultivated, I fear.

Cheese

Chocolate soufflé with sour pear sorbet

Xintiandi on a wet evening was actually pretty crowded as expats and rich Chinese turned out for the trendy restaurants, jazz bars and European cafés. Times like these we regret that we do not live in Puxi, but when you have young children Pudong is definitely a nicer option with its green space and cleaner air.

T8 Shanghai

上海市卢湾区太仓路181弄北里8号

Tel : 021 6355 8999