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We always enjoyed Gourmet Cafe's playful creativity when it came to its selection of burgers. Thankfully, they've transferred that same sense of innovation to their doppelgänger; a noodle house on the flip side (literally and menu-wise) of the beloved burger restaurant but still under the same moniker. For those diners that constantly grapple with simultaneous east-west cravings, Gourmet Cafe now gives them the best of both worlds.
Actually, to characterize the selections on the noodle side of the house as strictly Eastern would invariably be incorrect. Its panoply of noodle dishes reflects a cornucopia of regional influences. The menu itself required some intense digestion. After nearly developing a head-ache deciding between the Mexican chili pork dry noodles (45 RMB), the Moroccan lamb kebab soup noodles (55 RMB), we blindly chose the hearty lamb stew (68 RMB), which turned out to be a mixed blessing of slightly tough and overcooked lamb chunks with tender and delicate egg noodles. We fared much better with the sweet glazed pork rib over Shanghai noodles (65 RMB), heartier and softer and with a slight kick from the red chili and scallions. The miso glazed monkfish with soba noodle salad was also tasty, though a bit lukewarm. Surprisingly, it was a non-noodle appetizer that got us excited: the crispy crab balls (38 RMB), which were small but oh so good.
When we dined there Gourmet was still testing out its noodle chops, but service and style were still very much in order. We're not joking about that menu either; we heard it being described as incredibly "involved," with recipes and ingredients familiar to us from other cuisines tossed and mixed together into a huge grab bag of choices, each sounding completely delicious. Just as the burger side started out feelings its way but finding its footing, we expect no less from its noodle half. It's Gourmet, after all.
Gourmet Cafe - 457 Shaanxi Lu, near Beijing Xi Lu (陕西路457号, 近北京西路) Tel: 5213-7033, Hours: 12pm-11pm
Eric Hu is Shanghaiist's Food Editor. Email tips, recommendations, and news and gossip about Shanghai's food scene to food at shanghaiist.com.
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Shanghaiist needs to hold a fund-raiser to get Eric a camera. Any point-and-shoot canon/nikon would do. I am grateful for your reviews, but you could achieve multiplied effect with some proper color contrast.
i have to agree with you jen, a cell phone camera is not very professional, maybe the editor should perhaps invest in a bit of Photshop class? anyone?
I hope the endorsement above was actually for the noodles, it looks as if the non noodle dishes are better than the noodles? is that an endorsement of a noodle place that doesent have good noodles?
I love love love Gourmet Cafe (the burger side), but I think the noodle side is a little pricey - especially considering that noodles are available everywhere in Shanghai, while good burgers are few and far between.
(However, I'd be willing to drop huge amounts of yuan for decent - not even good, mind you, just decent pho. Will - I know you'll read this. WE NEED PHO!!!!!)
@thewaythingsare: if you go back and actually read the post you can do a count: 3 noodles dishes (2 good, one not so much) and one non-noodle dish (pretty damn good). Not sure where we said this is a noodle place that doesn't have good noodles.
@jenming: I second that motion! Since I rarely ever plan to go anywhere specifically to do a review, I never carry my brick of a Canon Powershot (circa 2002) with me; it weighs almost as much as my laptop. Yes, it would be great to be able to be more "professional", but I think that term denotes actually getting paid for writing, which we are not. Camera donations to food@shanghaiist will result in much love cyber-tossed your way.
I have enjoyed several tasty burgers at Gourmet Cafe. And the atmosphere is kicky and fun.
But they piss me off with the "Bun Laden" burger. No one would have an Eichmann Fish Fry. There are plenty of cute names that don't involve mass murderers.
Going to have to agree with above comments. Man, if I were still in Shanghai I would totally go with you just to help you take pictures of the food. :P If you ever decide to do a review of Lan Ting here's one of the basipingguo :) I was planning on doing a write-up of them for Likealocal before the whole getting kicked out of the country thing.