the wagas we usually go to, on nanjing road, is a small cozy place hidden down on the basement of citic square (a rather expensive looking mall). don’t let the location or the (fake?) eames chairs + fancy wallpaper scare you though, the place is good – the kind of restaurant you wish for on a weeknight, to just wind down in a comfortable surrounding, with good food.

yesterday, i had the roasted pumpkin spaguetti, with spinach, pinenuts and feta cheese, and p. chose the pasta du jour, a bacon, asparagus and cream mix. for drinks, we always choose the same here: the honey-ginger-lemon tea for me and the indian spiced tea (kind of chai) for him. now look at that:

doesn’t everything look so yummy and colorful? easy, relaxed food for uncomplicated dinners, i say!
they also have quite a selection of wraps, salads, smoothies, muffins and all kinds of healthy food. oh and illy coffee… and discounts on evenings and breakfasts… and free wi-fi… and quick friendly service…

info:
wagas
LG12A, citic square,
1168 nanjing xi road
near jiangning road

ps – we were introduced to wagas by some portuguese friends in our early weeks in shanghai, and i think the experience was nothing less of a turning point in our dining routines. this was probably the first restaurant where we realised that dining out well, affordingly and in a nice environment was not difficult in shanghai – we had probably just been searching in the the wrong places.

since then, we haven’t looked back on our plan to test-taste as many restaurants as possible (well, within our budget anyway). this series of posts has only made me more curious to try new places and spread these flavours and sights to the world out there. i’m in full blogger-reporter mode here, happy, excited and inspired. :)

today as we were leaving to work, i saw p. looking for some cables on our cables nest/bucket. “what are you looking for?”, i asked. “the camera battery charger”, he said. “you don’t want to run out of battery when we go out for dinner, do you?”

:) :) :)