Shanghai Eats: Lunch at Together
I’m planning a dinner for my team at work, and being relatively new to Shanghai, I’ve been asking around for different restaurant recommendations. A couple that were on my list were The Commune Social and Mercato by Jean-Georges. Hearing these potential options, a friend recommended that I check out Together, since it’s in the same price range as the other two (and all three have interiors designed by the same firm Neri & Hu which I’m a big fan of).
I immediately liked the location of Together - on a quiet stretch of Yuyuan Road between Jing An Temple and Jiansu Road - plus the building itself.
Inside there’s an open dining room, as well as a private room with a round table for 8 people - perfect for my team dinner.
I was seated at the long bar facing the kitchen.
At lunchtime, even on a holiday (Chinese New Year week) like yesterday, a set menu is offered which includes a starter, a main, and a beverage for 158 RMB, with a 30 RMB dessert add-on option. The drink options aren’t so exciting: Coca Cola, Sprite, soda water, or an Americano. Also on the menu are a few a la carte options that also appear in the dinner menu, and a few brunch dishes.
I went for the set menu with the dessert option. The waitress actually didn’t remember all of the desserts available off the top of her head, but when she said there was a pistachio cake, I knew that that would be my choice regardless of whatever else was on offer. I asked to have coffee held for dessert, and the waitress obliged with no issue. (The lunch menu pictured below, which was displayed outside, actually doesn’t exactly match the menu I was given inside - the sides for the lamb were different, there was no pork belly, and there was also a fried beef steak.)
One thing to note right away was that it took a while to track someone down to take my order, and then quite a long time - about 15 minutes - for the food to appear.
The appetizer I chose was the “scallop ceviche with fresh fennel, avocado, citrus, ponzu.” The citrus I guess were the orange segments - charred, which was an interesting touch.
The scallops were hidden beneath the bed of fennel. All of these ingredients boded well for a refreshing dish, but there was a stark lack of flavor. I just discerned a bit of oiliness from whatever was coating the fennel, but it was missing the hit of acidity that ponzu would promise, and which would have cut that oiliness and provided much-needed brightness.
Between the time the appetizer appeared and the main course, there was yet again another long wait - about 25 minutes. It was kind of mysterious too, since I was looking directly at the kitchen, to see one of the staff just kind of standing there. I arrived after 1pm, so after peak lunch time, and the dining room didn’t look particularly packed, so I’m not sure why it took so long for the food to come.
For my main course, I chose a slow-cooked lamb chop, served with summer corn, and eggplant and celery. I thought it was strange to have “summer corn” appear in a dish in February, but thought it sounded interesting.
Like the appetizer, the main course was a let down. The lamb was okay, but after cutting off the fat there was very little meat. The corn was fine. The eggplant had a strangely sweet flavor - from what, I don’t know - and was served rather cold.
Thankfully, the waitress cleared the table quickly and brought out the dessert right away. The Americano was a bit bitter, so thank goodness I still had my cup of water next to it. Most of the serving dishes at Together are actually enamelware, which can be cute but my water cup looked like it was chipped and was rusted at the bottom.
So how was dessert? Probably the redeeming part of the whole meal! The pistachio cake was vibrantly colored but subtle in flavor, with a soft, tender, and moist texture, accented by a bit of the crunch from flaky salt on top. I saw on the way out that the desserts are 35 RMB a la carte, so it’s a bit of a value to order it with the set lunch.
All in all, I didn’t enjoy my meal very much: the long waits for the food (from sitting down to leaving, it was a almost an hour-and-a-half affair), and the quality and taste of the food itself. My waitress was friendly, but I didn’t find any warmth from the other staff. And actually, from the beginning I had the sense that there wasn’t much on the menu that piqued my interest; I don’t have a feeling of urge to return to try things I didn’t get around to trying this time. Here’s the dinner menu, which leaves me with a similarly blasé feeling:
It’s a pity that I didn’t like the food or the service more, because I really wanted to like this place. The location and that private room for 8 people would have been perfect for my team dinner.
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Together
No.546 Yuyuan Road, Building 10
Shanghai
China
