A week late! But don't worry, we had to repay for the blog, and then Blogcast shut down the site for maintenance, so we have been MIA. 

Last year, we went to TMSK for Valentine's day. Then, it all seemed so hip and chic.  Xintiande's TMSK is the vision of Yang Hui Shan, a former Taiwanese actress, and like her profession alludes, the place seems trendy.   The bar is made of colored glass, there is a colored pool, and the seating looks like a Baroque design on acid.  The food is advertised as "New-Wave Chunkiness cuisine", which translates into tuna sandwiches (wtf?) and gluten cooked with bok choy.  Goodbye to last year's lobster macaroni and Kobe.

That aside, TMSK was much worse than I remembered.  They must have had the lights on brighter, because everything seemed a bit torn, worn, and just...off.  It wasn't the picture-esq and oh-so-modern TMSK I knew.  Minus one.

The menu...failed to impress.  It didn't really seem to encompass "Shanghainese food" - it was lacking too many of Shanghai's signature cuisine.  It was a bland hybrid of Chinese dishes, with afterthoughts of Western tastes.  There was a tuna sandwich, consisting of two pieces of white bread, tuna smear, and lettuce,  there was a pizza and a sorry-looking burger.  Isn't this supposed to be one of Shanghai's premier restaurants? Its not the choice they put on their menu, its the way it was executed.

bread:


NOTE: they don't serve bread for free.  Weird eh? Thus, we ordered a "bread basket" and were presented with three rolls looking very lonely on a massive black plate.  The bread tasted good, but this "situation" shouldn't happened.  Bread should be given complimentary, and if you order it, then you expect your money's worth and receive lots of yummy rolls.

spicy eggs:


pizza:


I opted for spicy eggs.  We have had a similar dish at Lost Heaven, and it was divine.  Joachim and I are both egg enthusiasts, and love all things spicy, so its pretty hard to go wrong with hard boiled eggs topped with chili sauces.  The dish was good, but it didn't fit the atmosphere.  It didn't belong in a glass-filled wonder wall, more like an everyday local Chinese restaurant.  The dish wasn't formal enough.  Joachim opted a pizza, because he figured that it would be a novelty.  It wasn't. It was thin, like it was made on a tortilla, and the sauce was obviously from a can.  They maybe loaded cheese on, but the cheese was just the shredded kind from Pines, and kind of slipped off.  Honestly - it tasted like the kind I used to make myself for lunch in middle school, in the microwave.  I was disappointed. It didn't taste bad on any level, but it was not appropriate.   

custard:


The desert was a custard of some kind, but was overcooked.  It was hard and stale, it lacked creaminess and moisture - a bust.

drinks:


The drinks are what saved the establishment from a lower rating.  Each were innovative, forward-thinking, and served with pretty style.  


If the stylish Yang Hui Shan saw the way TMSK had progressed, I doubt she would be less than pleased.

**** out of ******
(The three stars were a combination of how good it used to be (two points) and how each piece of food tasted decent (one))