Best Food In China

Location

3.top is a smart, modern place where you can retreat from the city buzz without feeling cut off. The atmosphere is one of openness - both to the diverse styles of contemporary Asian food, and to the cosmopolitan city of Shanghai.

There's something about heavy cutlery that makes me feel on edge. You can really feel the gravity of the situation, like being in an empty museum. Thankfully, 3.top is nothing like a museum - it's light, airy and less than three months old. The cutlery, though, is predictably heavy. I wouldn't want to drop it on those modernist plates. Just need to stay focused.

To compensate for the resource-intensiveness of some utensils, 3.top is innovating edible versions of others. My delicious, creamy, crab and prawn soup came served in a bread bowl (only a glare from the cutlery stopped me from tearing into this). Later, I was tickled by the Vietnamese prawn balls on sugar cane sticks - a handy addition to what would have otherwise been difficult to skewer item. The relevance of the battered seafood chopsticks, however, was less apparent - these were fairly nondescript and frustrating to have to eat.

3.top has grander aims than novelty dishes, though. With the goal of reflecting the multiculturalism of the Pearl of the East, 3.top have created a one-stop Asian food bazaar. On the hefty menu - which may bring back shudders of the cutlery, depending on your disposition - you'll find a wide variety including Thai, Indian, Japanese, Singaporean, Malasian and Vietnamese. We sampled a meaty selection, involving a surprisingly yellow chicken satay, prawn cakes and Malay red curry. All was neatly presented and along with the partnered dips displayed an attractive palette of colours and flavours. My particular favourites were the prawn cakes, which, like the prawn balls, were firm, meaty and complemented well by the sweet chilli dip. The Malay curry came with beef - not what I'd usually go for. Still, the beef was pleasantly tender, if perhaps a little too fatty for my liking.

Besides the broad outlook on the Asian culinary landscape, 3.top offers an expansive view onto Xiangyang Park. Housed in the building of the park's former tea house, the restaurant features an outdoor seating area accessed via French windows. As a gesture to locals whose long-time haunt the restaurant replaced, 3.top opens its patio for two kuai early morning teas. At the close of the day, the park returns the favour by opening its gates for the parking convenience of 3.top patrons. What a wonderful world.

All in all, 3.top is a smart, modern place where you can retreat from the city buzz without feeling cut off. The atmosphere is one of openness - both to the diverse styles of contemporary Asian food, and to the cosmopolitan city of Shanghai. It's a classy place to eat for that won't break the bank.

-- by Duncan Rickelton