[Shanghai] elEFANTE (Dinner)

elEFANTE | Dianping
Address: 东湖路20号(近淮海中路) – 20 Donghu Lu near Huaihai Zhong Lu (徐汇区 Xuhui District)
Date visited: 2014.06 for dinner
Total bill: RMB¥2,338 for five people (~RMB¥468 per person with wine)
Will return: Likely
What to get:
– Chorizo cold cut
– Spare rib
– Rib eye

I visited elEFANTE for lunch last summer and it didn’t leave an impression on me to put dinner on top of my list to come back to try. Here we are one year later. My friend, who has a high affinity for tapas (particularly Malabar), pitched this place. The mister said he wanted to try. The weather was nice enough again to sit on this very nice patio. So why not give it another try for dinner? The main meats made an impression this time.

P.S. elEFANTE is just downstairs from (and in the same restaurant group as) one of my favorites–Sushi Oyama.

Elephants.

Celeste Crianza (RMB¥450 for bottle), which I promptly spilled a glass of all over the white tablecloth and had to get our whole table set changed…

Bread Basket (RMB¥30)
Recommend: no
I am not a fan of paying for bread baskets and I probably wouldn’t pay for this again unless they are willing to give me only pieces of the sliced bread in the middle, which has garlic baked into it and is drizzled with olive oil–that one I like.

Mixed Iberian cold cuts – jamon, salchichon, chorizo, lomo (RMB¥220 for 70g, RMB¥440 for 140g shown below) 
Recommend: I don’t like all the cuts in this, which are available to order individually
Of the four cuts, I liked the chorizo the best so I actually recommend getting the chorizo only platter (RMB¥150 for 70g, RMB¥298 for 140g)

The cold cut platter comes with some warm toast.

Las Croquetas (RMB¥60) with morcilla and roasted chicken
Recommend: no
The flavor was good but the filling was too uniformly mushy. It would be nice to taste chunks of chicken.

Gambas Argentinas al Ajillo – prawns cooked in olive oil with garlic and chili (RMB¥160)
Recommend: no
I don’t like most cooked shrimp because they typically have a fishy flavor. This was fishy so it was no go for me.

24 hours slow cooked and chargrilled angus beef short rib (RMB¥398)
Recommend: yes
Super tender, fatty, filling, and not to mention big portion. Delicious.

Australian angus beef grain fed rib-eye 1kg (RMB¥650)
Recommend: yes
Half the table likes lean meat and half the table (including me) likes fatty meat. Our solution? The fatty people ate the sides, which had a perfectly charcoaled crust layered with fat and the lean people ate the middle. Perfect split.

Comments

comments