[On Fire] VICE – The New Hot Place in Town w/Big Names Behind It

Copy Editor's Note: Some places don't just open... they explode onto Shanghai's scene. That's the whole idea behind On Fire, which is different from New Eats (whatever's fresh and interesting) and Shanghai Secrets (the hard-to-find stuff). On Fire is the column for when a place demands to be prioritized. Book ahead or cry about it later.

There's a new, new, new, hot, hot, hot restaurant-plus-lounge out there on the scene, ideal for people looking for fresh, wondrous, and creative things on their dinner plates and in their cocktail glasses. Read on if this applies!

VICE – the submission to and celebration thereof – is a bistro and lounge coming to us from Chef Carlos Sotomayer (El Efante, Hai Yaki the Sea) doing the food and Bar Manager Nick (J. Borowski) doing the fancy drinks. Raffi Ibrahim, who we all know from Cantina Agave, is also involved in the project. It's in a spruced-up two-storey storefront on Yongjia Road. Coming in off the street, the first-floor dining area is simple and clean, with marbles and woods, muted colours and small accents, offering seating for about a snug 20 with a semi-open kitchen on one side. It's modest. It's approachable. It's neighborly.

Upstairs the space opens up into a gorgeous chalet-style lounge and bar, replete with an arched roof, seating to sink into, and lovely swaths of crisp marble keeping everything a little bit dressy. A neat little patio on the second floor ties the venue in, although slightly above, its surroundings; your neighborhood restaurant from around the way – although one nice enough to come from other neighbourhoods to try out.

The genre is "elevated," sharing plates of "global, borderless cuisine," with a menu split up into hot and cold small bites, more substantial "plates," bar snacks, and sweet things for dessert. The method, therefore, depending on party size, is scattershot, ordering four or five different small guys to go around and maybe one or two bigger guys from the "dishes" section and some desserts to share. Cocktails and wine to lubricate the process.

Or just get the chef to order whatever for you because that will always turn out the best. AKA it's "a Carlos restaurant."

Here are some sexy glamor shots of food:

Mosaic

Credit: Brandon McGhee

Caption: Mosaic (marinated salmon, Tiger's milk, horseradish), 75 yuan

The first dish on the menu is emblematic of the style of cuisine in the selections that follow, indicative of where Chef Carlos is in his creative culinary journey, and maybe serves as a bit of an ethos to proper living.

As opposed to "fusion" cuisine, which endeavours to merge different elements together into a new combination – a "melting pot" – a mosaic positions origin, al far-flung flavours together in the end product, existing alongside one another undiluted. The pieces of a Peruvian and Japanese journey here are uncompromised.

The theme is a thread throughout the menu: simple plates with three or four, or five elements, pointing to their disparate and interesting origins and contexts, unearthed and introduced to each other by a global chef.

Anyways, here's more food pictures and less philosophy.

Rich and creamy, the daikon evaporates on the tongue. Lusciousness.

Squidy! The 'P' is pigeon. The verdict from our table: "Oh yeah, that's quite nice."

The requisite tuna. Presented without ingredients, it's a delicious international tuna of mystery.

You've got to have cigars in a cocktail lounge. And these are way, way better than real cigars. "Fig jam" is an ingredient I'm always delighted to see, but one that's worrisome because it's gotta be one of the guillotine-worthy things you can order. Keep one eye over your shoulder to watch for the righteous wrath of the proletariat breaking down the doors.

These two are from the "dishes" section – bigger ones, but go ahead and share them:

A great combination of flavor and sensations. A warm, bright, and creamy tilefish with a more hearty, bistro-style chicken and rice cake.

"My road is made open for me; it was for this that I was born." That's Joan of Arc behind the one and only Chef Carlos Sotomayer.

Up to the lounge for drinks, take note of the gigantic and monolithic portrait of Joan of Arc, an iconic symbol of fanatical virtue.

Vice is a bistro and lounge, which means dinner stumbling bleary-eyed into drinks upstairs and then maybe even a repeat order from the kitchen, where they have a few particular items on the bar menu, which we'll get to in a moment.

In the bar upstairs, the drinks are from Nick, formerly of J. Borowski, and firmly contemporary. They're roundly served in that light and thin glassware, appearing simple, ephemeral, and uncluttered, and often featuring particular Chinese regional ingredients, along with the requisite arcana and obscura necessary to make proper fancy drinks in our modern times.

• Mosaic Coconut Punch (Calvados, sour plum, fresh lime, fresh apple, coconut milk, elderflower), 98 yuan
• Black Earth & Agave (Tequila, ice cream, melon, fresh lime, rice milk, pimento), 98 yuan
• Bakery Old-Fashioned (Bourbon whiskey, tonka bean, barley tea, maple syrup, aromatic bitters), 98 yuan

Our favorite is that Coconut Punch – recommend you chug two of them; that's the sweet spot – a great match for this chocolate cake.

And these super-secret off-menu items. Hot dog and noodles. Available on request. Good drinking food. And by god, they're elevated.

We've been following Carlos around Shanghai since the El Efante days in 2014, and it feels like this is his most personal project, and he's really got his passion, shine, and creativity on here. He offers one of the best chef-driven dinner experiences in the city, and it's a real pleasure to get led through a meal with him, pulling down pyrotechnics from his native South America into Japanese and Asian cuisine as he does.

They're open for reservations and walk-ins; give in to your Vice and enjoy it frequently. Judging by the early crowds, this is going to be yet another Shanghai hit like Rambu.

If you go

Opening hours: 5:30-10pm (dinner), with lunch service coming in a few weeks.

Address: 128 Yongjia Rd (Their hours are Bar snacks available until midnight, with the bar closing at 1am)