The Grumpy Pig
Addess: 65-4 Maoming Bei Lu, near Yan’an Lu / 茂名北路65-4号, 近延安路
Tel: 6217 3355
Hours: [Sun-Thu] 11am~10pm [Fri-Sat] 11am~12am
Price: 100~200 RMB/person
Visited: Feb 2012 (visit 2)
Small, comfortable, bare brick walls, Edison amber light bulbs, with a succinct and pork-heavy menu. Welcome to The Grumpy Pig.
We started with the Pork Street Toast (35 RMB), an adaptation of the Vietnamese banh tom chien. What it is: a mixture of sauteed ground pork, mashed sweet potato, and finely julienned raw sweet potato spooned on a baguette, battered in rice flour, deep fried, then glazed with some sweet chili sauce. Greasy, crispy, chewy, sweet, savory.
Shanghainese Spring Rolls (15 RMB/3 pcs) was typical – pork, mushroom, cabbage.
I don’t know why I ordered the Seasonal Sauteed Greens (18 RMB). Just like the menu depicted – “they are seasonal, they are sauteed, they are green” – nothing to sing about. I really should’ve ordered the Green Papaya Salad (40 RMB) as recommended by the waiter.
Up to this point, I was ambivalent about whether I’d come back to The Grumpy Pig or not, but the Pork Rice Bowl (40 RMB) really sold it. Braised pork belly (fat and tender) with roasted onions and poached egg over a bed of white rice. Stir them into a glorious goop, and down the whole bowl. Not to be missed.
I took a bite of my friend’s The “Grumpy” Sandwich (55 RMB) – shredded beer-braised pork piled on baguettes with bacon onion compote, arugula, bacon vinaigrette, and a zesty aioli. The flavor and texture were surprisingly refined, no wonder it’s a crowd-pleaser at the restaurant.
I still need to come back to try their famed Tonkotsu Ramen, and of course to get another Pork Rice Bowl.
Grumpy pig is being just near my office…i went there for the second time to try THE grumpy pig sandwich…(i keep space for next time for the rice bowl advised by my favorite Sns writter !)
Atmosphere is really nice, i love the design of restaurant and music…but i was still fully alone in the “restaurant/boutique”….
Really great tasty pork sandwich which doesn t look like the other. It deserves to taste it for this unknown (for me) way of preparing beef which makes it melty, tasty but not fatty. I will try soon for an after work drink as place is really nice.