Brunch Review is a column dedicated to our exploratory adventures of Shanghai's weekend brunches.
It's been a minute since our last post, but we're jumping right back into the ocean that is Shanghai's favorite meal. This time it's The Cannery.
Like sister restaurant The Nest, the deal here gets you any three dishes for RMB198 including a welcome drink (mini Bloody Mary with a pickle on top in our case.) Fancy an extra dish? That'll be RMB68.
The menu is divided up into cloyingly suffixed categories that all end with '-y.' For example, 'EGGY' *shudder.* Meaty, crispy, healthy, fishy and sweety are also present.
From eggy section is the DIY campground bacon and eggs, which lets you cook the food table-side in an exceptionally hot skillet. Add crispy bacon, wafer thin potato chips, watercress, arugula and herb butter, and scarf it straight from the pan. Sourdough toast comes on the side.
This was all well and good, but if you have only one egg allocation, get the Arnold Bennett omelet. For those unfamiliar with this ridiculously decadent dish, Bennett was a British author who requested his eggs cooked in such a particular and delicious manner during his lengthy stays at The Savoy that the plush London hotel has kept it on the menu ever since.
Born the son of a miserly accountant in Staffordshire, Bennett the younger became a celebrated author, and subsequently devoted his time to the finer things in life. One of them was this omelet, which involves bechamel sauce, smoked poached haddock, scambled eggs, and a baked cheddar lid.
'Fishy' section also offers a chance to sample the oyster po'boy sandwich. Kudos for the peppery watercress and 'sour mayo,' which complemented the still-briney fried oysters inside. We're not normally partial to cooked oysters over raw, but this wee fellow was tight. Not one for sharing owing to chode-ish size.
Some people can't go a minute without eating meat, which is probably why there are Iberico pork ribs on the brunch menu. That's a deep cut for the AM, but honestly it's your life and you should just live it. These are finished in the 'fire pit' and have a good bourbon BBQ sauce glaze.
Vegetables. Another deep cut for breakfast, I know. But these chargrilled broccolini with salty yoghurt, hazelnuts and cucumber caper lentil relish were probably the strongest thing on the menu aside from the Arnold Bennett omelet. The chef here (Freddy Raoult) has a way with lighter dishes like this.
Kohlrabi with grilled pistachio, pickled apple, lime zest and cilantro. 
As for desserts, the obvious is the campfire s'mores, but we say hold off on that one for the time being and go for this menage à trois between banana bread, French toast and a latte. (Coffee soaked banana bread with salted caramel sauce, nuts and ice cream.)
Brunch recommended? Yes.
NB for drinkers: every last Friday and Saturday of the month, Cannery's Champagne bottles are buy-one-get-one-free all day and night long. Cheapest bottle is Bollinger Special Cuvee Brut at RMB888, which essentially translates to a good value RMB444 per bottle.
Read more Shanghai Brunch Reviews
See a listing for The Cannery
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