(smartshanghai.com)
Updated: 2006-08-18 11:27

Open for just six weeks, Embre on Changshu Lu has the style and atmosphere, and most importantly, the good food, which puts the restaurant a notch above the rest.

Melbourne prides itself on its food - its luscious brunches, fresh seafood and some of the best coffee in the world. So it seemed like a natural progression for Sandra Sim, who spent some years studying in Melbourne, to want to bring a taste of the city to Shanghai. For a fellow Melbournian like me, it's nice to have a bit of home here, in a city that is usually worlds apart from my own. With no background in cooking, Sandra proves that a love for food can be enough. Living previously in Hong Kong, she said she used to cook for friends at dinner parties. "I'm completely self-taught," she smiles triumphantly. "I love cooking, I love doing it for friends." If only it were that simple for all of us.

Embre boasts a breakfast menu, sandwich and soup lunch, and salad, pasta and risotto mains. Yum. Housed in a huge space it encompasses a garden, bar/lounge, and restaurant complete with cute cove like areas and candles sitting in glassed in gardens. In the first four weeks of being open, to share the food around, Sandra had two big parties with some "close friends" (all 128 of them).

Ok, so I've just been backpacking in Europe for five weeks and apart from the occasional good meal, the staple diet was bread, cheese and "camping food" (read: stuff in cans). So the food at Embre perhaps tasted even better to my palette. It was rich, well presented and well, really, really good. But down to the details. Firstly, the soup. This was creamy and chunky, with mushroom pieces. It reminded me of a home cooked soup, with its rich smell and piece of bread dunked in the bowl. We sampled two mains - tagliatelle of grilled prawn and olives, and the duck with spiced port and orange reduction. Loved my pasta dish but it was spicy and maybe too hot for some to handle. The duck was a little less appreciated - quite fatty, but with lots of flavours. The crunchy cabbage salad complemented it well.

"We do everything ourselves - from cooking the bread to growing herbs in the garden," she told me. 'We are always trying to develop the food." She says she wants to expand the menu, and make more vegetarian dishes available (though there are already quite a few), as she's a vegetarian herself. Good news for veggies, and good news for food lovers in general. Embre is definitely one of those "special" places that only comes along every so often.

Embre
Location: On Changshu Lu by Anfu Lu
Tel: 021-54036690