High Design vs Good Food...

For dinner one night in Shanghai, we headed into Xintiandi, a lovely warren of little streets that have been rebuilt in a Disneyfied vision of old Shanghai.  Since I'm a big Disney fan, I have no objection to that!

The restaurant I had originally wanted to go to was booked that evening, so our concierge sent us to the Shanghai Tang Cafe.  Funnily enough, I didn't quite associate it with the Shanghai Tang fashion empire, of which I'm a big fan.  Of course, it turned out to be the cafe owned by the same firm, just around the corner from the main boutique.

Upon first glance, everything looked very promising.  The dining room was outfitted with Shanghai Tang accessories and was extremely dramatic in the fashion line's familiar color scheme.  I fell in love with the placesettings and wondered if I could pocket the beautiful chopstick stand and napkin ring without being noticed.  Alas, while I was contemplated my descent into crime, the waitress came by and quickly removed all temptations.

We ordered a big selection of food including a number of dim sum items.  Everything was just gorgeous when it arrived BUT to my deep disappointment, it all looked much better than it tasted.

The dumplings with different color wrappers were a nice touch.

The taro pastry swans reminded me of a similar dish at the fancy hotel at HK Disneyland, but there, it tasted divine.  Here... meh.

Why couldn't we have had high design AND good food in a single fabulous package?!