Shanghai Restaurant Review: The Beach House

By Betty Richardson, November 16, 2017

The Place

Large-format concepts are a tried and tested template for the Lost Heaven group. They’ve acquired fame, loyal regulars and the occasional copycat with their eponymous Yunnanese restaurants, Lost Bakery and Coconut Paradise.

The Beach House is the group’s first gastrolounge, an enormous place that looks like what might happen if Martha Stewart and Ralph Lauren eloped and made a new life together in a Tommy Bahama store. WASPY in a way that's unusual for Shanghai, we almost expect Martha might jump out from behind a banana leaf plant and ask if we could take our shoes off lest we soil the rug.

The Food

Aside from being extremely chic, The Beach House serves a concise seafood-led menu and cocktails. The menu doesn’t feel like a work of passion, much of it seems like bored box-ticking, perhaps created by a jaded consultant chef who doesn’t want to overtax the junior kitchen.

 Nevertheless, some of it is nicely executed. Highlights included salmon cooked in Riesling (RMB168), so tender that it only just inched past the threshold of sashimi.

The beef short rib was also very good value (RMB380 for 600g). It’s cooked to a default medium-rare and with a pleasantly charred crust on the outside and streaked with fatty marbling within.

Beach House Lounge Shanghai

The accompanying Marie Rose sauce or deep-fried cauliflower, served whole, was a curious choice that didn’t make a lot of sense.

Paella risotto (RMB298) – can a dish really be both? No, is the short answer. Apart from obvious difference in cooking methods, the result has neither the good bits of paella or risotto.

Desserts ended things on a high note: fun little glasses filled with layers of cream, sorbet and ganache. Try the 'Stream' (coffee ice cream, chocolate 'stream,' vanilla emulsion, chewy caramel sauce and ganache), or the Piña Colada (pineapple sorbet, coconut flakes, lemon zest, lime and coconut foam, rum and crumbled biscuits.) Both are RMB40.

Food verdict: 1.5/3

The Vibe

It’s funny what a difference service makes. For the record, the majority of servers in China are neither handsomely compensated nor tipped for their efforts, hence why we don’t expect high-level niceties. However, Beach House has a Dongbei-born manager who went above and beyond, enhancing the experience in a way that is exceptionally rare for China.

When he saw two of our party hadn’t finished their drinks, he enquired why and replaced them, free of charge, with the hope they’d enjoy the new ones more. He asked how we liked the food, made small talk and advised on what to order; nothing was too much trouble. We wish he could be at every restaurant we visit.

Beach House isn’t reinventing the wheel with the food or drink, but it’s pretty and likeable, with great vibes, service and a fabulous terrace. Life here isn’t quite a beach, but it certainly isn’t a bitch, either.