Allez Cuisine: Westerners' Best Chinese Restaurant in Shanghai

1221 The Dining Room, 16 November 2011

It has been quite a while I did not post anything in Allez Cuisine. I was busy with work and traveling. I has been some restaurants and new establishments. Some of them I return and they still my favorite restaurants. One of them is The Cheesecake Factory in Los Angelos. There are quite a number of them and I did not really like them and I do not wish the recommend to anyone. 1221 is a restaurant in Shanghai I must recommended to my readers. It is really good.

The ambient is really good and this is one of the reason why I believe the Westerners love this restaurant. The staffs are well trained and well mannered. I ask them what kind of dishes our western friends like, they could pin point most of the dishes they like in the menu. They have good attention to details. They give me an extra seat just for my "girlfriend", that is my dSLR camera. This will prevent me from knocking down my camera when I want to grab my food.

There are some dishes I need to mention. The lotus roots are a speciality dish in Suzhou. It is crunchy but I think it is a bit too sweet for me. This is personal preference.

The second dish is Crab Meat and Roe Tofu. This has to be one of my favourite dishes in 1221. This dish has a strong flavour of crab and with the balance of the bean curb, it was absolutely delicious.

The Dongpo Pork Belly is delicious. It is well braised, tender and melt in mouth. Although pork belly has too much fat and is considered as unhealthy food, I still love it. I always find that a lot of time delicious food can be unhealthy food, don't you agree with me?

This yellowstripe or Kuning (in Malay) is juicy and crispy when deep fried. This is the only way to do justice to the fish. The fish is so crispy and I can eat the bones of the fish. The fish is so crispy, tender and well seasoned. It is delicious. The only thing i can complain is I hope they can sprinkle lime juices on the fish to bring the fish "alive". This will add in flavour to the fish.

The last dish is quite unusual. It is Beef Fillets with You Tiao. You Tiao is a chinese donut or oil sticks. It is not common to have the beef fillets fry together with the crispy oil sticks with seasonings and some vegetables. This dish is absolutely delicious and my western friends love this dish very much.

It is always a perfect way to end my dinner with a cup of Chinese tea. I will return to this restaurant for more dishes.