Greenology (parent company of WUJIE) as a group has three branches in Shanghai. This one is situated on the fourth floor of a century old European-style building on the Bund called Bund 22. There are a number of upscale restaurants in the same building, including El Willy (whom Hong Kongers should be very familiar with) along with some beauty salons and fashion stores.
I have a pretty action packed schedule ahead of me today, which prompted me to show up at the front of the restaurant a little before their opening time of 11AM.
Needless to say, the place was almost completely empty (though I was just the second customer to arrive, not the first).
This is what the Michelin Guide has to say about this place - "The kitchen blends various cooking techniques with Chinese philosophies of nourishment to create creative and beguiling vegetarian dishes...". Well, I guess I can always use a bit of nourishment to keep myself healthy from head to toe.
WUJIE The Bund's food menu consisted of mostly set menus with limited a la carte options. But it suited me just fine since I didn't want to bother myself with the a la carte menu anyways. Out of the four autumn set menus, I went with this one called Temple, a 7-course tasting menu that set me back 399 RMB (Other sets range from 299 RMB all the way to 599 RMB if my memory serves me correctly).
My amuse bouche was a pudding made with plums and green beans. The strong acidity surprised me a little but it served its purpose in getting my palate ready.
The first course was a collection of three small bites. It started with a zucchini tower filled with thyme marinated zucchini purée. That was accompanied by a piece of longyuan, apricot, kernel and pear jelly with almond and hawthorn coulis. And lastly, Yunnan golden fungus marinated in sour and spicy sauce. I thought the zucchini tower was alright but I didn't really enjoy the other two.
Next up was what they call the "Fujian style steamed 18 ingredient soup". This was seriously tasty. The broth had wonderful depth of flavors and I thought the different kinds of mushrooms and fungus (and pumpkin) really meshed well together providing a nice symphony of flavors and textures.
Less successful was the pan-fried tofu with crispy enoki mushrooms and asparagus. The culprit was likely the sauce made with bean paste and XO sauce which didn't do anything to bring out the best from the housemade tofu.
Lanzhou lily bulb and petals with walnuts and fresh lily mousse was a very refreshing dish which turned out to be the second best dish of the brunch right behind the steamed 18-ingredient soup. Love the clean and refreshing flavors from the fresh lily bulb and nice work from the walnuts and mushroom wafer providing a bit of contrasting texture.
Sautéed porcini mushroom roll with stir-fried asparagus, radish and brussel sprouts was my main course. It was supposed to be served with a house special XO sauce but since I was a little under the weather, the kitchen kindly replaced it with a non-spicy mushroom sauce.
At this point, I was also offered some fried rice with carrot and tofu skin.
I thought one rice dish was good enough for me, thank you very much but obviously, the kitchen thought I was still hungry so here comes another bowl of rice with chopped mushrooms on top. This tasted a little like Taiwanese minced pork rice (without the minced pork of course) (滷肉飯). I didn't finish this one.
For whatever reason, I was happy to see my dessert, a sign on the fact that it's the end of the meal.
Inside the pear was fillings of runny taro mousse and the whole thing was served on sakura water.
I have never been a huge fan of vegetarian food to begin with so it's going to take a lot to win me over and not surprisingly, they didn't. I have no question in my mind that the chefs have put in a great deal of effort combining fusion cooking techniques and traditional Chinese recipes into these innovative vegetarian dishes but unfortunately, I was seeing mixed results from dish to dish.
Food Rating: 4.5/10
Price: ¥¥¥¥
Address: 4/F, 22 Zhongshan Dong Er Lu, near Jinling Dong Lu, Shanghai, China
中山东二路22号4楼, 近金陵东路
Closest Metro Station: Yuyuan Garden
Tel: +86 21 6375-2818
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