Chez Maurice
Add: 2F, 50 Tai’an Road, near Xingguo Road / 泰安路50号2楼,近兴国路
Tel: 62299668
Hours: 5:30-10:30pm (closed on Tue)
Price: 350-400RMB/person
Visited: Feb 2016
It’s been 5 months since I moved back from Paris, and it’s about time that I start missing sipping wine and snacking on charcuterie boards. It just so happens that Chez Maurice opened last month, and rumor has it that it’s a casual French bistro with excellent charcuterie – just what I have in mind – so I gathered a few friends for a taste of it.
The location is a 4-story house on Tai’an Road, right above Heyday the jazz bar. Chez Maurice The Grill is on the second floor, and there’s also a Chez Maurice Wine Bar on the third floor plus a Japanese sake bar on the fourth, all by the same owner.
The menu is short and succinct – just one page. The charcuterie craft here was taught by Monsieur Maurice, a French grandpa whose family has been in the meat business for generations, and apparently he’s in Shanghai every few months to check up on the bistro named after himself. I first tried Le Foie Gras au Torchon (78 RMB), duck liver with Port wine blackberry sauce and country bread. Excellent, just like what you would get in Paris.
Next was Le Célèbre Boudin Blanc Truffé de Maurice (68 RMB), the famed truffled sausage from Mr. Maurice, accompanied by red wine pear sauce. Succulent and full of flavors, so delicious that we ordered this on both visits, though I heard that this is going off the menu soon.
La Terrine de Campagne (58 RMB), pork terrine with pickles and mustard. Not bad, not memorable.
Anna Bautista (ex-chef of Coquille) is the consulting chef here at Chez Maurice, and you can see her name on the next dish we tired: Le Tartare de Boeuf au Couteau d’Anna (88 RMB).
La Salade de Poire, Raddichio & Champignons (68 RMB), a salad of pear, raddicchio, mushrooms, black truffle, Romano cheese, and apple vinegar. Very good, and especially refreshing after all those meat appetizers.
One simply can’t eat at a French bistro without some wine, and the selection at Chez Maurice are all organic, biodynamic, or natural.
Next, to the steaks. Chez Maurice calls itself a grill, so naturally I had high expectations of the steak section, but to be honest I was disappointed on both visits. The first time we ordered L’Entrecôte de Boeuf Australien Angus (268 RMB/300g), which came out a lot more done that the medium rare we had requested.
On my second visit, my friend happened to order the same steak, which did come out very rare (rarer than we had expected actually) but without much flavor. Another disappointment. On that note, the steaks do come with fries and a sauce, with options of green pepper, béarnaise, chimichuri, and American sauce. The last one was recommended by the waitress and did somewhat salvage the steak…
Laguiole knife.
Side dishes, on the other hand, were not bad at all. I tried Les Choux de Bruxelles & Bacon (38 RMB) brussel sprouts with bacon, as well as La Fricassée de Champignons (38 RMB), mushrooms sauteed in butter, garlic, and white wine, both tasty.
They also offer one or two cocotte dishes depending on the season, such as this Le Fletan en Cocotte (148 RMB), a stew of flounder, white beans, pork belly, tomato, sweet pepper, and egg.
Desserts are classic French ones, nothing too fancy, but done quite well. I especially liked La Tarte aux Pommes façon Tatin (48 RMB), puff pastry with caramelized apple, and La Creme Brulée de Mon Amie Ilhame (48 RMB) is quite nice too.
La Mousse au Chocolat (48 RMB) was ok.
My two visits to Chez Maurice were consistent in terms of experience. The charcuterie, salad, and side dishes were all done well, desserts were nice too considering the price and portion, but the steaks were disappointing. So for now, I’d say go for everything except the steak…and hopefully that section will be improved in the near future.