Song Song is a Shanghainese restaurant and wine bar at the INS building in Fuxing Park. Scores high points for food, its trendy design, and service.
About Song Song
Interiors are a combination of sleek and old school — neon lighting juxtaposed by retro marble-top dining tables and modern art next to framed Chinese calligraphy.
Like all restaurant on the ground floor at INS, Song Song also has a covered terrace, which is nice for al fresco dining. However, at the time of my visit, it was shrouded in a plastic tent to fend off the cold.
The Food at Song Song
Food at Song Song is Shanghainese, mostly traditional and slightly updated for a modernized feel. Everything I had was delicious, especially the pork with mustard greens (a fantastic rendition of the original) and crispy beef. Those two are dishes you don’t want to miss.
The Pork with Preserved Mustard Greens is twist on the traditional meigan kourou, which is traditionally more meat than mustard greens. They’ve reversed the dish, adding bits of roasted pork into the slow-cooked mustard greens. It has a malted flavor with caramel notes and only lightly seasoned with soy sauce. Doesn’t look like much, but it tastes amazing.
The Crispy Beef presents a dish of thick cubes fried to a crisp and drowned in a fruity osmanthus glaze. Absolutely delicious. The beef is crispy yet melts in your mouth, and the sauce tangy, mildly sweet yet not overbearing. Best enjoyed with rice.
For appetizers, try the Bamboo Shoots, brined with pickled peppers. It’s very high in acidity with pepper and spice. The flavor is forceful, but it quickly becomes addictive. Other appetizers include Edamame, infused with the aromas of yellow wine, and the classic cold dish of Cold Marinated Cucumbers, which is tangy with vinegar and has a nice zing of chili.
Other dishes see the Stir-Fried Songshan Squid, a dish of fresh and tender squid fried with pork in chicken stock with peppery mizuna mustard greens.
And to fill you up, the classic Scallion Noodles. It’s a sizable portion of firm noodles coated in soy sauce and aromatic scallion oil with a single dried shrimp.
If anything, the wontons were the only misstep. They just tasted OK, and lacked seasoning in the filling.
In Summary
Excellent food. Cool vibe. Highly recommended!
For drinks, there are cocktails from ¥88, and wines by the glass from ¥79, bottles from ¥420.
Song Song 松松酒家
Address: F124, INS, 109 Yandang Lu 雁荡路109号INS乐园F124室
Tel: 13020156841
Hours: Mon-Thu & Sun, 6:30pm-12:30am; Fri-Sat, 6pm-2am
