So, the weekend I decided to visit the Friends cafe which opened a month ago in Shanghai. The first branch is in Beijing. I read the article on one of the websites and took line 10 to Hailun Lu. The location of the cafe is quite odd and you walk through side streets, very old style streets with people napping, playing mahjong, hanging up laundry in the streets (very common sight in China).
I started to think I was in the wrong place until I crossed the bridge over the creek and was in a newer built up street and saw a big glass window and the "Friends" sign in neon lights. As I walked inside and it was much smaller than I'd thought it would be but it was pretty cosy. The interior is decorated just like Friends, complete with Pugsy, Joey's toy penguin! The orange sofa was there, giant cups, and the TV show playing in HD in the corner of the room. The mugs were all printed with quotes from the series, as were the menus, however one menu is only in Chinese and the other with some cake selections are written in English.
It turns out only the manager can speak some English so helped to translate the menu for me. We had a nice chat and he was curious how I found the place so I explained and now he is expecting more foreigners. I did hint he'd need to translate his menu into English...
It started to get busy so I headed out and slowly walked up to Luxun Park as there was a lantern festival. The weather has turned rather pleasant and the humidity is fading so the walk was nice until this woman with some laminated paper grabbed my arm as I walked past, chattering in Chinese but when I pulled away she grabbed me harder so I pointed at the paper and said loudly in English "I can't read any of that" and people stared and she let go.
Luxun Park was quite busy and the first thing you see when you enter is a big dragon sculpture made of Chinese dishes. The whole park has huge sculptures made of some material which I guess lights up but it was daytime. Also there are many things people are doing in the park, mostly singing their own karaoke from their loud machines, people dancing, some were in traditional dress doing dances, people playing cards and mahjong.
Afterwards I headed into Hongkou Plaza which I had read another article about some churros being sold there. The place is called San Gines and is found in the food court area in B2 level. The queue was long! I bought the ones with Spanish chocolate cost 19RMB for 6. It was interesting to watch how they made them.
I really like Hongkou Plaza, there are many western brand shops which I didn't even think existed in China, such as Desigual, Mango, Pull and Bear, Gap, Zara. Downstairs is a Carrefour, 2 floors of food places from sweet desserts to hot pot restaurants. There are some specialty foods like Belgium waffles, Japanese crepes, Korean Fusion snack foods, Hong Kong style waffles. I will definately visit a few more times!
I had dinner at Cafe de Coral which I'd been so a branch many years ago in Shenzhen. This place you order at the entrance and they hand you a plastic number stand and attach your reciept and waiters will rush around and deliver the food as it is cooked.
I had pretty nice wonton noodles for 23RMB.
I tried to go back to Luxun Park to see the lanterns at night but this now required you to buy a ticket for 50RMB and the queues was huge so I left.
The next day I headed to Shanghai Center in Jing'an where Crepes Co opened. I had a really nice crepe with chopped up ham, cheese and an egg. The coke arrived in some straw holder which was interesting. The crepe was really nice, best crepe I've had outside of France. Price was 55RMB which is reasonable seeing as going to My Old Dutch in London costs £5 only on a Monday.
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