If you are of the persuasion that a great neighborhood includes a cozy, homey wine bar with cheap bottles and nibbles, Salute is your Italian spot in Shanghai. House wines (imported) start at 130-160RMB per bottle.
Salute has a small retail store and display case for cured meats, cheeses, and other antipasti. You can buy bottles and meats, cheeses, and other cold items cut to order to have at home or enjoy it right there. The dining menu is written on a small chalkboard featuring simple Italian fare. For seating options, there is the outdoor patio, covered patio, or the few small tables in the store. All the furniture are dark, rustic wood pieces. There are even blankets available if you feel chilled from sitting outside. A couple air-conditioner / heater units are fixed where there is space, but there were also a couple portable heating units that could be rolled adjacent to the table.
The service seems a bit short-staffed or still in training. After being seated and asking for glasses of water, the water jug never came until the server was asked again. The wine bottles came, but without wine glasses. The server went to help another table first, leaving a bottle of wine sitting in front of anxious patrons. However, the food came out quickly after it was ordered and the plates were distributed evenly between the diners.
The salad plates were generous. The caprese (58RMB) had large, thick tomato slices accompanied with generous medallions of fresh mozzarella. The cucumber and tomato salad (35RMB) was also large. However, a sprinkling of dried basil was used in both instances as if hoping to impart the essence of basil. No one is really sure what could be accomplished with dried basil, except for a few mao. There was also a green salad, the bulk of which was an artfully arranged bed of lettuce leaves and tomatoes, but it was nothing more than that.
The antipasti special platter had preserved ham in oil, green olives stuffed with anchovies, black olives, cauliflower in vinegar, and cold aubergine. The vegetables provided a sharp, acidic tang to the salty meats. The charcuterie plate (68RMB or 98RMB for large) had several slices of cured ham, salami, and mortadella. The prosciutto is cut on-site, though the slices were not as thin as the ones cut at City'Super. The cheese plate (58RMB or 88RMB for large) had four cheeses: parmesan, cheddar, bleu cheese, and emmental. The blue cheese was soft and moist, looking like it was cut from a round. Its color was mostly creamy beige with some darkened areas from the mold. Out of the four, the aged parmesan and bleu cheese were the clear winners for quality. The emmental or the cow-milk cheese that it was most similar to was flavorless against the other three it came with. The bright orange cheddar cheese sticks tasted and looked cut straight from the Land O'Lakes block. The bread did not come out until after everything was served, so the meats, cheeses, and antipasti did not get to see the bit of bread it was asking for. The panini was made with prosciutto and salami and pressed in a proper panini grill that left wonderful grill marks and a lightly caramelized exterior from being brushed with olive oil. It was an even balance of bread, meat, and gooey cheese and worth throwing 50RMB down for.
It is already a bad sign when the strawberry sauce accompanying the cheesecake tastes like cheap store-bought, watered-down jam. The cheesecake was bland and lacked the rich and cheesy quality known of cream cheese. The tiramisu was was made up of layers of thin, spongy cake and flavorless cream constructed in a square of perfection. Not a single ladyfinger broke up the monotony of the precise lines. Salute exudes a cozy, comfortable, at-home ambiance, but these desserts do not reflect that in the least.
For 11 people on a Sunday night, 1340RMB covered 2 bottles of house red, 2 caprese salads, 2 salads of tomato and cucumber, 2 green salads, 1 platter of special preserved items, 3 charcuterie plates, 2 cheese plates, 3 panini, 2 tiramisu, and 1 cheesecake.
Salute, at the moment, is better suited for drinking wine at than for a meal, unless too much wine requires some bit of food to absorb the alcohol. The ambiance is comfortable and would make a place to spend a lazy night. So yes, Salute could be your neighborhood wine bar.
Salute. 59 Fuxing Xi Lu, by Yongfu Lu (复兴西路59号,近永福路), Shanghai, China. Tel: 3461 9828
