HAPPY MOUTH — October 2007
On Wednesday, October 17, 2007, several of the members of the HAPPY MOUTH SUPPER CLUB met for a delicious, inexpensive dinner at SHANGHAI MAMA’S (scroll down on their site for the menu) in downtown Cincinnati. It was my month to select. Based on the wonderful Crab Cannolis that Tara & Raymond introduced me to late one Saturday night, I decided that SHANGHAI MAMA’S was the place for our monthly outing.
We met and ate lots of SHANGHAI MAMA’S wonderful appetizers (edamame, crab cannolis (4 orders!), fried wontons, wasabi dumplings, and more) before moving on to mains like Shanghai Noodles, Lo Mein, flatbreads, and more. And lots of adult beverages! Though the mains are very good, I think that appetizers are the most interesting part of a meal at SHANGHAI MAMA’S.
We ran into Robert W. and his friend who were coming in for a late dinner. They had intended to go to VINYL (see the writeup of our visit in March 2007 here) but found that it had closed. I am convinced that the spot is cursed! Robert had the singular experience of singing for composer Stephen Schwartz recently during a workshop production of Schwartz’s new show SNAPSHOTS, so we enjoyed hearing about Robert’s experience.
A very good Happy Mouth!
Yum! Whenever Terry and I go to Shanghai Mama’s, we feast on appetizers and not much else. I’m a big fan of the shanghai flatbread with chicken, the tempura and the crabmeat cannoli (Michael, one of the servers there, the self-proclaimed “white dude at Shanghai’s, swears that “chicks dig cheese”, so the cannoli are popular with women. The tempura’s my favorite– I’m blowing his theory!).
Sad about Vinyl– they’d been open and closed off and on for a few weeks, but I think they’re officially gone with the wind, now. Probably too expensive for the location. If they’d just do an “upscale” diner with “moderate” prices in that space, I’ll bet it would be successful.