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Pinnacle Peak has already received a number of awards in Shanghai and deservedly so. With good service and great quality steakhouse food I can strongly recommend it.

I am proud to be a Scot, but every once in a while I wish I were an American. Previously from the other side of the Atlantic and now from the other side of the world, I admire that wonderful, intangible Americanness: baseball, basketball, football, cities, deserts, prairies, Thanksgiving and David Letterman. Americans believe in the combination of convenience and quality, and most importantly, hearty food. Pinnacle Peak Steakhouse encompasses all of these things.

Pinnacle Peak Steakhouse is on the fifth floor of a 4-star hotel on Shaanxi Road (near Yan’an Road), which is a fantastic part of town – easy to get to and lots of good shops and bars around. It does have its own bar (with pool table), which fills up on the weekends.

When you push aside the saloon doors outside the elevator and swagger in, you first see a mechanical rodeo bull – presumably not for the post-dinner entertainment. The restaurant is cavernous and relaxed, with dark wood paneling and slate walls. The dining area and bar area are quite separate. The wait staff wear cowboy hats. The entire restaurant has a modern, ‘home on the range’ theme. It’s smart enough that you can take your steak-loving boss here and relaxed enough for a family meal.

We had very good service all evening, shy but did everything right. They managed to find that wonderful balance of being prompt, friendly and helpful while not overly fussing over the customer, as happens in many restaurants here.

The food itself was excellent. This is steakhouse food as it should be – hearty and of good quality. We had their famous buffalo wings, marinated in Frank’s Red Hot, and calamari. The Caesar salad was simple and delicious. And for meat we had a 14oz Rib eye and a rack of ribs, each of which came with a baked potato filled with cream cheese and bacon. The ribs were great – tangy sauce and meat falling off the bone – but the steak was really special. If you are not a regular steak eater, coming to Pinnacle Peak is actually a lesson in how good steak can taste and exactly how it should be prepared. Pinnacle Peak is the only place in Shanghai, possibly China, where they import mesquite charcoal for their grill. Mesquite is popular in Texas barbecue and gives the meat a distinctive, light aroma.

There is a carefully chosen selection of new-world and old-world wines. We had an enjoyable Californian Shiraz – Red Flyer. I prefer my wines a little more austere, but Red Flyer was certainly a pleasant drink.

Pinnacle Peak has already received a number of awards in Shanghai and deservedly so. With good service and great quality steakhouse food I can strongly recommend it. The food and wines are reasonable but it still does not make for a cheap meal – high quality imported beef is not cheap. Soups and salads are about RMB35 to RMB55, a 16oz T-bone is RMB268 and a 8.5oz filet is RMB238. However, for the next month (starting mid-June 2009) there is a special deal of soup or salad, filet steak and a desert for RMB120.

- by Charles Prior

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