So far our experience for Shanghai Restaurant Week 2013 has been nothing short of excellent. Our last destination was at Casa 700, a spanish restaurant along the outskirts of Xin Tian Di, at huang pi road.
We picked this restaurant primarily for the ¥299 dinner menu, which boasted a list of creative dish names. Sadly that was all there was to it.
The restaurant had a very bright ambience, infact a little too bright. Decor was rustic, which was fine. Service was a little lacklustre, mine actually rolled the napkin off its plate while clearing away our plates for the first course. A gesture I found a little rude, considering the fact she had not offered to unfold my napkin for me in the first place. The dishes were presented very quickly, but coldly. No explanations or introductions were given whatsoever. Take, eat. That was it.
It is with great regret for me to say that Casa 700 has shut its doors. I wish the owner(s) better success for their future endeavours.
First course, andalousian tomato soup. The cold soup was flavorful, being an uncooked soup, the tomatoes and garlic flavors stood out especially strong. My dinner companion found it a little too overpowering.
Second course, “Bomb” Potatoe from Barcelona with Ali Oli sauce. It was simply a rather oily potato croquette, with drops of Chinese chilli oil around it. The burning sensation from the chilli oil was not particularly pleasant, even though I have a high spicy threshold. This was no refined chilli oil, but the run of the mill chilli oil I recognized from the Sichuan stalls. To give the chef some credit, the presentation was quite nice.
“Hidden Codfish under a crispy mask” was the next dish. It was a thin strip of pastry filled with mashed potatoes that I assumed was whipped together with some codfish. I only managed to find some slivers of white flesh that I can only assume to be cod. This was quite a joke, if it was meant to be a fish dish.
The next was a palate cleanser, “Pulp Melon and Mint Essence Cold Soup”. 2 rock melon balls on a skewer, in rock melon juice. It was quite refreshing, but the sesame seeds on the melon balls were totally out of place.
The main was called “Beef stew is Dancing with brunoise, between potatoes and carrots”. A very watery albeit seasoned stew with potato croutons on top. The choice of beef used was a very cheap shank, because although it fell apart easily, both my companion and I spent quite abit of time chewing on it. A brisket would have been better.
The dessert, “Spanish creams between fruits and nuts”. It tasted exactly like how it looked. Abysmal. None of the elements tasted good on their own, nor came together. I had no idea what they were either.
Long story short, this was a shame at ¥299 per head. 2 potato dishes and such a lack of quality in the rest of the dishes.
Total bill for 2:
¥598 (without drinks) (Shanghai restaurant week promotion)