Food was delicious. Got the Carreras and Pavarotti. Love that the brunch sets are named after The Three Tenors. I met Pavarotti while I was in Undergrad and he’s a very nice man, not to mention incredibly (obviously) talented. Chartres played mostly Chopin piano pieces, which is fine by me since I’m a pianist and he happens to be one of my favorite composers. I wish they didn’t have to play the Funeral March though…

Sunday brunch with hubs and friends. Perfection. 

• Our previous visit to Chartres Garden 

We have been eating a lot of delicious Chinese food since we moved here and we (actually I) needed to eat something other than Asian. So the husband used dianping to look up a place. Our friend Kin told us about dianping last year when we visited and told us it’s similar to Yelp (reviews) and Groupon (coupons). We’ve used it a dozen times now and it’s come very handy in picking new places.

It was raining, I missed Western food and so the hubs looked up an Italian place for us to eat. That’s when the reviews for Chartres Garden came up. I can’t seem to find their webpage but if you do a quick search on the internet, you can see raving reviews. Located in the French Concession at 复兴西路268号, Chartres Garden has a very elegant, rustic decor. 

We decided to get the set menu, well… we always get the set or the 3 course menu because we like to try a little bit of everything. Plus, it was the best deal versus getting everything separately. 

We had a garden salad with a light dressing and delicious minestrone soup. It was the perfect amount and it actually made us more hungry, which is good since it didn’t fill us up too much.

I had the linguine with scallops, capers and chili. It was heavenly, the spices from the chili with the sweetness of the scallops was to die for. I am a sucker for sautéed pasta in extra virgin olive oil. This is a dish I will definitely have again. 

W had the spaghetti Aragosta with fresh herbs, sage and tomato. I forgot to mention that it came with the most tender and sweet lobster on top of it. The sauce was a thick cream that has lobster running all through it. It was heavier than my meal but it was absolutely delectable. I wish I had lactaid with me because I would have eaten that whole thing!

With our set, we were offered coffee or tea, we both opted for tea as it was very late in the evening. W, having grown up in England, was a bit turned off when they didn’t use a proper tea-cup and saucer. Nor did they give us a spoon till he asked. I, however, was perfectly fine with whatever mug. But… I did need a spoon to stir my tea, sugar and cream.

The last course of our meal lead to dessert and it was a traditional polenta cake with fresh whipped cream on top. The last time I had a polenta cake was back in NY when I baked it myself out of my recipe book that Meli got for me. This was delicious and tasted just like the ones I had in Italy but I have to boast a little… my polenta cake is really amazing. But that didn’t stop me from gobbling it up to the very last bite.

I have a feeling we will be visiting this place frequently whenever I have the craving for Italian food.