Back in January this year I blogged about coming to Shanghai Blues for an evening meal and how basically I thought it was quite attractive both in the décor of the restaurant and presentation of the food but that the dishes we had (admittedly mostly of vegetarian leanings) lacked flavour and that prices in this restaurant were at the higher end of the pricing scale.

Well, today’s meal was an almost total contrast with the prior experience. With my brother’s imminent departure from London (Saturday – aargh!!), I quickly seized this as an excuse to both take an afternoon off from work and take in lunch at Shanghai Blues, and in particular to partake in their 3 course set lunch for £15.00 which, when including as an option Lobster Noodle, is very reasonably priced indeed.

As I said today’s meal was an almost contrast with our visit back in January. First of all we walked in to a restaurant that was fairly teaming with customers. Clearly Shanghai Blues is a popular venue for lunch. Secondly, and of course this had nothing to do with the restaurant, we could indulge in non-vegetarian dishes! Thirdly, our starters and mains were superbly flavoured. All the good things from our first visit, good presentation and good service, where thankfully still present. No special tea presentation this time around though I did try their Thousand-Day Flower which like Ping Pong’s Jasmine Flower Tea comes as a ball which springs open into a flower.

So, what was in our 3 course set lunch? We started with a selection of four dim sum dishes which unfortunately I can’t even guess at what we had! Terrible isn’t it but the picture I guess speaks for itself. It was all very good but I must admit the little fried hairy things closest to the bottom of the picture were the tastiest item. Then after this we had our Lobster Nooldles. Mmmmm … so tasty. The lobster was cooked perfectly and easily pulled from the shells even with my chopsticks and the noodles perfectly absorbed the sauce. Fair to say silence descended upon the table as we engrossed ourselves in the task of polishing off our meal! Finally these two course were followed by a some sort of red bean and tea flavoured jelly. Eh. It was alright.

The verdict – great lunch!