Arugula is one of the dependable "brunch circuit" cafes that we go to frequently. The simple menu is nothing spectacular but the food has a consistent quality. The best thing about the 3-story cafe is the comfy couches on the 2nd floor. It's great for a weekend afternoon hangout or reading. They do have this one bad habit of telling you that fa piao has run out. One time I was so upset that I made them give me a $1000 fa piao to make up for all those times they "ran out."
See other cafes and restaurants nearby.
Share This
Tags: brunch,
Cafe,
wifi internet
The owner of Feidan (it means a "flying egg" in Chinese) is a master at selecting his merchandise. With a shop that's less than 20 sq meters (the Dagu Rd store is bigger), he managed to stock the shelves with desirable products from all over the world. From jars of jams, pickles, and olives, to cans of illy coffee, pates, to boxes of cereals, pastas, and cake mixes, to bottles of branded mineral waters, you can find pretty much everything you need last-minute to gather ingredients for your exotic recipe. They also added a fresh produce section, so you can also get a small selection of veggies, dairy, cheeses, and meat. They also carry baguette sticks and croissants, and pita breads, in addition to regular toast breads. The prices are comparable to those at City Super (they have opened a similar concept satellite shop on ChangDe Rd near Beijing Rd but don't have as nice a selection of products), considering it saves a trip for people living around the area. I think it takes a foodie to open a shop like this and a foodie to appreciate the value of having such a shop around.
Share This
I found Amokka on the way to the traditional market. It sits on the quiet stretch of Anfu Rd between Urumuqi and Wukang Rd near Shanghai Dramatic Center. It's a 2-story house with a big open space on the 2nd floor. The furnitures have a modern designer look. The menu is a standard fare of sandwiches, pastas, burgers, etc. The pricing is average for western meals, with business lunch sets around $50 and higher for meat dishes. The breakfast/brunch goes for $28 but doesn't include a drink. I like the baguette sandwich with bacon and eggs, with a small side of salad (although I made an equally yummy sandwich myself with baguette I bought down the street at Feidan the next day). The cafe is not yet that popular so you can enjoy a bit of peace and quiet. While I feel grateful that so many nice looking old houses are getting converted into cafes, something is amiss --- maybe it's personality??
See other cafes and restaurants nearby.
Share This
When new shops started cropping up behind the Center, I was a bit doubtful of their qualities. And wine bar definitely sounded a bit snooty, knowing the wines are typically marked by quite a bit. Enoteca turned out to be a star --- people hang around until late in the evening because the atmosphere is so inviting. Last time we went on a Wed, and the place was packed at 10pm. The shop has a bar area, a dining area, and a tasting room, which can also serve as a auxiliary dining area. The wines are ordered by the bottles (as opposed to the expected by-the-glass arrangement in wine bars) because you can get a bottle for as low as $89RMB. I'm not an expert in wines, but I liked what I tasted (tried the Rose Chardonnay, and Bordeaux). They also have some of the best meat and cheese selections I've tried in Shanghai (much better than Franck's and less expensive). Since they don't serve real dinner type dishes, we pretty much ordered every tapas on the menu. Have to say every one of them was yummy. They also have a brunch menu, and I want to try it out soon.
See other cafes and restaurants nearby.
Share This
This Australian chain is among the many foreign contenders for the espresso market. Since I'm always in favor of the minority shops, I try to go here and Coffee Beans over Starbucks. Their drinks are made better than Starbucks in my opinion. They use the "green label" type of milk that ordinary consumers cannot get their hands on. One time I asked the barista if I could buy their milk, and instead, he taught me how to make perfect frothing with your regular Bright Light milk (blue carton kind which tends to puff up too much when you try to froth). The trick is to heat up the milk a bit (but not burning it), put it in the frig for a couple minutes to cool down, and then froth it. I tried it and was happy with the results.
Anyhow, my point is that Jamaica Blue is holding its own in this competitive markets, and they just need to have more locations to compete with the bigger guys...
See other cafes and restaurants nearby.
Share This
This is a express cafe franchise created by my friend Kelley Lee before she opened the City Diner. When I first found out that this cafe is just down the street from me, I was really excited. I really liked the energetic orange logo and the creative name. However I'd have say the price is on the high side, probably because it's paying substantial amounts of rent to the Summit and there's less foot traffic. I'd make it a everyday visit if the prices were cheaper by 1/3. Also, the cafe can pay more attention to the food itself. The forte of iiit should be its panini sandwiches, but some of the fillings like eggplants, bellpeppers can taste pretty bland. Given these are pre-made, it shouldn't be too hard to check on the flavoring ahead of time. The Jamica Blue cafe across the street has been stealing iiit's customers since it opened last year, even though their food selection is more limited. I feel iiit can definitely do better on the food side while keeping the prices lower.
See other cafes and restaurants nearby.
Share This
aFP, as it's known, was one of the first brunch cafes I discovered in Shanghai. It's tucked in deep in an alley that's literally a stone's throw away behind my apartment, but unfortunately, all the passageways between us are blocked off so I still have to go around to Huashan Rd to enter. The cafe is connected to the cute little Old House Inn (which I wish I own) and serves that guests there breakfast. The owner had built a greenhouse type room with AC in the front part of the yard, while the back part is open-air seating. The inside of the cafe is pretty small with 2 chambers with progressive furnitures like corrugated cardboard chairs and ultra-thin water glasses.
The cafe is coming up 2 years old and now there's a smaller crowd given there are many many more places that opened during this time, but it's still a respectable place with style. Their menus are colorful with curious names for the dishes. I like to go there for breakfast/brunch, where you can get the likes of scrambles, spinach, mash potatoes, etc. For dinners, you have a good selection of salads, soups, pastas, meats, and seafood. The dishes all have great presentations but sometime could be too salty. They use local meat for steaks, which is fine, but it tasted just so-so last time we ordered. The dinner portions are definitely big, and I always have leftovers to take home.
This cafe definitely has the ambience and I like to take visitors there. However, I wish they can throw in some twists once in awhile (even some re-decoration) so repeat diners can be pleasantly surprised. Also, like with every restaurant, aFP needs to make sure trainee chefs are fully up to snuff before letting them take the helm or risk tarnishing its reputation.
See other cafes and restaurants nearby.
Share This
Most people who eat here probably work in the Kerry Center, although the restaurant entrance is on the outside of the building. I was taken there by my bank manager for dinner. The place has a pretty authentic feel with a good selection of Singaporean/South East Asian dishes, but the decors are a bit run down. We ordered the mixed satay, salt and pepper pork ribs, stir fried veggies in fish sauce, crispy shrimps. All had heavy sauces and pretty salty. Is this the southeast Asian cooking style?
See other cafes and restaurants nearby.
Share This
In the morning if you walk down streets with food vendors/breakfast shops, you might see people crowding around big bamboo steamers full of white buns. These buns, or "bao zi" are stuffed with meat, veggies, or sweat bean paste. Another variation is called "mantou," which has no stuffing in it, but may have sesame or chopped scalions sprinkled on them. Each costs only $.40-.85RMB, and I always thought that if I ever run out of money, I can still afford these baozi... A soy milk drink complements it well. "Babi" is a quite popular chain around Shanghai, and they have a slogan "have you Babied today?' Good baozi should be soft and full of stuffing. Eat them while hot!
Share This
You can see these on streets near residential areas everywhere in Shanghai. These dinky (sometime dirty-looking) noodle shops are usually owned by Muslims from Lanzhou, the capital city of the western province Gansu, but could be owned by other out-of-towners from the northern regions also. Because they're very cheap compared to other types of food, many laborers like to eat in these shops. For $4-10RMB, you can get a big bowl of freshly made noodles with some meat topping. Most have photos of the different noodles so you can just point to the one you want. You can try the "dao xiao mian", which is noodles that's shaved off from a big dough by a sharp, curvy blade. The only thing is that the soup tends to be pretty oily so you might not want to drink it. Check to see if the shop is decently clean. A good sign is if the workers are wearing the Muslim caps and the floor is not full of oily noodles (this is just my guess 
.
Share This
