Wholly owned by Austin Hu (who trained at New York's Gramercy Tavern), Madison is one of the latest additions to the fine dining scene in Shanghai. Qixi Festival or "Chinese Valentine's Day" offered a great reason to go out and indulge in a sweet extravagance.
The restaurant was empty for a Monday night around 22:00, but the purpose of the visit was dessert, not a meal. The kitchen closes at 23:00, though they will make concessions if you advise them on time. The room was dimly lit, simple and classy. At the larger tables, there was a thoughful space created in the table for the server so that each dish can easily be hand-placed in front of the diner.
The apple tart fine with goat cheese ice cream and brandy caramel at 60RMB jumped out from the menu. Goat cheese ice cream is an intriguing way to capture the tart sweetness from goat cheese. It did have a sort of gritty texture to it from the goat cheese and the method to make it silky and velvety-smooth is still being refined. The puff pastry used for the apple tart is made in-house although using imported French butter. At the moment, few necessities cannot be compromised and quality butter is one of them. Austin told us that he may switch to Irish butter soon, at least until a suitable China-sourced replacement is found. Anyway, the goat cheese ice cream was melting away on the warm, thin, tart fine. Breaking into the dessert with a spoon, the pastry gives a satisfying crackle. Covered with the caramel sauce, the brandy compliments the apple and goat cheese ice cream well. I would have preferred the brandy caramel to be thicker to match the weight of the puff pastry and goat cheese ice cream.
The server informed us there are 15 different flavors of ice cream all made in-house at 20RMB per scoop. One of them included a Baileys flavor, which was smooth, creamy, and rich, just like the drink. It was adorned with a thin brittle giving a contrast to the smooth ice cream.
The head and humidity of Shanghai summers is offset by this light dessert. The meringue is perfectly cooked through and crispy the whole way through, melting on the tongue against the mulberry sauce and citrus sorbet. Wonderfully light and delicately sweet.
Pairing together the nut ice cream and berry sorbet, your taste buds are transported back to the nostalgia of a good peanut butter and jelly sandwich. The nut ice cream is incredibly creamy and thick, almost like smooth peanut butter, and not artificially sweet. It is so rich and dense, you can hardly believe that this is ice cream. The berry sorbet is dark, fresh, and flavorful to match the richness of the nut ice cream.
After paying the bill, we were offered complimentary cashew brittle cookies with bits of melted toffee. This had to be saved for later, unless gluttony (in the best sense) became overwhelming.
Austin Hu came to the table to see how we liked the dessert and simply talk to us. Hearing his approach to the direction of his restaurant shows that he is looking at fine dining past what he is able to produce on the table. Already, it is impressive that everything is produced in-house, including the lardo he is starting to prepare, as well as focusing on these high-quality ingredients being fresh. More impressive is his goal to source high-quality products locally, at least within China, and extend that to every single part of his restaurant. He sets out to build relationships with the source, a trust that will ensure the consistent quality of the food. Sourcing locally is a trend already with lots of steam in the West and it is nice to see the same attitude displayed in China. New Shanghai chefs tend to be more liberal with sharing their source list, showing that the dining scene is escalating to feature the unique talents of each chef although maybe using the same product as another.
The desserts were amazing. hoF may be the front-runner in most people's minds for chocolate cake and decadance (while still minding a budget), but for the next step in quality and thoughtfulness, the desserts at Madison is where it is at. Looking forward to what else Austin Hu has planned for his menu.
Madison. 3/F, 18 Dongping Lu, near Hengshan Lu, 东平路18号, 近衡山路, Shanghai, People's Republic of China
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