J's Pudong Japanese Restaurant, Shanghai

J's first restaurant opened in Xintiandi a few years back and was one of the first upscale sushi restaurants to open in Shanghai. Since then, they added a second location in Pudong's Super Brand Mall, right across the street from the Pearl TV Tower.

So, you are probably thinking - all you can eat sushi inside a mall? Is Mao off his rocker? Well, let me tell you that in the last few years many new sushi restaraunts have opened in Shanghai, and a price war has erupted. That bodes well for lovers of sushi like myself. The last time I visited J's (original retaurant), we payed $125 for two people. Kinda steep, if you ask me.

And, unlike the USA, where "all you can eat sushi" is typically lower-quality sushi loaded with rice to fill you up, or pre-made sushi that goes by on a conveyor belt (ala the Sumo Sushi chain in Shanghai), there are many places like J's that give you a fixed price, but allow you to pretty much order anything on the menu. 138RMB (about US$16) gets you all the fish, meat, veggies, beer and sake you can consume in one sitting.

The only drawback here versus other very good sushi places around town is that the size of sashimi slices is a little smaller than usual. That can easily be solved by ordering more, but if I could change anything here, it would be to teach the sushi chefs to increase the size of the slices....

A great menu and a funky decor, as well as a view (albeit through not so clean windows) of the Bund, make J's a regular stop on Mao's gastronomy tour of Shanghai. Oh, and dinner for two at US$32 ain't bad, either.

Favorite Dish: We love to load up on sashimi (no rice!!!) and the shrimp tempura is good as well. The fried tofu, baked eggplant, baked scallops, and baked eel are also good dishes with plenty of taste.

We didn't like the pork rice balls, though, maybe it's an acquired taste. Also, we saw horse sashimi on the menu, but since we loved Seabiscuit, we decided to take a pass on that dish.....