Eating in Kuching - Dinner at The Shanghai Restaurant

The Shanghai Restaurant is one of the few upscale Chinese restaurants in Kuching. The decor is quite nicely done by Kuching standards, and service is a bit better then the normal establishment. We recently celebrated my father's birthday there.

Starting with the appetizers, we had Chinese pancakes, deep fried mushrooms and jelly fish. The pancake was crispy and had a very subtle taste of spring onions. The mushroom crips were very nice - crunchy and tangy with the sweet and sour sauce. The jelly fish was a disappointment - it was very bland.

As it was a birthday dinner, we ordered a noodle dish to start. It was the braised noodle with seafood. Very nicely done and tasty, with the noodles soaking up all the sweetness of the seafood.

This is the one of the restaurant's specialties - deep fried pork ribs. The ribs are marinated and deepfried till crispy outside but still tender inside. A very nice dish.

The steamed Soon Hock fish was the highlight of the dinner. The fish was huge - we were given the fish head which had the best bits of juicy and tender flesh. My dad especially loved the gelatinous bits in and and around the head. Soon Hock is a bit like Cod fish, except the meat is firmer.

Deciding to forgo the usual buttered prawns, we ordered the prawns with a salted egg yolk crust. It was quite nice with an interesting texture, except that the salted egg yolk tend to drown out the sweetness of the prawns.

This is the Mongolian lamb which was highly recommended. Basically grilled lamb shoulders with a thick nutty sauce. It was very flavourful, but can be a bit too rich due to the sauce. It might have been better to serve the sauce on the side.

To finish off, we ordered the seafood treasure stew. It had scallops, Pacific clams, bamboo clams, fish bladders, sea cucumber, etc. braised with Chinese mushrooms. A really hearty and tasty dish to finish off the meal.

The Shanghai Restaurant is one of the better Chinese restaurants in town, and the food is a bit different from the usual. It is a bit pricey, and the presentation of the dishes is a bit sloppy, but you can always count on good tasting dishes.