Azul Viva
18 Dongping Lu (???18?)
Shanghai, China
PRICE: ????
RATING:

6 of us girls headed to Azul Viva, a Spanish tapas lounge owned by Eduardo Vargas (who seems to own half the restaurants in this city), since we had some Irish gal pals in town. On Dongping Lu, the restaurant is all about clean lines and refined dining in a casual atmosphere. The staff are attentive with a good grasp of English, and we finally settle on our (shared) dishes after deliberating on the large menu.

The dishes are touted as “tapas”, but the portions are actually quite reasonable. 3-4 dishes per person is all you need if you have a big appetite, making the prices here fairly reasonable. The dishes are overall well-cooked and uses quality ingredients, though there are a few hits and misses – a big miss in particular is the Risotto which is extraordinarily salty and rendered inedible. The hit dish at the table is the Seafood Paella, a creamy blend of rice and juicy seafood served in a cast iron pan. It’s delicious comfort food and comes in a very sizeable portion.

We leave full and satisfied. It’s a very Western-friendly restaurant with capable staff and solid, good food. Thumbs up!

The cool bar at Azul

Complimentary warm pita(?) breads with various dips

I ordered fries whilst we waited for all our food to arrive – couldn’t resist 😛

Our Irish girl friends

Me and my Aussie gf!

Bruschetta. Delicious!

Creamed spinach – I didn’t have this but it looked alright

Buttery mashed potatoes!

A delicious beef and mushroom stew

Some sort of ravioli

Risotto

Paella – this was delicious

Another risotto, so salty though 🙁

No one wanted dessert except me (doh), I go this Tiramisu. Loved it!

Free jug of sangria for us girls!