Shangri-La cnr Durham Street and Kilmore Street Phone 795-720 Licensed

Press, 29 February 1984, Page 26

Shangri-La cnr Durham Street and Kilmore Street Phone 795-720 Licensed

(By

HANS PETROVIC)

One of the most interesting aspects of eating at the sumptuous new upstairs premises of the Shangri-La is the banquet style of dinner menu, which is designed to provide any group — from two to 10 — with a wide variety of Chinese dishes. The Lazy Susan revolving, round tables, which allow you to choose from various offerings, have been seen, if not used, by most frequenters of Chinese restaurants. For their full use and enjoyment — and to avoid several pitfalls — it is best to listen to the advice happily given by the polite waitresses and read the introductory notes on the menu: “You are invited to select from our banquet-style dinner menu, whereupon dishes are served one after the other to be shared by the whole table. “Normally, a party of 10 would need to order nine or 10 varieties of large dishes, whereas a party of two would only need to order three or four small dishes. Five or six medium-size dishes are suggested for a party of four or six persons.” There are three sizes of dishes ranging in price, as

for example Shangri-La duckling, from $l5 for the large, $9.50 for medium, and $5 for small. For our group of four, therefore, we were advised to choose four main dishes of the medium size (not counting the entree, soups and dessert). The good news of this system is that a couple can also decide to order four different dishes of the smaller, cheaper size, thus still getting the opportunity to taste a wider variety than usual without having to overeat.

The waitress probably will also recommend that you ask for the dishes to be served individually, to avoid getting them all at once and their becoming cold before you can eat them all. This system, however, can lead to a couple of problems which we, and some friends on another occasion, encountered. In our case, we had ordered the dishes to be served on a progressive basis, beginning with the soup, followed by the entree. The soup was served with little delay, but then the wait between that and the entree, and the first two of the main dishes was longer than we expected, so that we were hungry between courses, and our time at the restaurant lasted from 7.30

p.m. until after 11 o’clock — about an hour longer than we had intended. I am confident, however, that this problem can be overcome with clear orders to the staff, who seem efficient and always willing to please. The difficulty encountered by my colleague was slightly different. He and his friends had ordered their dishes to be served on the same basis as us, but had included a plate of fried rice, which they had hoped to eat with the other dishes. The fried rice, however, arrived on its own, and there was quite a wait until the next dish was served. I am sure that problem could also be overcome by specifying that you would like your fried rice — or whatever — to be served at the same time as the other dishes. The proprietor, Andrew Sim, has been in the Chinese restaurant business in Christchurch for some time, beginning with the Hong Kong Cafe in 1971; opening the South Island’s first authentic, licensed Chinese

eating house as the ShangriLa in Lichfield Street; and now moving it to larger, plush, Chinese-decor premises at the corner of Durham and Kilmore Streets. Of Malaysian origin, Mr Sim makes a point of mainly employing chefs from Malaysia and Singapore to prepare his authentic dishes, with the pro-perly-prepared ingredients and countless spices for their distinctive flavours. And, of course, it is the food which proves to be the highlight of the evening. For soups, we decided on two small (but big enough to satisfy two) servings of duck and pickled vegetable ($4) and shark fin with crab meat ($6). The duck soup was quite distinctive with that flavour of Chinese pickled vegetable, and the shark fin soup was as smooth and rich as ever. We were almost overwhelmed by the size and variety of our mediumsized plate of hors d’oeuvre. Included among the attrac-tively-decorated vegetable titbits were chicken legs,

spring rolls, foo young and pork pieces, making us wish that we had not ordered so many other main course dishes. Our main dishes were lobster with mushroom (medium, $l6), Shangri-La duckling ($9.50), beef with satay sauce ($9.50) and shredded beef with bamboo shoots ($9.50). The most expensive by far was the lobster and mushroom but it was well worth it, with plenty of large chunks of the delicious fish served with delicate mushrooms and sauce. The Malaysian influence was noticeable in the pleas-antly-hot peanut and coconut milk satay sauce served with thin slices of beef. The other beef dish, with the bamboo shoots and other vegetables, presented the meat in a finely-shredded form, quite different from the satay style. The Shangri-La duckling, with the meat served in small, chopped cubes covered in dark, spicy sauce, had become one of my favourites at the former Lichfield Street premises,

and was still excellent — particularly if you like duck. Of the above four dishes, however, the two which I would like to order again are the lobster and mushroom, and the beef with satay sauce. As often happens on such dining out excursions, we find that we have already eaten more than planned and regretfully have to skip the dessert. The tempting dishes this time were lichee jelly, lichee almond and longan jelly, all priced at $5 medium, $2.50 small. Over all, it was a very pleasant Sunday evening, with excellent food, efficient service by both waitresses and drink waiters, who always ensured that our wine glasses were filled — possibly with the hope that we would order more. A carafe of house white wine cost $4.50, with $1.50 for a glass of orange juice. Including the $4 cover charge, the cost for four was $90.50.