Unlike what the name suggests, Abbey Road is actually the name of a bar-restaurant in Shanghai, along the borders of the French Concession at Yue Yang Rd. It takes pride in serving Swiss food, and my Swiss buddy swears by it, so I have to think it is authentic.
Abbey Road has relocated to #3 Taojiang Road. Phone 5466-2069
I was contemplating hard between this place and the insanely popular Madison, but decided to go for the underdog, same reason why I rooted for Germany. Also, I didn’t want to join the eggs benedict hippie crowd. I also thought it would be nice to eat brunch outside, under the trees, a decision I later regretted because of the crushing humid heat.
Abbey Road serves brunch on weekends and only weekends. Amongst the brunch menu are the typical offers of omelettes, american breakfast platters and steak and eggs. Since I haven’t had a decent ‘American breakfast’ for awhile, I opted for the chefs breakfast, whilst my other half had the salmon with eggs.
Every brunch item comes with the choice of a bowl of muesli, corn flakes or fruits. I opted for the corn flakes, and was pleasantly surprised to find it served with cold milk, together with some slices of banana. I thought it was interesting because this is how many of us would normally start our breakfasts at home, so there was a certain homeliness about eating complimentary cereal at a restaurant, while awaiting the huge spread to come.
I did say that there was a huge spread to come right? The portions at Abbey Road are American sized! For the chef’s breakfast, you get 3 spiced sausages, 3 broad strips of crisp bacon, 3 eggs, 1 6inch-wide rosti and 2 mediocre pieces of bread. Other than the bread, all of the components were very well cooked and delicious. Sausages were fragrant with herbs but not overpoweringly so; The casings didn’t taste like plastic wrappers. The scrambled eggs were soft and moist. The bacon crisp and charred, as bacon should be. Bacon tastes the best when the fat has been rendered, something that I don’t encounter very often in restaurants here.
Rosti is a swiss type of ‘potato pancake’, similar to the American hashbrown.
The large rosti hidden underneath the bread had prominent buttery potato flavours. That said, it was a little greasy from an abundance of butter, and I would of enjoyed it more if it was a little more crisp on the outside. 8/10
The missus’ salmon came in similar leviathan proportions. Unlike some places where they make an omelette with smoked salmon, Abbey Road’s version simply layers pieces of delicately cooked cured salmon on an omelette, together with capers and pickled onions. This allows you to savour the components on their own, and also experience the components together in 1 mouthful.
Needless to say, the classic combination of salmon and capers paired together beautifully; Fresh clean flavours accented by the sprigs of dill. Very good. 8/10
I have eaten dinner at Abbey Road once, and had a memorable experience.
This brunch experience had further affirm that Abbey Road serves very decent rustic food, in very large servings. The pricing is slightly above average at ¥190 for 2 plates with no drinks, but I feel the quality of the food and unique environment kinda makes up for it. I do wish they would get rid of that mediocre bread and use some fresh crusty bread from Sun Flour bakery, only a few streets away.
Also, Abbey Road has ¥50 deals on all the various dish-types on every weekday, which is a very good deal!