Sun-Thu: 10am - 11pm Fri-Sat: 10am-2am Sat & Sun: Brunch 10am - 5pm, Open 'til 11pm
Price examples
Steak Fries 110rmb, Pasta dishes starting from 45rmb, Tsingtao beer 25rmb.
SmartShanghai.com Editorial Review
Editorial content is independent of paid advertisers.
Any expenses are paid for by SmartShanghai.
A white sign on Fuxing Lu points you into the alley where you'll find Arugula's friendly orange building. Downstairs is a bit cramped but upstairs is a spacious cozy atmosphere. The brunch menu is the best deal but all the food is worth a go. There aren't many other places in the city where you will find arugula.
I'd rather McDonald's - even they can't screw it up as badly as Arugula. Went there with a group of 8 on a Wednesday afternoon for lunch. Got there around 115pm and it was relatively crowded. However, busy as it was, it didn't excuse the fact that it took OVER HALF AN HOUR for any of the can't-be-bothered-with-my-job waiters to take our orders or even serve us water. Repeated requests for service were simply waved away or brushed aside with "One moment, we're busy.". Not a single server looked like they were really rushing for anything, to be honest, or even remotely genuinely interested in serving our table.
The food took forever to arrive and when they did, they were all luke-warm. By the time the appetizers came, it was almost 230pm. Mind you, this was a workday - people usually don't have more than an hour to waste over lunch. That, and the fact that we were already starving, made it impossible for us to send any of the food back.
When dessert finally came, they conveniently forgot mine, so the kitchen had to go make another banana crepe. That alone took over 15 mins. To top it off, they forgot to bring cutlery to go with the dessert.
This pathetic excuse of a "lunch" (I'd call it an ordeal) was finally over at just past 4pm. I've never come across anything as ridiculous as this. Terrible food, horrible service, all to be endured over 3hrs. A 3hr lunch for this?? Nothing new in this city, obviously. Just another restaurant living up to the expectations of the jaded. If I were the owner, I'd fire the entire staff. I wouldn't go back there unless my life depended on it.
yeah it feels as if this place kinda gave up on things... Shame... I had a couple of lunches there - which were on the pricey side compared to other venues nearby. Did some dinners with friends, but it is no longer a choice for me/us. The portions of the food got smaller, the quality got worse, and the staff has a chip on their shoulder. The place is more empty then ever now, and half the crew there still can't be bothered to do their job... Sad = had such potential and had a good start.
Was hard to find and when we did find it, wasn't worth the trouble to find it. Meat was overcooked, service was ok if we have to ask it and I noticed 2 of 4 of us had dirty fork. Should be better :(
i always go to Arugula often when Leo was there. i love the place the service and the warmth feeling and being feel at home.
i came back and it change a lot where's leo i ask the waiter and they don't know. the food is not the same as before the place is not organize and the service is so so so.
such a pity it is beautiful place to hang out to start the evening but there's no character anymore. Leo wherever you are let us know. if you are still in shanghai keep in touch.
Went last night,was very dissapointed.Nice environment,service average,food was not good and too little.
I had the lamb,was cooked in cheap oil (how bout chragrilled?),vegetables also oily and never came with the pumpkin puree.When i asked for it the gave me two slices of cooked pumpkin.
The owner was very nice and took my moaning to heart,but might not go back.Desert is supposed to be nice.
It was a disappointing night at Arugula. I was initially impressed by the quality of the food but after a night of "All you can eat", I went home hungry. It was a moderately size table of 12 and we were sitting there, repeating orders over and over again, for a glass of coke and ice water. Not to mention the cocktails that they ran out in the beginning of the dinner. So much for 'free flow' as promised.
The food came very slow and i was reduced to eating small scraps of their lovely cod fish, and repeat orders never came. Only 30% of what I asked for came, the rest of the requests seemed to disappear. It seemed as if I never even had a main course.
A la carte menu was not offered when asked and i recommend that one should visit the restaurant only when this promotion is off.
I had read mixed reviews, but was completely impressed by Arugula when I went for lunch last Saturday. The seating on the 2nd floor was bright and comfortable (some people came down from the 3rd complaining of a kongtiao freeze) and the staff was very friendly. We tried the classic arugula salad (good), the smoked salmon-potato soup (good) and the rigatoni (excellent and very fresh!). I definitely recommend it for your next brunch, especially if you go Saturday with the 60% off coupon from the Enjoy book - a great deal!
Simple and nicely executed food in a nice environment... What else do you want? Descent service? Hummm... Seriously this could be a very nice place if a basic training was given to the local staff.
went for Sunday lunch. Pretty good. Nice, modern and fresh feeling interior, comfy chairs. Not too many people, so it was a relaxed atmosphere.
Food was good. Nothing too fancy, but very good for a casual Sunday lunch. Their Homemade Lemonade is YUMMY! Had a plate of pasta and it was good. Nothing shocking just good. Felt really full after we left... but that was probably because I ate a side order of Baby Baked Potatoes all by myself... They were yummy too. Service was OK.
all in all pretty good. Will go back.
I'd have to say the food wasn't so impressionable, but for a casual lunch, it's ok. I would have to agree with the other review that the service wasn't so great. I went with 3 other people and it was slow. It wasn't even crowded and staff could be more pleasant. Maybe after time service will weed out the problems.
The food was pretty darn good. The restaurant was well decorated, the portions and the prices were pretty good - well on par with the rest of Shanghai for this level of pretty good food.
And the service?
Well the food was pretty good.
(Seriously - is it so difficult to have the kitchen fire all the entrees for the same table at the same time? My local Chili\'s and TGI Fridays employing high school kids and college dropouts has no problems doing so. Why the difficulties in Shanghai in getting food to the table in a timely fashion?)
Find anything wrong or missing in this profile ? Contact us here