Shiheyuan 柿合緣新京菜 萬象天地里巷店 (Shenzhen, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

Well, our Father's Day celebration has been on without me for a few hours already. I finally showed up at MixC World (萬象天地) with little nugget in front of Shiheyuan (柿合緣新京菜), an upscale restaurant at Bistro InStreet Bistro (里巷) which was on the opposite building next to the shopping complex. Apparently, everybody has been waiting patiently for our arrival.



Shiheyuan touted for its new approach to traditional Beijing cuisine, has garnered some serious attention ever since picking up a Michelin star in Shanghai. As the oldies have already waited for more than an hour at the restaurant, I wasted no time getting a few dishes on the table.

Hawthorn goose liver (山楂鵝肝) (¥38) – I like the idea but its poor execution left something to be desired. Underneath the hawthorn flavored wafer was goose liver pate that came with way too much acidity. Not the best start.

Chicken in fragrant scallion oil (蔥油水晶雞) (¥79) – Like most dishes here, this was very nicely presented. The thin sliced chicken sticking to a layer of fragrant scallion oil jelly was finished off with a sauce made with what I thought was coriander. Not bad.

Poached vegetables in fish broth (魚湯煮時菜) (¥69) – I thought the fish broth would be richer in flavors but it was relatively light but we needed the veggies anyways. 

Duck feet in mustard sauce (芥末鴨掌) (¥69) – We had this when we were at Duck de King (金鴨季) and it was one of my favorite dish that night. This was pretty tender working well with the mustard sauce but the fact that some of the pieces were not deboned entirely threw us off guard. 

Pan-fried prawns coated in sweet and sour sauce (袁枚的梨撞蝦) (¥109) – Pretty tasty.

Roast duck with caviar (魚子醬烤鴨) (¥269) – At the same time, while the prawns were served up, our roast duck was being prepared tableside.

And there will be two servings of the duck tonight.

The first came with the crispy skin sitting on a small piece of homemade brioche. The chef then diligently spooned the caviar on top to make the presentation even more luxurious. 

We were getting ready for the second serving, which would be the usual one with the chun bing (pancake), crispy skin and deliciously juicy meat.

Like it always did, the skin and meat almost came largely unmarinated and there were only the duck's natural flavors complemented by some smokiness from the fruit wood.

This guy was loving it~

A separate dish with the duck bones deep-fried was next. These came with some extra kick of spiciness.

Beijing traditional fried pancake (老北京糖油餅) (¥19) – Last but not least, the Chinese fried pancake, or I usually called them Chinese donuts. This tasted more sweet than savory to me and had a close resemblance to our Hong Kong style ox-tongue pastry (牛脷酥). Not a bad choice for our sweet ending tonight.

I wasn't entirely full but I wanted to leave myself some room for dessert somewhere else. When it comes to desserts, I still prefer the traditional Cantonese ones like dessert soups.

 

Food Rating: 5.4/10

Price: ¥¥¥¥

Address: Shop NL219, Level 2, MixC World, Bistro InStreet, Nanshan, Shenzhen, China

深圳市南山区万象天地里巷一楼NL219号商铺

Closest Metro Station: Hi-Tech Park (高新园)

Tel: +86 13244743297

Opening Hours: 11:00am - 2:00pm, 5:00pm - 9:30pm daily

Map: https://j.map.baidu.com/8c/CBfi