[Shanghai] Scarpetta

Scarpetta | Dianping
Address: 蒙自路33号近徐家汇路 – 33 Mengzi Rd, where Madang Rd becomes Mengzi Rd at Xujiahui Rd (黄浦区 Huangpu District)
Date visited: 2013.11
Total bill: RMB¥1,164 for three people (including wine)
Will return: Definitely
What to get: Everything… but if I had to narrow it down:
– Affettati Platter
– House-made Orecchiette Bolognese
– Slow Roasted Pork Sparerib

Update: see my second review where I ate half the menu (no joke).

Where do I begin? The first time I tried to go to Scarpetta, it was under renovation. When it reopened, everyone kept going without me (you know who you all are). After drowning in envy every time I saw someone check in on Foursquare, I finally made it happen.

Scarpetta exceeded my already high expectations considering how many friends had recommended it to me. Like you think you are going to a Jay Chou concert and then Jacky Cheung shows up, too. For the taste and quality, we got high returns for what we paid. Scarpetta is very very good.

Bread (Complimentary)
Nice and soft bread; would be even better if served warm. I had to stop myself from eating more because we were about to do some serious damage.

Do order some wine with your meal. We like the reds for meals like this.

Affettati Platter (RMB¥258) with house-made pate de campagne, prosciutto di san daniele, coppa, salami, chicken liver mousse
Recommend: yes
I shared this with two grown men and we couldn’t finish it. We all liked the chicken liver mousse the best with the prosciutto as runner up.

The chicken liver mousse, our favorite in the platter, was a combination of savory mousse and sweet jelly with apple bits.

Scarpetta Salad (RMB¥78) with butter lettuce, radicchio, arugula, candied lemon, ubriaco cheese, spiced almonds, roasted garlic balsamic vinaigrette
Recommend: yes
Our attempt to eat some greens. Never had thin candied lemon slices before and it contrasted beautifully with the ubriaco cheese. I wish there were more candied lemon in this for my own benefit so that I can have a little bit of it in every bite.

Uni Lardo Crostini (RMB¥138) with radishes and caramelized shallots
Recommend: yes
While everything we had was more than generously portioned, this was the one dish where I was like what is this, a dish for ants? It was very good, just very little. One order contains two pieces and there were three of us so my poor guy had to share half a bite with me (sorry but not really). I suggest stuffing the whole thing in your mouth in one bite if you get a whole one to yourself.

House-made Orecchiette Bolognese (RMB¥168) with beef and pork ragu, roasted bone marrow
Recommend: yes
This is the most generous portion of bone marrow I have ever had in a restaurant, beating the previous record holder Greenwich Grill in New York (which was similar in bone size, but only half of the cross section). The server presented the dish to us, graciously waited for me and my camera to stop seizuring, and prepared it for mess-free eating by scraping out the marrow and mixing it into the pasta for us at the table.

There.was.so.much.marrow.

I repeat: so.much.marrow.

The pasta was al dente with a hearty portion of meat in the sauce. Try to get the pasta, meat, and marrow in one spoonful!

Slow Roasted Pork Sparerib (RMB¥288) with roasted garlic, mustard seed, brocollini, potato gratin
Recommend: yes
The server presented the sparerib to us, once again patiently waited though my photo-taking antics, and cut it up at our table. She began by rubbing the cloves of garlic and mustard on the sparerib and then started cutting it. As soon as she cut into it, [cue Kanye] I knew this would be the most tenderlicious pork of all time… of all time. The knife cut so easily through the fatty, tender, and loose pork. I saw the tenderness before I even ate it. It was that tender. This is literally the most tender piece of sparerib in existence. How many more times can I say tender? Tender.

Creamy potato gratin.

The sparerib was part melt-in-your-mouth fat and part succulent meat. The roasted garlic added a bit of sweetness to it while the mustard added a hint of sourness; a fine balance of flavors in my book.

The manager came over and suggested we eat a bit of pork, potato gratin, and brocollini together in one bite; creamy, soft, and crunchy textures at the same time!

As for dessert, I am actually not sure if it exists here because we were all too full for life. I think there is a dessert menu here. Better go back again to check.

Comments

comments