Steamed shrimp in rice liquor served at Jade Garden.

A hair's breadth from utopia

Pigeon, langoustine and cheeks

The challenges in perfecting the dish are many, starting with how to select an appropriately plump chicken. But for diners, the rich textures of shrimp, chicken, water chestnuts and the breadcrumb coating were more than enough.

Braised bamboo pith fungus stuffed with mixed fungi more than holds its own here. A deceptively simple dish, the sliced fungi, tofu, carrot are cooked in broth first before being stuffed into the fungus tubes. Then the rolls are steamed and drizzled with some "secret sauce" for hours, and finally garnished with peas and wolfberries.

As William Golding, the English novelist, put it in Lord of Flies, the greatest ideas are the simplest.

For desserts, the 13-cm-tall fresh fruit napoleon, higher than an upright chopstick, is inspired by the 101 skyscraper in Taipei and features at least five layers of fresh fruits in between light puff pastry.

While the unusually tall napoleon is more a visual feast, the larger-than-palm-sized baked pineapple bun is a real tantalizer. It came into the room almost naked, placed on a simple white plate with a slab of butter on the side.

The jumbo bun is perfectly fine without the butter if calorie counting works against the appetite, but once you take a whole bite, it will be pretty hard to resist the temptation. It is crunchy lardy-sugary outside, fluffy bread below, and juicy pineapple cubes drenched in partially melted butter.

It is not only one of the few pineapple buns in town that actually has pineapples, but is also attractively priced at 18 yuan ($3) per serving. Each serve is sufficient for three to four people as an after-meal desert, but is impressive enough to coax even the normally stern father-in-law to give away his dear daughter's hand in marriage.

If You Go

Jade Garden (Cui Yuan)

4F, Jing'an Kerry Center South Block, 1238 Yan'an Road M, Jing'an district, Shanghai. 021-5243-8088.

Average cost per head: 150 yuan for lunch, 200 yuan for dinner.

Recommended: Crispy Barbecued Suckling Piglet, Steamed Shrimp in Rice Liquor, Fried Boneless Chicken Stuffed with Minced Shrimp, Baked PIneapple Bun.