KABB Bar & Grill
Unit 1, Bldg 5, North Block, Lane 181
Taicang Lu, Xintiandi,
Shanghai, China
PRICE: ????
RATING:

Chris felt like a casual weekend breakfast, so we got up early(ish) in the morning and headed over to Xintiandi. He’d done his research and located a little cafe that serves up a hearty breakfast, KABB Bar & Grill. The name makes it sound like a pub, but it’s actually a casual restaurant with a relaxed atmosphere. I particularly like the large glass-panelled ceilings that allow sunlight to come streaming in. A lovely way to kick back on their large red sofas and enjoy a lazy morning.

Strangely, the waitress steadfastly refused to speak to me in English, despite the fact that she knew how to. Even when I asked questions in English, she responded in Chinese – despite me telling her that I DIDN’T UNDERSTAND what she was saying! Their staff needs to be trained to be a little more attuned to their customers – if they customer can’t speak Chinese and has made it clear, stop insisting on using Chinese (especially when it’s obvious you can speak English).

That aside, we were glad the food came out fairly swiftly. The portions are very generous, but then again, we expected them to be as the prices are high. My Spinach and cheese frittata with tomato, fried potatoes and bread was not bad. I found the frittata a little too dense at the end, since it was a very plain egg + spinach mix. The menu said “pinenuts”, but I counted 3 in total. It should also have been served with some tomato sauce on the side, since it was relatively tasteless. However, the 4 (carefully counted) mini cubes of cheese next to the frittata gave it a great punch of flavour. The tomato was excellent, served with some melted cheese on top. It was really juicy and tasty, and went very well with the bland frittata. I thoroughly enjoyed the fried potatoes, that came with onions and bacon. They were so tasty, though a bit on the oily side. The slice of bread came with no-frills butter and jam, and would have been much more impressive served with homemade/gourmet jam and a pot of fluffy butter.

The Poached eggs hollandaise with smoked salmon came out very impressive looking, and the eggs were perfectly poached. Hurray! The serving of smoked salmon was generous. It came on top of a slice of French baguette instead of the usual English muffins, because, oddly, they were out of those muffins. The sides of tomato and fried potatoes were also the same – not very imaginative 😉

The breakfast set came with a mug of coffee, and I was pleased that it wasn’t in a tiny little coffee cup. Impressively, the coffee was good, despite it being standard coffee, and the waitress wrinkling her nose at it whilst she was trying to “up-sell” the other coffees to us (since those didn’t come with the set and had to be paid for). We liked the cute little chocolate nut biscuit that it was served with – a nice touch.

Despite us sitting there chilling out for quite awhile, we weren’t rushed out or hassled to leave, which I appreciated. The vibe is nice and casual, and the food is not bad. A nice way to spend the morning on a weekend 🙂

Sitting under the glass ceilings at Kabb

Chris chilling out

Me and my BlackBerry, joined at the hip

A regular coffee, served with a cookie

Mmmm…

Spinach and cheese frittata with tomato, fried potatoes and bread

Poached eggs hollandaise with smoked salmon

THANK YOU AND GOODBYE