Emille Artigas finds that Doha favourite Shanghai Club embodies the sophisticated and vivacious spirit of China’s biggest city

Going to the Shanghai Club at the JW Marriott Marquis City Center Doha gives me a sparkling feeling of excitement at any time, as it always has so many new offers and the vibe is trendy, cosmopolitan and vibrant. Decorated with fanciful and artfully designed frames on the walls, bedecked with traditional Chinese dragons and mask ornaments, spangled beautiful light fixtures and fashionably spacious with a high ceiling and mezzanine floor, it is exactly what I needed to revive my energy after a long day of hard work.

Located on the top level of the hotel, Shanghai Club provides a panoramic view of West Bay, whether at the lounge area or the restaurant section. We were seated by the window of the restaurant area where the spectacular Doha scene entertained us. As I expected, there’s always something new on the menu which offers a set piece called Shanghai Express, a three-course set serving of their signature dishes. This option was perfect for us – who love food and crave to go out in the middle of the week to enjoy an excellent dinner, yet with very limited time.

With our orders placed, we thought we would wait at the lounge area and appreciate the scene. The lively yet unobtrusive ambiance is infectious and it didn’t take long until our food was ready.

We added the popular Sushi Platter to our set menu, a generous spread of sushi and sashimi with Ebi Nigiri and Sahim, Salmon Nigiri and Sashimi, Crispy Shrimp Tempura and, our favorite in this assemblage, Shanghai Club’s version of the California Roll. The fresh Japanese rice roll, made a little savoury and crunchy and mixed perfectly with cucumber, avocado and crab is so palatable, it could complete my meal alone.

Our Shanghai Express menu started with Asian Vegetable Dumplings and Malaysian Chicken Curry Puff for appetisers. They were immaculately portioned and seasoned to prepare our palates for the main menu and certainly left us ready for more.

For our mains, we chose the Baby Chicken, barbecued baby chicken with an aromatic Malaysian-inspired flavour, complemented with the tastes of charred green beans, pickled red onion, and served with bean sprout and coriander leaf; and the Short Ribs, which we enjoyed thoroughly, with the perfectly tendered, 48-hour-cooked short rib infused with a truly savoury and delightfully piquant Indonesian sauce.

A pan-Asian meal would not be complete without Pad Thai and, fortunately, it’s on the menu. So, we picked this as one of our side dishes. I completely succumbed to their version of this wok-fried rice noodle dish, tastefully blended with omelette of tofu, shallots, and spring onion, mixed with peanut and sweet tamarind sauce with its rich and playful blend.

And then it was the turn of the desserts. We were so euphoric as we chose Sans Rival, a heavenly cashew nut cake flavoured with fresh raspberry and lemon butter cream – which tasted every bit as good as it sounds. And we were completely taken by the Matcha Espuma, a dreamy creation of ceremonial grade matcha cream, with sesame crumble and green tea ice cream, perfectly served with matcha meringue. This divine dessert duo made the perfect end to our splendid evening.

Shanghai Club embodies a feel like no other. It takes traditional Asian culinary skills and then applies them to creating artful and modern cuisine, accompanied by the ambiance that echoes ubiquitously. We left with lingering exquisite memories of the evening and renewed energy prepared to take on what the next long days will offer us.

And, in case you’re wondering if there will be a return visit, that’s a resounding yes, particularly since there is always something new to experience on the menu. ✤

GO: CALL 4429 5295 FOR MORE INFORMATION OR TO MAKE A RESERVATION.