Eat Me: 85 RMB Filet Mignon

Bullfighter Steak House in Xujiahui

This Sunday Shanghaiist had an hour to kill before a friend’s wedding in Xujiahui and a rumble in the belly. Being near the Metro City, and wearing a tux, we of course thought to pop in the local KFC for quick bite. Word to the wise, never go to Xujiahui KFC on the weekend. It was like a scene from It’s A Wonderful Life when they all rushed the old Bailey Building and Loan. On second thought, you are better just avoiding Xujiahui as much as possible. Thinking we’d pop into Starbucks on Metro City’s second floor, we noticed the Bullfighter Steak House, a place we had passed many times before but never bothered to try. Having an hour to kill and yearning for a hot meal, we grabbed a seat and were pleasantly surprised.

Opening the menu, we were blown away by what appeared too good to be true. Bullfighter claims to have a 225 gram filet mignon set meal for only 85 RMB. Not only do you get a steak for this price, but also a drink, bread, soup, salad and a piece of cake. When ordering a steak in most places in China, we recommend you use the following formula: actual steak received = ordered steak minus 2 degrees. Example, we ordered our steak well done in hopes that what we received would be somewhere between medium, medium-well. The formula works every time.

Bullfighter started off well. The cream corn soup was corny, hot and creamy. Bread rolls quickly followed that tasted damn near fresh and had an odd garlic stuffing in them, but were warm and buttery. A fruit salad then followed which would have been fine if someone didn’t put a glob of mayonnaise on top of it all. Nasty. But we were here for the steak, and after an anxious 40 minute wait it finally arrived on a sizzling hot plate with grilled onions and veggies. Once the steak was set at our table, a waiter came up with a bunch of sauces such as horseradish, ketchup, mustard, and a bunch of other crap that didn’t belong on a steak, but the black pepper sauce is worth a try. Now our steak didn’t look like a quintessential filet mignon, but we were hungry and didn’t care. The meat was tender and did have a texture close to a nice filet and after wolfing it down (we were late for the wedding) we can definitely say we may very well be back.

If you are unfortunate to be in Xujiahui on the weekend, head over to Bullfighter as it never seems to pack them in like the surrounding restaurants and offers good value for money. Just remember to tell them no mayonnaise on your fruit salad.

Bullfighter has branches spread across the city such as the one at Metro City on the second floor in Xujiahui (美罗店 上海市肇嘉浜路1111号美罗城2F) No.1111-2F Zhao Jia Bang Rd. Tel: 64268393.