Swensen’s in Xujiahui

Swensen’s on the third floor of Metro Tower (1111 Zhao Jia Bang Road) is a great ice cream shop. They offer good Italian Noodles as well. We had great dinner at the outside garden tonight. The scene is amazing! The twin tower of the Grand Gateway is on the left – beautiful building with a big shopping mall in the middle (with bit TV screen on it) in the middle and 48-story high-raising tower on the both side. It is a great place to have dinner or ice cream.

I took the night scene with Davon’s camera, and will update this entry with pictures after I get them.

How hard it is to book a seat today in Shanghai. I called about 5 restaurants, and all of them are fully booked. (Namely, Yuxin on the Bund, Ying Qi on Jululu, Kathleen’s 5, BARBAROSSA in People’s Park, and Peace Mansion at Fenyang Road) Other reservation phone lines are busy. What a crazy city! From the business of restaurant, I believe it can be an indicator that the economy is going well.

Many bars are very good, but in Shanghai, not so many bars requires dress-up.

12 thoughts on “Swensen’s in Xujiahui

  1. wonder when will Baskin Robbin will step into Shanghai market? hmm… they have lots of flavour… yummy…

  2. Ah Swensen’s! I remember many a time when I had to queue up in Singapore. Guess I’ll just have to wait for the Beijing branch to open.

    If any of you guys are interested in keeping up on all the latest news and opinion about China, take a look at http://virtualreview.org/china

  3. “They offer good Italian Noodles as well”

    misleading info. Swensen, enfatize his ice cream as recipe from nord europe (italy is located in south europe, sicily was who invented ice cream, as it was elaborated from Macedons who had shredded ice flavoured with fruit.. then Egyptians), what its called, Italian noodles they shall be spaghetti! and not… the noodle at swensen are simply horrible, disgusting…, somethign that i would not give even to my pet…. and most of all absolutely nothing to do with real Italian noodle, nor the noodle making, nor the flavour or cooking system…

    most of people knows what italian noodles are :-)… such consideration look like if i shall say that mc donald offer good cantonese sandwiced beef bun…. :-)

    In Byun lu there is 3 places where they offer real Italian noodle one is just open restaurant close to the the SPA after the Diamond court, one is a restaurant on the back of Blue Frog called Cameo, and then inside the “uameda” on the Xin Jin Qiao Lu.

    i do believe that such consideration is due to have learned US poor culinary culture and mixed it up witht the great culinary culture from Europe.. no western food is not what the US fast food chain are trading in china that is absolent junk food.. that made majority of US citizen overweight and with lots of healt trouble…

  4. I never heard of Swenson in the US, then I found out it’s headquartered in Singapore. But from all its looks and feels it’s like a pure American exquisite fast-food restuarants. It’s interesting, next time I go back to Shanghai, I will definitely pay them a visit.

  5. Baskin Robin in Shanghai? Then there must be Dunkin Donut too. I am not sure how Shanghainese would handle American style donut though.

  6. I think you were joking, but there is a Dunkin Donuts in Shanghai, on Huaihai Lu. Mmm, donuts… Haven’t been by often enough to see how the Shanghainese are taking it.

  7. I think consumers in China are often mislead by new brands — you say that you do not shop at Ikea anymore as it is too “poor man” for you but you eat at Swensens? The food there is of very low standard.

    My friends in Singapore tells me that only the middle class eat there, the same people who shop at Ikea. Is there no better restaurant serving spaghetti in Shanghai?

  8. Haley,

    I think food is different. Food is something that to be eaten and digested and the next day you feel hungry again. Upper middle class or sometimes well-to-do people eat in McDonald or Kentucky Fried Chicken often because of convenience. However, in terms of buying furniture, they would shy away from IKEA because of the simple truth: Furnitures are permanent display in your homes and they show to the world your personal taste and your financial condition. A lot of upper middle class people may not want that impression to be made. Food is entirely different, I would go to the nearest fast-food place to save time. McDonald has pretty healthy food too.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *