Citizen Cafe & Bar 天台餐厅
222 Jinxian Lu,
Huaihai Zhong Lu
near Shaanxi Nan Lu, Metro Line 1 Shaanxi Nan Lu Station
进贤路222号
近陕西南路, 地铁2号线陕西南路站
6258-1620
Open Mon-Fri 11am-12:30am, Sat-Sun 10am-12:30
Price Less than Y99 per couple
Accepts International Credit Cards
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- City Weekend says
This expat popular international cafe with a tiny patio lets you catch up on your current read or surf the web in peace. Enjoy one of Shanghai's best quesadillas, a perfectly prepared seafood number with creamy mozzarella, and sip a ginger martini on the balcony overlooking quiet Jinxian Lu. The best part? Their second floor has a no smoking policy.
Reviews
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Came here for Sunday brunch, came early so there were a lot of room. Love the Second floor and how it's no smoking, I mean who wants to smell tobacco smoke first thing Sunday morning. Their teas are just so adorable, the baggie, the little holder thing, the leaf. Their cake portions could definitely better. My friend didn't want cilantro on her salad, and they actually left it off! Usually doesn't happen in SH.
As others have pointed out, the food is meh (rather cheap ingredients) and overpriced. However, the ambiance is great. With the free wifi and cozy couches, it's a comfortable place to spend the afternoon. I never felt rushed by the servers.
Had a basil drop here on Tuesday and was not disappointed. Love the high ball glasses, love the color, love the basil flavor and the lovely lime-skin garnish. Will definitely be back to enjoy the upstairs patio once it warms up again.
Read about this place in The New York Times and decided to give it a try. The only place in Shanghai that I thought it's worth my time to write about(though I only spent 5 days here). The cafe/bar is extremely comfortable, great Basil Drops! I needed it badly after a day of chaos at the Expo - a lot of people with bad odors. The beef stew and the coconut prawns at the cafe was above average, definitely satisfying. The interior is designed with great details(I'm an architect), a must visit if you care about design. Only reason I didn't give 5 stars is because I had to wait for our table.
Another day at citizen, another waitress giving me the evil eye for ordering my usual pot of earl grey.
I understand that you are running a business, but teach your waitresses some manners. I'm in a corner table, taking up no space at all. Your cafe is half empty - not surprising since it's a Tuesday night. You'd think that people would have some time to fill my cup, but there is a waitress literally 2 meters away, standing at the door and doing absolutely nothing, who cannot even be bothered to do her job though I've asked three times. The caucasian woman sitting next to me is deeply engrossed in her novel and doesn't have that problem. Luckily, she just got no extra orders of bullsh*t service.
Taking this cafe off my list and suggest you do the same if you are sick of "the usual" - Shanghai restaurants that treat locals (and local looking overseas Chinese) as second class citizens.
Awful martinis, if you can call them that. Over-sized glasses with an over the top amount of sugar in them.
If your looking to rot your teeth via a liquid concoction than this is your place.
Slow service. A hair in the samosas, a really long one. The french fries were cold when they arrived. Really basic sandwiches and worst of all, sweet bread.
Shame, because it's a lovely space, and they do have decent drinks in the evening.
The ham and cheese sandwich was very poor. The ham is straight from Kedi. The "cheese" is like Dairylea or other processed alternative. I can do the same at home. It was surrounded by overcooked fries. Service was mediocre. I asked for the lunch set and got a curt "no" which after i enquired further meant no lunch set on weekend. 134 rmb for two very basic ham and cheese toasties, apple juice and a caffe late.
Great place to hang out with friends on a weeknight or get a bit of work/reading done. Music is soft, soulful and funky. One of my favourite cafes to chill out in.
The food is pretty mediocre though considering how pricey it is. My pasta was drowned in cream to cover up the sub par skill of the chef and the spagetti noodles were overcooked. Ham and cheese sandwhich used cheap processed ingredients. Calamari was a tiny portion above a small puddle of oil and consisted of the cheap tentacles rather than the more tender and meatier body. Ceasar salad was smothered in cheap commercial salad dressing with slightly wilted romain leaves. I don't eat here anymore and I hope their mgmt gets their act together because the atmosphere here is top notch.
It's a good place for a lovely lunch. Charming, nicely decorated, but very chill. Loved the food.
This place looks like I want my house in the countryside to look like (will never happen) and now it is around around the corner from my SH flat. Yeah. I'm sure it's great for a coffee because you can sit there forever without anybody looking after you. I do not mind seating myself and not being greeted at all but I never ate in a restaurant that made absolutely no effort to please with what they offer. Zero, nill, denada. The Mojito consisted of bitter mint, sugar, rum and a big rock of ice that filled the glass. If you do not know where to get good mint and how to crash ice do not offer a Mojito. The Cesar salad had been killed with an "even bigger than Saizeriya" amount of dressing that tasted like cheap mayonnaise and salt. Not like anchovies. No poached egg. The bacon bits were old and dry. We returned the dish. It came back with our mains and with the same horrible mayonnaise (but with bacon that had just left the pan). The seafood pasta consisted of canned tomatoes, cheap and overcooked tuna bites, chewy squid and some frozen shrimps. The only taste was a massive amount of Oregano and the Spaghetti were overcooked. The Terriyaki chicken was the cheapest chicken available. Dry and full of gristle. The sauce was not Terriyaki but simply YAK! Are the waitresses used to guests not liking the food? When we returned the chicken the answer was: "Make new or cancel"? We did not bother to ask for the mushroom risotto that never arrived. Apart from a "so sorry" from the waitress no apology was offered. It's not her fault. Another let down is the wine list. One red by the glass and most wines are marked up by 400 per cent. Who are you kidding?
Citizen's Basil Drop was in Shake and Stirred. Check out that post and more on the CW Nightlife blog.
I have to say the latte and dessert we had there the other night were both excellent--the cheesecake was especially delicious: not too heavy or sweet, but light and creamy. The coffee was strong but flavorful. Good value for the money. The only drawback? The dense aroma of cigarette smoke on the ground floor. It seems hard to find a good cafe in this city where you don't end up smoking half a pack of cigarettes--whether you want to or not.
Where You Drink
Name: Rebekah Pothaar
Profession: Writer
With the start of my third winter in Shanghai, Citizen Café is my living room of choice for ginger martinis and lounging around by day or night. An institution in the former French Concession, this is an ideal space for chain-smoking, eavesdropping and gulping martinis. Citizen's bartenders mix excellent ginger and passion fruit martinis (half price on Wednesdays). This is also where the city's writers and photographers get their work done. You can't help but overhear the latest scoops around town. I'm also attached to Velvet Lounge. Eventually you fall for the places in Shanghai that, over time, have absorbed the bits of your history–both fond and furious. And this winter, you just can't go wrong with the texture of red velvet and a red-blooded glass of wine there.
Good place to have a chat with friends in the balcony.
good place for a sunday work-session with a group of friends. free wifi, good food, and solid coffee.
Went there for lunch with friend. Service is nice but very slow. So many french So many enjoy card users.....hehe Food is soso...nice patio tho..:-)
Stopping in for a quick coffee and snack after a Saturday of hard shopping, we were delighted to find Citizen Cafe offered more than just a place to rest our feet. From the elegant and comfortable interior, to the attentive and cordial staff, Citizen made us feel right at home.We shared a spicy bean and steak "burrito" and a ham and cheese sandwich. The burrito would get shot for calling itself such anywhere near Los Angeles - but still tasted great. And the ham and cheese with perfectly crisp fries on the side was familiar and comforting.
Citizen Cafe is my main squeeze for brunch. Eggs Benedict is exactly what I need from the restaurant come Saturday or Sunday around midday.