Applebee’s Neighborhood Grill & Bar
No.18 Basement, 131 Tianyaoqiao Lu
Xujiahui
Shanghai, China
PRICE: ???
RATING:

We were surprised to see Applebee’s, an American chain, in Shanghai. But we immediately went in to check it out – because I love American food, especially their portion sizes 😛 We were pleasantly surprised that the service was top-notch. Fluent English, so friendly and helpful, and not sullen or pushy like some local joints are. Spacious yet warm inside, it was a great place to hide out from the winter cold.

I thoroughly enjoyed my cocktail, I forgot the name, but it was a luscious creamy blend of vanilla ice cream, alcohol, and other pleasures. It came in a tall frosted glass and was filling enough to be a dessert. Chris’ Long Island Ice Tea was packed with alcohol, enough for 1-2 of these babies to get you tipsy 😉

Our deep-fried chicken, onion rings, nachos and quesadillas appetizers came PILED onto a plate, with so much food we had to poke around to see it all! The cheese quesadillas were simple and well-prepared, the onion rings were crispy and not too oily, and the deep fried chicken was spectacular and so tender. My only complaint was that the nachos were those really thin chips and not that kind that we normally get in Australia.

The rack of pork ribs, fries, coleslaw and beans was fantastic comfort food. The ribs were good and were very decently cooked, but not melt-off-the-bone spectacular. The chicken smothered in cheese, with rice was average. The chicken breast was charred nicely but a little plain. Fortunately, it was offset by some juicy sliced mushrooms and melted cheese on top. The butter rice was probably the best part – so buttery and rich!

Unfortunately they’re really far from where we live, so it’s not easy for us to go there again. But if we did, we would most definitely get their cocktails again, as well as their appetizers. Wouldn’t re-order the 2 mains we got, but I’d love to try their steak!

Luscious creamy cocktail, and long island iced tea

Very pleased with my cocktail

A tumble of onion rings, deep fried chicken, quesadillas, nachos

Ribs and fries

Chicken and cheese with rice

Afterwards, a chocolate fondant in a cream puff, from Beard Papa.
Weird combination but it tasted good!

Chris likes it too. ROFL!