Shang Palace

I was finally able to try out Shang Palace in Makati Shangri-La, one of my must-try places, especially since I love love love Chinese food.

Looking at the menu, I thought to myself, “I’m not in North Park anymore.” Or maybe I said it out loud!

Perhaps it was because I had just come from Samar (where one can eat crabs, oysters, and lapu-lapu for a song) but it felt like almost a sin, a waste to spend money on such expensive food. So we went for the (somewhat) tried and tested. And it was also our way to see if Shang Palace can indeed call itself better or even the best among the other Chinese restaurants in the city, with the way it compared on Chinese signature dishes.

and the eel was on top of the complimentary tofu with sweet spicy sauce that was very addictive. I think I was halfway full already even after just the appetizers.

As I said, we were going for the go-to signature dishes so we ordered the deep fried pork ribs in fragrant garlic and chili spices (P475)—which in so many words is the more expensive version of my walang-kamatayan-will-never-fail-to-order-in-chinese-resto salt & pepper spare ribs.

Was it worth the added expense? Hmm, I’m sitting on the fence on this one. Especially since it didn’t seem “complete” to me without my usual bowl of sweet spicy vinegar which, I was told by the waiter did not come with the dish since it was already “marinated”.For another signature Chinese resto dish, another must-order is the hot prawn salad.

You know how it is when you order hot prawn salad in cheap Chinese restaurants and you find that the “prawns” can’t even be found and when you finally do, you discover that they’re not actually prawns but are just measly shrimps and almost half of the prawn is just batter?! Well, in Shang Palace, you won’t get any of that because the prawns were HUGE, i.e, these were real, true blue prawns. I couldn’t even resist eating a piece despite my unfortunate allergy to shrimps.

And lastly, we ordered braised garoupa fillets with golden mushrooms (P780) cooked Szechuan style. Of course, fried rice with diced chicken and salted fish (P505).

All in all, maybe we did order too much. But the next day, we did eat the leftovers for lunch and they tasted even better.Was Shang Palace worth it? I would say yes, notwithstanding the high price (for Chinese food!) for the freshness of the food, ambiance, excellent service, and well, it is Shangri-La. Chinese food is one of my comfort food but this time, I took comfort food in such plush surroundings. It was somewhat disorienting, but in a pleasant way 🙂

I’m curious about how superior Shang Palace’s live seafood is compared to other Chinese restaurants. P5,960 per kilo for pink garoupa! When I got home and googled what “garoupa” was, lapu-lapu lang pala! And I still have two whole lapu-lapu which I brought from Samar waiting for me in my ref (for less than P1 thousand and they were bought live pa!) although they’re not pink. Hmm, looks like the search is on to source pink garoupa the next time I go home to Samar. :)I will end this with my outfit post, with me holding the fine dining Chinese takeout from Shang Palace:) Cheers!