Peking Duck:
When the duck parcels came out, I thought ‘Wow, Yum!’. When we were halfway through them, I thought ‘Oh my god!’. But that was thinking ahead as to how i’d fit the rest of the meal in.

The wrappers were a little bit dry, as normally when you get them they’ve just been plucked straight out of the steamer so they’re still moist. The duck was tasty and wasn’t oily, but was cut a lot deeper than normal. This made each of the 16 parcels even bigger. The skin on the duck could have been a little bit crisper. I added a little bit more sauce, as otherwise my mouth felt a little dry after finishing each mouthful.

Szechuan Style Sliced Beef with Chilli:
After stirring up the beef, we discovered a rich gravy with lots of been sprouts and other vegetables, hiding underneath the layer of meat. Even without stirring it, the smell of the szechuan peppers was quite strong.

As far as the 3 chilli rating goes, I thought it was slightly lacking. But this dish was more about the richness of the szechuan pepper heat, as opposed as just piling in the chillis for the burn. I would have rated it as a 2 chilli dish.

Beancurd with 3 kinds of Treasure:
In contrast with the aromatic spicy beef, the tofu had a nice smooth cooling taste. As a dish on its own I think it would go begging, but eating alternately with the beef was great. There was plenty of seafood, though i’m not sure exactly what was in it. Mysterious treasure.

Special Yangzhou Fried Rice:
As far as fried rice goes, it wasn’t bad - but i’m yet to find a place that beats the rice the asian takeaway near my parents place turns out, but maybe i’m bias because I grew up eating it. And their home-made dim sims. Mmm. That’s a review for another day.

This version was more subtle in flavour, which suited me fine as it wasn’t a main solo dish - it was an accompaniment. There were plenty of prawns, egg, peas, ham, etc mixed through it as well.

Once again, we left Ye Shanghai with a full stomach (and a doggy-bag), and contented smiles. *burp*
Now the challenge is on to find somewhere even better.

So here we are, back again in Shanghai Ye (Shanghai Night?) restaurant for our follow-up review. We were meeting a friend and the Damien suggested we go back again for their Peking Duck special.

Peking Duck: The first thing to arrive, and it was quite all right. I believe I have sampled better but what this one lacks in quality, it definitely makes up in quantity! Between three people, we had 16 wraps, whereas normally only about 10 would be prepared. In fact, it feels less like an appetizer than a proper meal in itself. For the price of $38 per duck, it is rather affordable as well, considering many restaurants would charge $44+ per duck and then not carve every bit of meat off for you!

Fried Rice: Nothing special here, just the usual Combination Fried Rice that we are so used to. They did a decent job and it wasn’t tasteless though, so this one is a pass.

Three Treasures Tofu: I think there are actually more “treasures” than tofu, but that’s not a bad thing. The “treasure” is in fact pieces of seafood like prawns, scallop and fish. On the whole, this is a good dish – very healthily cooked, tasty and with generous proportions of ingredients.

Hot and Spicy Beef: This came out of the kitchen, onto our table and all I could think was “wow, look at the amount of chilli oil floating around!” The pot of chilli oil stew also had quite a fair bit of beansprouts in it, and let me make this clear that I am not particularly fond of beansprouts, but as long as they are part of something soupy and spicy, for instance Penang Prawn Mee, I am perfectly fine with them. The great thing about this dish is that the beef is astonishing tender! And on a scale of 1 to 10, the spiciness factor is really only about 7, hence as long as you can stomach chilli oil and the taste of mild Szechuan pepper, you shouldn’t go numb from this one.

In conclusion, I must say that we overate. Yes, we ordered more than what was necessary so allow me to convey this to my fellow reviewer: “i-told-you-so-mister-extravagant!” Luckily, the food was decent, so nothing went to waste. On the whole, every dish is competently made, and while they are not instant hits, they provide good value for money and you can be sure you will feel satisfied instead of sickly after you walk out of the door. Recommended in the 3.5 to 4 star range on all counts.