[Shanghai] Cuivre

Cuivre

Add: 1502-1 Middle Huai Hai Road, Shanghai 淮海中路1502号
Tel: +86 (21) 6437 4219
Hours: [brunch] Sat-Sun 12:00pm-2:00pm; [dinner] Mon & Tue-Sun 6:00pm-10:30pm
Price: [3-course brunch] RMB198
Visited: February 2016
Will return: Yes

For me, Cuivre offers one of the best brunch deals in Shanghai. For RMB198, you get a non-alcoholic drink (juice, smoothie, coffee, tea) and your pick of any 3 courses from their brunch menu, with only two courses coming with a surcharge (extra RMB58 for their Terrine de Foie Gras or L’entrecôte). You could order à-la-carte, but why would you?

Since I was planning to visit Farine after this, I decided to forgo dessert and ordered 3 dishes from their savory menu.

Salade de Chèvre Frais (68), with goat cheese, grilled chicken, mixed green salad, tomato, avocado and cucumber.
I don’t usually order salads at restaurants like Cuivre because so many other options on the menu look much more enticing. But this salad came highly recommended by a friend, so I made an exception. And it didn’t disappoint! The grilled chicken was warm, moist, tender, and bursting with flavor. The goat cheese was more nutty than tangy, and not at all overpowering. The avocado was slightly underripe, but I thought it brought a much-needed freshness to the salad, so I didn’t mind. The dressing was a nice balance between sweetness and acidity, but there was a bit too much, so the salad was slightly drenched.
Recommend: definitely

Cuivre seems to change the goat cheese they use from time to time. My friend said she got fresh goat cheese balls on her salad, whereas mine was hidden under a blanket of shaved aged goat cheese.

Oeuf Bénédicte (68), which was actually eggs Florentine because they use spinach instead of ham. Don’t know why they insist on calling it a Benedict…
Served on a warm plate with a pepper mill-small details make all the difference. The hollandaise was amazing! Coating the eggs generously, it was rich but quite acidic, the brightest hollandaise I’ve ever tasted. The eggs were perfectly runny, and the English muffins were toasted but still soft and pillowy in the center. My only issue: more spinach please! One leaf underneath each egg is really not enough…
Recommend: yes

La Truffe (68), a grilled truffle sandwich with brie, coppa and arugula.
The first thing that hit my palette was the wonderfully melted brie. Soft, rich, and creamy. Mmm! The truffle was there but very faint, sort of hiding in the back. The coppa, which is a type of salume made from pork neck and pork shoulder, was very good. One piece of sandwich had way too much arugula, so the bitterness was overpowering, but the other pieces were fine. The aged balsamic drizzled on the side was excellent and really lifted the flavor of the sandwich, but it was ridiculously hard to get off the plate. I tried to scrape it off with my fork-it was not pretty. This presentation works for chocolate sauce, but definitely not for balsamic vinegar… Nonetheless, a very tasty sandwich.
Recommend: yes

Look at all the cheese just oozing out. Makes me happy 🙂

Overall, really happy with the food. The service was attentive and efficient. The decor was very modern, all leather, wood, and copper (“cuivre” means copper in French).

Cuivre has just rolled out two new dishes: Homemade Taboulet (68) and Ham and Mozzarella Croquettes (58). And for those with a sweet tooth, the dessert menu consists of French toast, homemade yogurt, cheesecake, and chocolate mousse. I’ll save those for my next visit.