Jan/104
zest express
shanghai desk workers on the nanjing west road strip know there’s a few reliable places to get a salad during lunchtime. the usual haunts of wagas, element fresh and gourmet cafe all serve up slightly expensive, decent salads – or if the prices make you balk, one can make their own salad at city shop for only 10 rmb, however ingredients are quite limited.
after months of seeing the empty shop front on wujiang lu, zest express finally opened to provide competition to those above establishments. using organic vegetables, zest express’ calling card is being primarily a salad bar as opposed to being a cafe or burger joint or general restaurant.
last week i had the opportunity to visit zest express twice. but when i saw the zest special on the chalkboard, i knew i had to order it. twice. so i only tried the one salad when i was there, twice. but it might be my favorite salad in shanghai.
there it is, in the lower left corner of their specials, but made with warm goat cheese, baby spinach, sun dried tomatoes, honey balsamic vinegar and toasted almonds, i may be eating at least one of these a week. the interplay between the warm tangy goat cheese, the sweetness of the sun dried tomatoes, toasted almonds and honey balsamic and the crunchiness and crispness of the fresh baby spinach and almonds makes for a very complex salad – which goes far beyond just dressing on some lettuce.
zest express has a number of soups, sandwiches and smoothies to go along with their salads. i’ve only had the leek and potato soup (it was lukewarm and a little gritty) and the mushroom soup (it wasn’t bad, but nothing spectacular), and my colleague bryan was not taken with the sandwich, but my other colleagues enjoyed theirs.
zest express isn’t particularly cheap, with the salads ranging from 30-50 rmb, and right now as a newly opened restaurant, the service tends to be a little slow while they get their staff trained.
but the warm goat cheese salad is a thing of beauty and at the very least it gives everybody yet another lunch option along the nanjing west road corridor.
zest express
inpoint, shop 122
no. 169 wujinag road/shimen yi road
021-62173199
10:55 am on January 18th, 2010
who is zest’s target customers? if most of their salads / menu are priced around rmb 40, then i would be very surprised to see many Chinese there. there’s a lot of foot traffic on that street especially lunch time so there’s hope.
11:14 am on January 18th, 2010
kl – it’s white collar workers. both foreign and expat. you say you’d be surprised if there were a lot of chinese there – however, wagas and element fresh are always packed with both expats and shanghainese. With travel, higher paying jobs and expanded palates, targeting local Chinese with Western food is no longer the money loser that it used to be in the 90s. on that same street is the expensive awfully chocolate, as well as a starbucks and krispy kreme. all of which produce products which are available at much lower prices (cake, coffee, donuts) at local or asian based chains, and yet all of those places do fine.
And targeting expats – with global layoffs and shriking expat packages is a horrible idea.
12:28 pm on January 18th, 2010
agree to most of what you say especially wagas but i get the impression most of the chinese there are of international background. i may be wrong as am not a huge fan of wagas as i think it’s overpriced for what they serve.
with awfully chocolate, my impression is that Chinese sees it as some sort of premium chocolate thus they are happy to pay even though it’s nothing special. as for starbucks, locals are attracted to the ‘image’ / experience and am sure some like the drinks too.
i guess what’s curious for me is at what salary level would a local find rmb 42 for a salad a fair deal? wujiang lu has plenty of other food options at half the price therefore i just can’t see how a local would be happy to fork out rmb 42 for a salad, albeit an organic one. there is of course a sizable number in the area that can afford it.
totally agree that targeting expats is a bad idea. there’s definitely a market for western foods here and it’s interesting to see the changes on the street.
1:31 pm on January 18th, 2010
well, i was by there again today, and it looked to be a mix 60/40 for locals over foreigners, so there you go.