Shanghai Brunch Review: Glam's Very Vegan Brunch

By Betty Richardson, January 31, 2018

Brunch Review is a column dedicated to our exploratory adventures of Shanghai's weekend brunches.

Vegans: there are enough of them now that restaurateurs sit up and listen when they ask to be catered to. And while you'll never convert us to full-time herbivores, we admit they might be a teeny bit right. Eating vegan, even occasionally, is good for the environment, your body, and for the sake of variety.

M Glam, the Bund-side sister restaurant and lounge to M on the Bund, is the latest to offer a fully vegan brunch, following a well-received collaboration with Hong Kong's Grassroots Pantry last year. The deal gets you six sharing-style dishes and a smoothie for RMB328 per person, plus 10 percent service.

Nursing a mild hangover, our hearts sank when we saw that a 'superfood salad,' complete with kale, quinoa and radicchio, was leading the charge. Fortunately, sweetly grilled apples, candied orange zest and creamy hazelnut aioli made it quite indulgent and very textural.

Halfway between a salad and a hot dish is the roasted cauliflower with tahini, toasted walnuts, cider vinegar, pomegranate, caper berries.

After those two lighter courses, they bring out the big guns – fried sweet potato and cassava gnocchi on a roasted coconut purée with torn cavolo nero (Tuscan kale) and toasted almonds. Fried gnocchi are so often stodgy, but these had a glutenous texture more like Japanese mochi dumplings, with a smooth filling that was an impressive contrast of textures. Extra good when sprinkled with chili flakes.

The last savory course was arguably the table's favorite: an absolute beast of an eggplant, stuffed with wild rice, lemony smoked lentils, chopped olives, pesto, and a 'cheese' made from pine nuts. We're not saying it'll make you forget about rib-eye steaks forever, but the full-on assault of flavors makes a definitive point that vegan cooking doesn't equate to bland or low-calorie anymore.

They made that point again with dessert: raw chocolate tart with a scoop of very cinnamony vegan ice cream. And hey, the pastry's gluten-free too.

Overall, the menu is colorful in both texture and flavor, filling and just indulgent enough for the price. Obviously it's great news for the vegan community and their dietary affiliates, but we think non-vegans who have tired of eggs Benedict might enjoy it too.

Glam's Very Vegan Brunch is every first Sunday of the month, catch the next one on February 4.