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ShanghaiYe
On 6 October 2007 (Sat.) I took 5 friends to Shanghaiye for dim sum lunch. When I had told them that it served proper xiao long bao, they got very interested and wanted to come.
This time, I could not take as many and good photos as I wanted, as there were other people, and especially because there were two others who were quite keen on taking food photos. So I must apologize for low quality photos and photos of half-eaten food. I don't upload any photo of the interior and exterior, as I did in the previous entry.
This is thousand silk prawn and mango (£3.20) that I was looking forward to try. The pastry was obviously not silk, but very fine noodles.
Unfortunately they were not as good as I expected. The noodles soaked up quite a lot of oil and I could not taste the delicate flavour of prawn.
This one looks better as I took the photo from my plate.
I don't think you can see any mango inside, and indeed I did not taste any. I guess there was some, but not enough to make itself present. It is unfortunate, as I think prawn and mango are potentially very good combination.
This is another one I wanted to eat: seabass mooli rolls (£3.20). I have never seen anything similar in other places.
They are beautiful and sound interesting, but they did not live up to my expectation, as the fish was overcooked. Seabass is a kind of fish that can have quite strong flavour, which was absent in this dish. They might have used frozen one.
This is somoked spare ribs in Zheng Jiang style (£5.50). Zheng Jiang is famous for production of Chinese black vinegar, and Zheng Jiang style usually means that the dish is cooked with it. This one was chosen not from dim sum section, but lunch menu section. Price is rather high, but with this quantity of meat, we thought it was good value.
I did not particularly sense the smoke flavour, but it was a nice dish.
We also ordered Wan Ton Soup Noodles, Dan Dan Noodles, and Salted Fish Fried Rice. Noodles were overcooked to my taste and poor in quantity. Having tried 3 types (including the one I ate here at the first visit), I decided it does not worth ordering noodles here. Fried rice was ok, but nothing to write home about.
This is steamed egg bun. It is not cheap as one small piece cost £1 (it was priced £2.60 for 3 buns before, but £3 this time), it is delicious. Can you recognise a small piece of boiled egg yolk inside?
This time, there were few waiting staff, and we did not feel we were well looked after. At some points, we needed to attract their attention, while at my last visit, it was not necessary. The pickles and chili sauce were not offered to two of us who joined us later. If they just cut staff cost during the discount period, it is ok, but if they want to charge full price plus 10% obligatory service charge, they need more service personnel.
This is another pudding called Tago. The white stuff is coconut cream, yellow button at the centre is sweet corn. Below the coconut, there are tapioca (sago) and water chesnut mixture. Delicious. This must be Thai or Malay sweet. As this restaurant is owned by the same person who has the Thai restaurant next door, maybe some Thai cooks come to help here during lunch time when the Tai restaurant is still closed (this is open only in the evening).
We ordered more dishes than I showed here, and as drink 5 portions of jasmine tea and 1 orange juice. The total came to £65.60 (with 20% discount), it makes £11 per head. This is good value for money, but if it were £13.50, I would have felt it was a bit expensive. At Golden Pond, China Court or Chung Ying Garden, it is difficult to eat more than £10/head for dim sum lunch, and Holloway Head is not exactly an exclusive quarter of Birmingham. There were interesing and unique dishes, but not all of them were good. Frankly speaking, I would go again if they cut the menu price by 10-15% permanently.
Web site : http://www.shanghaiye.co.uk/
86 Holloway Head, Birmingham B1 1NB
Tel: 0121 666 6899
