This venue is now closed.
Crush is now churning out gourmet pizzas to complement its modern American bistro menu and its recent menu update.
About Crush
Crush is a welcoming New York-style bistro that serves a modern American menu with Asian accents, located in Jing’an opposite of Shankang Li. It’s a handsome looking venue with a comfortable and laidback ambiance. Its sophisticated allure is emphasized by marbletop tables and a sleek design, but really, the formal of dining here casual.
Executive chef Dylan Briley and owner-operator Elliott Shay rolled out a big menu update earlier this March. New standouts like the grilled bluefin tuna steak, a fish of unmatched quality, and the wild porcini pappardelle were and still are the stars of the show.
New At Crush: Gourmet Pizzas
To accompany those new signatures are the duo’s latest creations: gourmet pizzas.
No, Crush isn’t gearing up to open pizza parlors in Shanghai. Instead, the idea started with Elliott’s desire for a specific style of pizza from his childhood, a call that Dylan answered. The task, Dylan mentioned, was as maddening as it was deeply gratifying.
The result is a dough that isn’t thick and heavy, thin but doesn’t fall limp under the weight toppings, yet still airy with a crunch and chew.
It’s not Neopolitan, it’s not Roman, and neither is it American-style. But it’s sure tasty and not overly filling due to the aeration. Pizzas are 12-inch pies and start from ¥98. There are currently six pizzas available with more on the way.
Pizzas include the classic margherita aka The Mommy (¥98), topped with a house-made red sauce base made with fresh tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella and fresh basil, and The Mafia (¥148), a beef bolognese sauce base topped with meatballs.
In my opinion, the stars of this pizza show are The Roadhouse, Loxy Lady, and Mr. Greco.
The Roadhouse is made with dry-aged smoked brisket, buffalo mozzarella and a tangy barbecue sauce on a red base. The brisket is cured for a week then sous vide for 18 hours until tender, then smoked for two hours, and gives the pizza a unique smokiness and richness.
A pleasant surprise was Mr. Greco, the all-vegetable pizza, which was neck-and-neck with The Roadhouse as the top favorite. It’s topped with charred broccolini, pan-roasted mushrooms, roasted cherry tomatoes, feta, blue cheese crumble, Romanesco, dill, arugula, and mint. The broccolini adds crunch, mushrooms for earthiness, sweetness from the tomatoes, and a pop from the cheese.
Then, there’s the Loxy Lady, topped with house-cured salmon, pickled shallots, dill, roasted cherry tomatoes, and a fresh squeeze of lemon. It’s a simple pizza that allows its key ingredient, the salmon, to take the lead.
And finally, The Spudnik, a carb-on-carb pizza topped with thinly sliced confit potatoes that have been seasoned with rosemary. It’s a white-base al fredo sauce of garlic, shallots, cream, herbs, black pepper, and truffle paste.
Don’t miss the Dry-Aged Brisket Musubi, another new menu item. Musubi is a rice-based bite-sized snack, and the word is also interchangeable with onigiri, in case you’re wondering. This one is made with a square of crispy fried rice topped with the same dry-aged smoked brisket on The Roadhouse pizza, along with truffle remoulade, pickled shallots, fresh dill, and cracked black pepper.
Crush also serves brunch on weekends, ¥198 for two dishes and a coffee or juice; free-flow from ¥198. Details about that here.
Crush Shanghai
Address: 819 Shaanxi Bei Lu, near Changping Lu 陕西北路819号, 近昌平路
Tel: 62199005
Hours: Tue-Fri, 5pm-1am; Sat-Sun 11:30am-1am; closed Mondays
