Friday, August 29, 2014

Shanghai Food Review: KABB @ IAPM Mall



Dinning options for a rainy day...

Hello All and welcome back! Ever since I arrived back to Shanghai, it’s been grey skies and rain every, single day! The combination of dreary weather and the end of summer vacation lead me to an (indoor) food adventure during my last days of freedom. I enlisted the help of a foodie friend to tackle lunch and a follow up dessert at two newer places in Shanghai: KABB and Aime Patisserie.

My friend and I decided to meet at the new shopping mall IAPM. It’s a huge mall filled with floors of luxury shopping, restaurants and entertainment venues. After scanning the restaurant options, I noticed KABB and suggested it to my friend who agreed. I heard good things about their location in Xintiandi so I decided to see what the IAPM location had in store…

Inside IAPM Mall: A tribute to the lovable Snoopy


Snoopy life sized!!!!


Seating and Drinks:
We were quickly seated by a friendly host who spoke great English and accommodated our seating request (booth seats in a more quite area of the restaurant). Our waiter arrived quickly and told us about the menu full of summer specials as well as, the drink deal they had with lunch service: With any meal purchased during lunch time; receive a free soft drink, coffee or tea. I’m not much of a soda consumer and I don’t like to have hot drinks with a meal (unless it’s breakfast); so, I ended up getting a grapefruit spritzer since it sounded fun and fizzy. It turned to be meh tasting...lots of fizz but little grapefruit taste. My friend went with good ol’ dependable Coca-Cola. 

Inside look

KABB's Special Summer Menu

Fizzy but where is the grapefruit?



Menu and Placing an Order:
The menu was pretty straightforward-western food-sandwiches, salads, steaks, burgers and pastas. The prices were a bit expensive. 70-140RMB ($11.25 USD - $23.50 USD) for sandwiches and burgers and steaks started at 240RMB ($39 USD) but this was a given due to the location and of course it being western food.  I ordered the Mexican chicken sandwich which consisted of a grilled, spicy chicken breast, lettuce, cheese, bacon and guacamole (there was a spicy mayo but I removed it since I hate mayo) with tortilla chips and salsa. My friend ordered a lamb burger with French fries.

Taste Results:
The food came out in reasonable time-not too fast and also not to slow. Once we got our meals we dug right in. I was disappointed to see that my meal came with fries (they must have been out of chips and salsa) but, instead of telling our server I remained silent and ate them. The sandwich was very nice with a good hint of spice. I really liked the guacamole, it tasted fresh, seasoned and it was a nice color green (which means it must have been prepared that day). My friend raved about her burger and loved the spicy jelly that came on top. Since we were having desserts at a different location, we skipped the dessert promotion (an additional 20RMB-$3.40 USD) for the desert of the day.
Mexican Chicken Sandwich: Not bad...Just Right!

Lamb Burger: It got an enthusiastic nod from my friend!


Final Word:
Overall, I would rate my experience at KABB as 3 out of 5. The reason I scored it so low was due to the lunch not having the chips and salsa and also the bathroom situation.  There is no bathroom in the restaurant so if you wish to relive yourself, you must leave the restaurant and go back inside the mall. While it’s not a trek to get to the bathroom, it’s not right next door either. I would like to return and order something off the special summer menu including one of the alcohol drinks (the description sounded really good).  I also hate to judge a restaurant off of only one dish/one visit.

 Oh… And I will make sure to go to the bathroom before sitting down for my meal. :)

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