Sabrina and I have been seeing ads for a restaurant chain called Babela's Kitchen for a few months now. It's an Italian inspired restaurant and we have seen several of them popping up around Shanghai, generally with long queues (we saw a queue at one site the other week that was at least 100 deep!).
So tonight we finally decided to go and check it out for ourselves. The decor was simple and quite pleasant - nothing flash. The thing that amazed us though was the prices. Most pasta main meals were between 8 and 15 RMB - thats right, A$1.40 to $2.60!
The menu is fairly simple, its bilingiual and has pretty pictures, there are not too many choices, but there is enough there to keep everyone happy - vegetarians included.
We ordered calamari rings (8RMB) and garlic prawns (15RMB) for appetisers, followed by a pesto pasta for Sabrina and baked penne bolognaise for me (both 12RMB). A can of ginger ale (5RMB) and a strawberry cider (9RMB). Dessert consisted of Tiramisu (10RMB) and mango pudding (8RMB) for a grand total of 79RMB (A$15) for a 3 course meal for 2.
The food was good and tasty, it was delivered fast and the service was adequate (Chinese style service ;).
So all in all, a very positive experience and outstanding value for money. I think we may make regular visits to old Babela's Kitchen - its only a 10 minute walk from our place!
The one we visited is on level 3, 68 Huaihai Xi Lu (just off from Xizang Lu), Ph: 021 6326 3827.
There is another in Pudong that you can check out here.
a random search brought me here~
just went to babela's kitchen today with my bestie and we definitely loved it!
:o) wellz btw the one we went was in cloudnine~
hilsen
kaytea
Posted by: Katy | 13 February 2007 at 06:44 PM
Went to this place today and it really sucks, we walked out after our apps (Had to pay the full meal price) But it was gross, I've never seen garlic bread that is green, or such salty risotto. The Mango pudding grossed me out.
Stay away at all costs
Posted by: Matthew | 12 July 2010 at 08:09 PM
I had my first taste of Babela's in the outlet in Qinghe, Beijing, last Sunday.
The quality was quite acceptable. It is not really Italian, but you need to see it as a category of its own.
RMB 198 for four people is amazingly cheap.
Posted by: Johnny Lee | 19 July 2011 at 11:09 PM