saizeriya ristorante e caffe, shanghai

Wandered around Wanda Mall (万达广场) with my aunt to buy cakes and pastries for tomorrow's breakfast. She asked what I wanted to eat for dinner when I looked at the directory and saw an Italian restaurant. Since pizza and pastas are my favourite foods, I pointed at the sign and smiled at her. Apparently my cousins loved Italian food and I hadn't seen them in ages so they also turned up along with my family and my uncle - twelve of us sitting on 2 six seaters.

saizeriya:

I was impressed. Everything came in the order it should come in (entrées, main course .. ). Or it could have been a coincidence since my cousin said that it usually doesn't come in order. Since we ordered sides, it was ¥7 per cup with unlimited refills (usually ¥10). Normal water was free. Also I'm pretty sure there is like some sort of chain of Saizeriyas around Shanghai.. I've seen them in other places too.

tuna salad (¥11.00):

Nice mesh of flavours with tuna and creamy thousand island sauce. Tomatoes were unusually tasty - I hope they weren't fake... (After hearing about fake eggs (YES EGGS!) and blueberries in China, I can't completely trust anything anymore).

seafood chowder (¥8.00):

I really liked this. Given the very narrow selection of soups Saizeriya offered, seafood chowder looked and sounded the most appealing. Such a good taste that left some of us wanting to order more.. so we did!

grilled spicy chicken (¥20.00):

The wings were still steaming when it arrived on our table! (Fresh hot wings! Yay!). They tasted great. The skin was perfect and you could taste the faint honey marinade.

garlic bread (¥6.00):

baked escargots (¥17.00):

Loved this! Chewy and didn't have a weird after taste like some other place I tried escargot in China. I liked how my one was slightly burnt at the edges - made it a little chewier.

grilled chicken with vegetable salsa (¥14.00):

clam spaghetti in tomato soup - with 2 sausages (¥16.00):

I had a taste of this and I think I've mentioned that I didn't like tomato sauce based pastas or soups or anything so as expected, I didn't really like it. My parents, however loved this and ordered another serving without the sausages - which apparently tasted even better!

spaghetti carbonara (¥11.00):

Wish they put more bacon into this. But the flavours were right.

bacon & pineapple pizza (¥23.00):

Tasted somewhat like Hawaiian but not quite like Hawaiian. The sauce they gave was pretty generous in comparison to the pizza bought at Chinese Pizza Hut - which is totally dry.

beef steak with black pepper sauce (¥30.00):

Didn't really expect much of the steak and it wasn't that great anyway. I recommend the chicken here instead. Not that it tasted bad but after eating Australian steak, everything doesn't seem to match up to the standard that I like or may be I am being unreasonable and picky.

grilled chicken with black pepper sauce (¥14.00):

Chicken dishes here were so nice. Reminded me of the days when I'd ask for fried chicken strips all the time as a kid in China. Chicken in China is so tender and not as fatty (layer under skin) as the chicken here in Australia.

chicken pizza (¥24.00):

I have yet to encounter bad tasting pizza.

seafood spaghetti with tomato sauce (¥13.00):

spaghetti with seafood (¥13.00):

This spaghetti and the tomato sauce version had nice tasting seafood but I personally felt that the noodles were overcooked.

spaghetti with mushrooms (¥10.00):

My second most favourite pasta dish. Love mushrooms, love slightly spicy food? This is the one for you! Some may find it very oily or too greasy to eat.

spicy chicken grains (¥12.00):

From the menu, I was half expecting something similar to popcorn chicken from KFC. Unfortunately, it was neither spicy nor crispy. It didn't have much flavour either.

roast chicken legs (¥18.00):

rules sheet:

Plastered on every door and wall of the restaurant.. so many rules.... It says no photos but I took heaps anyway. All prices listed above are in Chinese dollars so to convert to Australian dollars, just divide by 6! Spent about 360 RMB which is roughly 60 dollars! All in all, I was very pleased with this dining experience!

saizeriya ristorante e caffe
政通路189号
万达广场特力时尚汇4楼
(近淞沪路，五角场)
上海市, China
t: 021-33620148
w: http://www.saizeriya.com.cn/