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...
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Tags: breakfast,
espresso,
sandwiches,
wifi internet
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.
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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.
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Coconut is definitely a date type of dinner place. Located on Fumin Rd near Yan'An Expressway, it has a big yard with a water pond (you walk over it as you enter), nice shady trees, and great lighting over intimate tables. The good looking house itself has 2-story and is decorated with dark wood and south east Asia artworks.
The food is standard fare Thai, and you can pretty find all the familar dishes on the menu. On average, the food tastes pretty good, but nothing stands out. I like the shrimp cakes and pineapple fried rice. The spicy dishes can be very spicy with the fresh chili pepper seeds mixed in. The price is mid-upper range but good value for the ambience.
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This chain is supposedly created by the original owner of YongHe Dou Jiang (永和豆浆), a popular Chinese fastfood chain, made famous by the soy milk drink 'dou jiang' (豆浆). You can also get other standard Chinese breakfast items like sticky rice ball with stuffing 'zi fan tuan' (粢饭团), pan-fried raddish cake 'luo bo gao' (罗卜糕), Chiness egg omelette 'dan bing' (蛋饼), as well as the popular 'xiaolongbao' (小笼包). They also serve soup noodles and various rice plates. The price is slight higher than what you would see by street vendors, but it's definitely much cleaner. They can also deliver for free for orders over $25RMB.
NOTE: This location has closed down as of Feb. 2008, to my chagrin. Hopefully some good restaurants will move in soon...
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Located a few doors down from People 7 and Nepali Kitchen, the resturant is hidden in a narrow alleyway with little lights on the ground. Inside, it's a huge, industrial feeling loft space. The sushi bar/open kitchen is on the first floor, while tables are sparsely placed on the first and 2nd floor. The dishes needless to say are on the pricey side. But with the kind of cool food presentation and atmosphere in there, you wouldn't mind. Oh, like in People 7, don't forget to check out the bathrooms.
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Tucked away on Julu Rd near Fumin Rd on the 2nd floor, it's very hard to notice People 7 unless you really look for it. To get in the door, you need to figure out the passcode for it. The 2nd floor is the bar/lounge area, and upstairs is the restaurant. The decor is industrial 'shi-shi' modern Chinese. It has a sister location People 6 (Yueyang Rd and Yongjia Rd) and is by the same owner as Shintori, a very cool Japanese restaurant. The food is delicate and comes in small portion so go there if you're not starving. Don't forget to check out the bathrooms (if you can figure out how to get in there) ;-p
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Some cab driver told me BaoLuo was a little restaurant started by this bicycle shop owner a few decades ago and now it's still has the same small house but has taken over a much bigger building behind (you can only see that when you go into the backside). This is where the old Shanghainese families would congregate starting at 5pm for dinner. You can only reserve seats for 6pm or earlier seating; otherwise, you'll have to wait out front just like 30 other people.
The dishes are classic Shanghainese "ben-bang", which means the flavoring is sweet with dark soysauce coloring. You should try their crystal shrimp w/ vinegar, fried bao (sheng jian bao), the "swiss" steak, and also the various cold appetizers like lotus root stuffed w/ sticky rice, string beans w/ scalion. They also have some seasonal and new dishes they invent. The servings are pretty big so it's better to go with a group of 4 or more.
The quality has gone down a bit since I first went there but it's still a popular local establishment to go experience. By the way, if you don't need "fa piao", you can ask them to give you discount on the bill amount.
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One of the biggest tea cafe chains in Shanghai. There's is also another chain by the same Chinese name by you can tell them apart from the English (the other one is called Be For Time). The "BiFengTang" 避风塘 seems to be the original one. One is on Nanjing Rd and corner of TongRen Rd, and the other is on ChangShu Rd before hitting ChangLe Rd. You can pretty much order most of the popular dim sum items, along with fried rice and noodles. Their sweet pork buns are very good (they also sell packaged frozen dim sum items in supermarkets). The one on Nanjing Rd has a nice sidewalk seating with window shields.
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One of the first cafe chains aiming at providing health, light fares. They have a good selection of juices and smoothies (with those boosters that Jamba Juice lovers are so familiar with). They also have wifi internet and bright interior so you can actually do some work there. Both the Shanghai Centre and KaWah Center (on DongHu Rd near HuaiHai Rd) locations have outdoor seating. My complaint would be that the food has become somewhat bland, and the prices are getting higher. I go there once in while for the bright space. The new Paul Bakery Cafe is right next to its Shanghai Centre location.
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