[Shanghai] Husk
Husk | Dianping
Address: 奉贤路218号(近南汇路) – 218 Fengxian Lu near Nanhui Lu (静安区 Jing’an District)
Date visited: 2015.01 for dinner
Total bill: RMB¥992 for three people (not including drinks)
Will return: Never
Husk is so bad I can’t even. A few people had said it was good so I decided to try it. Bad decision. I am never listening to any of them again. This is going on the list of never-visit-again along with Samfaina (which is not open anymore) and Shanghai Slim’s.
I am not sure what genre this food is. The internet tells me it is Australian and Mediterranean but I call it western food that tastes really Chinese. I am all for mixing east and west — Hai by Goga is a fine example of western food with hints of Asian influences and it works — but Husk is just bad. So much regret for the calories I wasted here.
Carpaccio of beef (RMB¥88) with roasted garlic, goat cheese gratin, grilled homemade focaccia
Recommend: no
The thin slices of beef were too cold to eat right away — perhaps not enough time out of the fridge before serving. The supposed goat cheese gratin tasted like steamed egg but even so, it was chunky, not silky. A confusing and ill-paired combination whose parts did not fare well individually either.
Homemade chicken & duck terrine (RMB¥78) liver parfait, seeded mustard & balsamic
Recommend: no
The terrine tasted like bland meat compressed together without much fat in between.
500g Australian grin-fed boneless rib eye (RMB¥668) for sharing
Recommend: no
The steak was prepared sous-vide style, which means it was sealed in a vacuum-tight bag and cooked in a temperature controlled water bath. It just tasted like a wet steak. This steak costed entirely too much for tasting so bad.
Seared sea bass (RMB¥158) with seafood risotto
Recommend: no
Our last glimmer of hope for this meal, which unfortunately also fell off a cliff when the risotto came out sitting in a soup base. The risotto tasted like “pao fan” (泡饭), which is cooked rice reheated in water or soup often prepared as a way to eat leftover rice. I like Chinese pao fan but not in the form of failed risotto.
