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Western eateries spring up in creative parks
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ABOUT a decade ago a bunch of designers opened Metoo Cafe in a creative park. It started a trend that in subsequent years led to more Western restaurants opening inside newly established creative parks.
These Western-style eateries and their strong sense of design, like Metoo Cafe, are now considered almost essential in these places.
While the hipsters who work in design, architecture and art firms are the lifeblood of these restaurants, the eateries are increasingly attracting customers from around the city.
Here are three Western restaurants found in creative parks. They are new, popular, and designed in the loft factory style.
Once a dye plant, Loft 49 today houses a group of creative firms in crafts, design, advertising, architecture and several restaurants, including Mamala and The Fat Duck.
The Fat Duck has been renovated from an 8-meter-high workshop. Half of the restaurant keeps the original height while the remainder is split into two floors. Another nice feature is that tables are not too close to each other like in many restaurants.
The Fat Duck is named after the restaurant’s signature dish, Fat Duck Pizza, a combo of Peking duck and Italian thin crust pizza. Roasted duck, Beijing scallion and melted cheese are the toppings and the result is a salty and savory pizza.
The restaurant mainly makes European cuisine. Sautéed snails in Hollandaise sauce is a new dish that has proven popular. The chef simmers beef soup, wine, and spices for four hours, and then bakes the soup with mashed potato, the snails and Hollandaise sauce for a few minutes.
Address: No. 3, Loft 49, 111 Tongyi Rd
Tel: (0571) 8831-8090
“Vintage” is the key word at Kingdom. An old white Volkswagen Beetle is at the entrance, and an exhibition space inside showcases old Volkswagen minibuses so loved by hippies, vintage motorcycles, and old furniture, along with numerous plants such as cacti.
Kingdom is at Dongxin Creative Park, converted from a metal factory, where galleries, design firms, film agencies, and art studios are now based.
The owner of the restaurant is a designer and he has kept the original structure of the workshop, such as crisscrossing beams and a triangle wooden roof.
The restaurant provides a fusion of European and Asian dishes, says Gavin Hui, Kingdom’s food and beverage consultant. However, the plate presentation is Western style.
Fusion dished include slow cooked cod in miso with seaweed rice.
The cod is wrapped with kelp and miso and then steamed for 25 minutes. “It’s a combination of Provence codfish and Japanese miso soup,” Hui says. “For almost every dish we have a story.”
The pork belly pizza is roasted pork belly with caramelized onion, chives and chili jam.
But they also serve some standard Western dishes including tomato soup.
Kingdom uses a “secret recipe” to turn the classic soup a creamy white while at the same time making the tomato taste even richer than usual.
Also try the chicken baked with 40 cloves of garlic, stout beer and chili paste,
Address: No. 31, Dongxin Creative Park, 139 Liuhe Rd
Tel: (0571) 8880-1551
Designer Wan Zheng initially opened a European cuisine kitchen in his studio for himself. Soon his friends discovered his cooking skills and Wan was pushed into turning a conference room into dining room. Eventually he turned his entire studio into Mamala restaurant. Mamala, which opened two years ago, derives its name from “home cooking, like mom’s.”
“Many European customers have told me they felt the dishes are as good as in their hometown’s,” Wan says, proudly, claiming he has almost 10,000 WeChat followers, including many customers.
Wan is the chef although he has a team of 11 cooks, who bump elbows in the 20-square-meter kitchen.
“My biggest worry today is there are too many customers,” Wan says.
People love the restaurant’s tuna and potato layer pie.
Online comments include: “I had a really bad day, yet the pie brightened my night,” and “My happiness index increased after eating the pie.”
Wan says he purchases imported ingredients from onion and cilantro to fish and steak “otherwise Westerners would not feel the dishes are as good as their hometowns.”
The rib-eye steak is tender and the crispy flounder fish features a light creamy flavor. The tomato soup made with four types of tomatoes is strongly recommended.
To create a home-like atmosphere, Mamala’s waiters serve courses in order and keep all plates on the table as long as they are not empty — just how it’s done in many homes.
Set in a former fabric factory, the space is lofty and decorated with iron counter tops, old wooden shelves and a mottled cement surface.
Address: No. 12, Loft 49, 111 Tongyi Rd
Tel: 186-5719-8257
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