A French-Japanese Bistro Just Opened in Shanghai's Fuxing Park — Spend ¥400 at Fuxing Project and Get a Free Seafood Platter

Shanghai's Fuxing Park has always been known as a nightlife cluster, so walking past in daylight, you'd hardly guess there's a French-Japanese bistro hidden inside. Fuxing Project sits within the INS complex — you have to walk through a bakery entrance and push past a velvet curtain before reaching the actual dining room: wood-toned, slightly rough around the edges, small in size, with a low-key vibe.

The spot tested the waters with brunch this spring, which set the long-term direction of a French-Japanese hybrid. The logic isn't hard to follow: Fuxing Project belongs to the Sake Ichi Group, whose portfolio is mostly Japanese restaurants, while chef Alexander Bitterling is French-trained. The two lines officially converge on the dinner menu.

The new menu runs to nearly ten dishes, but three are worth singling out: the turnip cake beignets (¥48), the spicy squid ink linguine (¥88), and the koji-cured A2 wagyu filet (¥228 / 180g).

The turnip cake beignets are made by slow-cooking daikon in stock until it soaks up all the liquid, then coating and frying it — crispy outside, moist inside, topped with a layer of prosciutto for salt and depth. It's a cross between Cantonese dim sum and Japanese-style braised radish. The spicy squid ink linguine, meanwhile, is plated substantially enough to carry the whole meal on its own: extra-thin pasta laid over squid ink sauce, piled with diced squid and shrimp, with green chili bringing a well-calibrated heat and faint numbing kick. The seafood flavor comes through clearly without overpowering everything else — the kitchen suggests a squeeze of lemon to finish it off.

The koji-cured wagyu is the kind of comfort dish you'd want to order every day — the meat sits in a savory sauce built on a salted kombu base, served with a seaweed and carrot slaw. Koji-curing has become increasingly common on Shanghai menus over the past couple of years: the beef is fermented with the same rice koji strain used in brewing soy sauce, which deepens the meat's own flavor. This filet genuinely tastes "beefy" in the best sense.

The other new dishes are less flashy in portion size, but each earns its place: the drunken foie gras (¥88) is seasoned with Shaoxing wine for a Chinese spin, lighter than you'd expect, and works well as an appetizer spread on bread; the yuzu pepper seafood salad (¥68) leans on the aroma of yuzu pepper to carry the whole cold plate; the anchovy butter mushrooms (¥58) make for a solid side. The braised beef cheek with Japanese curry risotto (¥98) forces risotto and Japanese curry together in one dish — the risotto is cooked to a soft, creamy texture, the beef cheek is braised tender and finished with pan juices, while the curry takes a backseat as a secondary sauce, adding a bit of warmth and spice. The suckling pig leg (¥168 / ¥198) is roasted whole until the skin turns crackling-crisp, paired with a sharp mustard-nori sauce that cuts right through the fat — a sauce that would probably work just as well on other meats too. The mentaiko cream bacon udon (¥108) carries over from the brunch menu, and it's not one to skip. The meal closes out with a sweet corn and salted egg yolk cake (¥42), a new item from the bakery — sweet corn isn't unusual in Southeast Asian desserts, but this version reads more like a frozen dessert than a cake.

Spend ¥400, Get a Whole Seafood Platter

The free platter itself is no small offering: chilled shrimp, clams, whelk, smoked mackerel skewers, and octopus leg, with a small dish of oil-and-vinegar dressing in the center for dipping. The rule: spend ¥400 or more per table and you can redeem one platter, available Sunday through Thursday, capped at five per day. Do the math, and ordering the three signature dishes mentioned above plus a drink is basically enough to snag this seafood platter for free — right now, it might be one of the best free freebies going in Shanghai dining.