Sourdough Brunch at Shanghai's Fuxing Park: A French-Japanese Mashup of Foie Gras Toast and Fried Monkfish Buns
Fuxing Project, tucked inside Fuxing Park, has rolled out a new sourdough brunch menu built on house-made sourdough bread, featuring French-Japanese fusion dishes like foie gras truffle toast and fried monkfish buns. Available daily from 11am to 4pm.
A beer-battered monkfish fillet tucked into a butter-brushed brioche bun, topped with soy-cured salmon roe and smoked cheese — the Fried Monkfish Bun (¥88) looks like a fast-food fish sandwich but tastes like anything but. It's the easiest-to-overlook, most-worth-ordering item on Fuxing Project's new "sourdough brunch" menu.
Located on the ground floor of INS within Fuxing Park, Fuxing Project is a three-in-one space combining a bakery, a wine bar, and a brunch spot. During the day, the terrace stretching along the storefront faces the park's greenery — perfect for solo coffee-and-croissant sessions or a full sit-down brunch. Come nightfall, the same space transforms into wine bar mode, serving small plates with a Japanese undertone. All the bread is baked fresh in-house daily — baguettes, sourdough loaves, cakes, pies, egg tarts, mini sandwiches — and this new sourdough brunch menu uses those fermented breads as the base for most of its dishes.
Fuxing Project is run by Sake-X Group, which also operates Japanese-concept restaurants like Sake Ichi, Ichi Roll, and Umamiya. It's only natural, then, that chef Alexander Bitterling's menu leans French-Japanese fusion: light touches of miso, soy sauce, and bonito flakes paired with koji-marinated meats. The mentaiko udon carbonara and katsu-fried burrata are both products of this same logic.
Menu highlights: from foie gras toast to katsu burrata
The menu's signature dish is the Sourdough French Toast Deluxe (¥98): thick-cut sourdough soaked in bonito-infused egg batter and pan-fried, then topped with mirin-soy confit foie gras, a poached egg, and Yunnan black truffle, finished with a ginger-tinged sauce that leans unapologetically rich. The Shrimp Toast & Poached Eggs (¥98) takes a different approach — sourdough mixed with mentaiko and shrimp paste, deep-fried, then piled with salt-cured sweet shrimp, asparagus, Danish-style mayo, cod roe, and wasabi hollandaise.
The Koji Aged Wagyu Steak & Eggs (¥168) is a souped-up take on the classic steak-and-eggs: koji-marinated wagyu tenderloin, toasted sourdough with avocado mash, a poached egg in truffle-wasabi butter, plus porcini mushrooms, sausage, bacon, and a salted kelp salad. For something cold, the Smoked Mackerel Tartine (¥88) layers smoked mackerel over toasted sourdough with tartare sauce, house-pickled vegetables, and mustard seeds for a light, smoky profile; the Steak Tartare (¥98) uses black garlic for an Asian-inflected aroma, paired with house-smoked cheese and pickles.
For heavier appetites, there's Mentaiko Carbonara Udon (¥108) — thick udon noodles coated in a mentaiko-egg yolk sauce with smoked bacon and kelp, topped with bonito flakes. Burrata Katsu (¥88) breads and deep-fries a whole ball of fresh burrata for a crispy shell with a molten center, served with a porcini soy-yuzu sauce. And the Roasted Koji Akikawa Chicken Thigh (¥88) comes with yuzu-pepper creamed cauliflower.
Desserts get equal attention. The signature Bean Paste Cream Dog (¥35) is shaped like a Shih Tzu, with house-made red bean paste, fresh cream, and coconut-sugar mochi — lighter than it sounds. The new Chocolate & Mochi Cake (¥48) sits somewhere between banana cake and dark chocolate brownie, dense and moist, served with miso caramel sauce and coconut-sugar mochi. Four new drinks this season, each ¥48: Full of Passion!, blending passion fruit with Earl Grey and Thai basil; Hojicha Coconut Cloud, coconut water topped with hojicha foam; A Day in Fuxing Park, a pear-osmanthus matcha blend; and the One and Only Smoothie, blended with Meiji yogurt, blueberries, and figs, topped with house-made granola. Also available: Aperol Spritz (¥68), Strawberry Gin Fizz (¥78), highballs (from ¥48), beer (from ¥38), and wine by the glass (from ¥68).
The sourdough brunch menu is served daily from 11am to 4pm, with a quiet weekday vibe that gives way to families with kids running around the park lawn on weekends. Booking through NOMFLUENCE Shanghai gets you a limited bread basket featuring shiso-apricot sourdough, amazake country sourdough, and kelp-soy baguette, served with mentaiko, hummus, and beetroot butter — items may vary depending on availability.
