Southern Belle 美之美汁咖啡酒吧
433 Changle Lu,
French Concession
near Xiangyang Bei Lu, Metro Line 1 Shaan Xi Nan Lu Station
长乐路433号
近襄阳北路，地铁1号线陕西南路
151-2111-9609, 139-1818-8520
www.southernbelle.com.cn
john.otoole@southernbelle.com.cn
Open 11noon-2midnight
Price Y100-Y199 per couple
Accepts International Credit Cards
This Venue has been nominated for a Reader's Choice Award 2010 in the category Shanghai - Best American Restaurant
- City Weekend
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Is Southern food going to be the new Mexican? We have a feeling it just could be. This restaurant has beefed up its nightly dinner menu to include their delicious barbecue instead of just sandwiches. The grilled wings, comforting gumbo, juicy burgers and luscious mudslides will keep us coming back.
- Contributor
Description -
Sean Fitzgerald of Big Bamboo fame is going back to the roots he's always wished he had. The Southern Belle is a little piece of the warmer side of the Mason-Dixon smack in the middle of the French Concession. With a true Southern Hospitality style Happy Hour (2-8PM), a South-inspired cocktail list (think Mint Juleps and Lynchburg Lemonade), and a spacious Veranda in the front, Southern Belle is a bit of a throwback, a bit of an oasis, and a lot of comfort.
We're in the process of expanding our menu and we've now got a spicy texas chilli, Cajun Jambalaya, Shrimp Gumbo, Quesadillas and the perennial favorite: Red Beans and rice (don't knock it 'til you try it)
Plus our grill is now up 7 days a week (from 5pm weekdays, from 3pm weekends). With our all-you-can-eat and drink on Wednesday nights!
Come in, grab a Bourbon or a burger, and enjoy a little Southern comfort. Cheers.
Reviews Been there? Add a review!
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cityweekend
Most Recent Reviews
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Ok - just spent 15 minutes reading throught the DIATRIBES below and honestly I'm shocked. Where are these fools coming from? Seems someone just has a personal axe to grind in this case......
I have seen this place several times walking by and just had to go in and try it. I figured I would go in and give it a try since it was just so close to my apt.
I was very pleasantly surprised. I tried 2 of their cocktails and I really did like them. I also ordered a grilled chicken sandwich and it was also very good.
Their one weakness seems to be their service. The wait staff was very friendly, but still a bit slow when it comes to delivering food.
I read below about someone who was really upset about how "Un-Southern" the food was(Orangeneck comment below), but I would have to disagree. They don't have a very extensive menu by any means, but the deserts, Chilli, and BBQ looked pretty Southern to me (admittedly from the North.) I have tried foods throughout the south while going to school in South Carolina, and there is A LOT of variety down there, so I can't really blame them for not offering everything. I do agree that a good Southern Bfast menu would really be attractive (Rooster comment below).
I even spoke to the owner (Sean) a bit while there and he was very polite and friendly. He did say something about how they were looking at expanding and adjusting the menu to those items that seemed to be favorites and something about a new weekend Brunch menu they were working on.
Overall, this seemed like a very nice little place, though they still need to polish their service a bit. I would recommend it as a BAR or a handout with good snacks, but probably need to see how their menu develops before I would try to rate them as a real restaraunt.
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If this is Southern Us typical restaurant, then I do not want to visit South of the US.....!
The staff is nice and welcoming but the service itself needs to be improved.... A LOT. 35min to prepare half of a sandwich + 10g of coleslaw. And the sandwish arrived cold.
And let's not speak about the food.... ahem... the sandwich was appalling: supposedly a hot sandwich but arrived cold as I said and ham that did not even look like ham.... the color and the smell were odd. And full of greasy mayonnaise to hide the bad quality of the ham.. What about the coleslaw? totally tasteless and not fresh at all..
Good cookies though.
The place is nice, so maybe it is worth going for a drink, but certainly not for the food.
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Where do I begin? Being an American who grew up in Georgia this was a disgrace. Firstly, if you call yourself a Southern restaurant you better have a clue as to what type of food southerners eat and what the asians who come to the southern states like to eat. This place was a mish-mash of creole and texas BBQ. That is not Southern Food people. That's like calling Papa Johns Pizza true italian fine dining.
Anyways, my remarks on our outing there for lunch. We show up sit down on the patio (which was nice, thumbs up there), and the server promptly gives us the menus. We have to ask them for the lunch menu. You would think eating at noon during the work week would necessitate the servers to bring the lunch menu. Anyway, minor annoyance. So we open the menu and look at the selections... What the f@!#? This is not southern food. They should have called themselves a cajun or creole establishment. Even then you are half right. Anyways, ordered the lunch special with the Jambalaya and the Po'boy.
The best part of the meal was the potato salad that came with it. Jamabalaya was extremely dry and tasted nothing like what you would get in Louisiana. It even had what looked like the really bad Chinese hot dogs which I assume is suppose to be Andouille Sausage? Don't order Jamabalaya.
Tried the Po'Boy. Ok the corned beef was ok. The color of the meat was a little odd. Not sure if this is cooked in the kitchen or pre-bought.
Anyways, a very disappointing trip for a new restaurant that I had high hopes for. If you want southern texan style food, go to Bubba's. They at least have corn bread even though it isn't the best corn bread.
Don't waste your money here as the food is neither authentic nor good. Until they figure out exactly what they want to do with the place, I would advise to stay away until a new menu is released. Their bourbon menu seemed to be better thought out and prepared than the food menu.
Add true Southern staples. Southern restaurants in Georgia are popular with Asia tourists. Who doesn't like fried chicken, biscuits and gravy, and pecan pie? Man, even American Steak & Eggs that use to be at the Portman had better Southern Food!!!
I hope this restaurant gets its act together as authentic southern food is ridiculously awesome.
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-biscuits and gravy -homemade macaroni & cheese -chicken and dumplings -greens -cooked beans -black eyed peas -any casserole dish -cobler -cornbread! -country gravy -chicken fried steak -fried okra -fried zuccini -fried pork chops -fried chicken -fried catfish -fried pickles -fried anything!
these are southern dishes....
When they throw away their menu and start completely over, ill be the first in line to come back.
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A happy place with cheap beer, awesome dessert and wonderful staff. Always a pleasure to be there, especially on tuesdays when it's Trivia Night!
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awful
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We have eaten at Southern Belle twice and love it - both times we sat on the deck and had responsive wait staff and management. Both times the food has been great and well priced - not too spendy. Today we contributed to the "Books for Beer" program and think we both (Southern Belle and us) benefited!
My personal fav is the grilled veggies and all the deserts - they totally live up to the hype!
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Just wanted to let everyone know, our Grill is now on on Friday nights as well as Saturday and Sunday and we've got open grill for wings and dawgs on Wednesday, 7-10pm for 100RMB!
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Best BBQ chicken wings I have had in Shanghai! Tasty. service is slow and the place smells like dogs (there were 2 dogs inside) but overall a comfy place with great wings!
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Growing pains?
I'm not sure where some of the ire is coming from here, I thought the place was pretty good. A few of us went for the weekend cookout/BBQ thing and had a good time. We got a pitcher of the lemonade cocktail and that was really good. The food wasn't the best I've had in Shanghai, but it was a solid burger and pretty well-priced. A friend got the hot dog and that was actually better.
The service definitely needs improvement, a little slow and the girls didn't speak much english but they were friendly and seemed like they were trying to help.
I'm not really sure why people are complaining about the prices. We went at like 3 on a saturday and it was happy hour, and the drink list looked pretty reasonable in terms of prices compared to most places in the french concession it actually seemed on the low-end.
Anyway, we liked it, if they clear up some service issues they have potential
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expensive food, expensive drinks,slow service,a kitchen thats the same size as the toilet,smelly toilets and a manager who doesnt seem to have a clue=big dud failure
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A very un-southern experience!
Sunday afternoons are reserved for a small group of us to go try new places to eat and shop enjoying our favorite day of the week. This weekend was unfortunately not as good as we had expected. We all woke up and decided we would go to try SOUTHERN BELLE. Excited for some hearty true southern food, and expecting rich and intense flavors and that loving southern hospitality we could not have been more disappointed. We arrived at the venue where most lights were turned off (perhaps they were being environmentally friendly which I defiantly approve of) but it seemed dim and not very inviting. After sitting down and being handed a extremely boring selection of menu items we made our choices. 3 people ordered the SHRIMP GUMBO, 1 order of Kebabs, 1 order of Chicken wings, 1 order of cheese quesadilla.
The food took an extremely long time to arrive considering there were NO other people in the restaurant, besides ourselves, we thought it was unacceptable. First came the quesadillas, they arrived as 5 small pieces on a plate with 3 pieces of sliced carrots, 3 slices of eggplant and a few pieces of a potato salad. Over all the dish looked plain white and boring. We were curious when the waitress did not come back with any sauce at all, and had to GET UP out of my seat and walk to the front of the restaurant, exit and go outside to look for her. As I sat down the manager (with cigar in mouth) came over asked what was wrong and then let me know that they do not serve any sort of sauce or guacamole or salsa with their quesadillas. I have never been to a place street style of high end that doesn’t provide sauce with this kind of dish. It was dry and plain un acceptable. Finally I was given some BBQ sauce to use. For 50 RMB I didn’t understand why they couldn’t give us sauce. Half way through finishing the quesadilla came the kebab. 3 very small skewers which had vegetable between them for 70 RMB this was a rip off, it came with the same garnishes as the quesadilla . The pieces of meat were small and dry and did not prove to be a generous American meal. Then came ONE serving of gumbo. The other two arrived almost 10 minutes after. A plate of rice and a small bowl of gumbo that would make people from the south feel shame. The bowl contained around 5 pieces of shrimp and was bland. When the two other gumbo dishes finally arrived they had boiling hot bowls and cold gumbo. It had obviously been microwaved. Then came the wings. 6 small pieces of chicken. They were from the smallest chickens the kind you buy in the local lian hua for 6 rmb a pack. They were not marinated fully, and the little tasteless marinating that they did do was so bare minimum it might as well have not been done. 6 small chicken pieces for 60 RMB is SHAMEFUL for a southern meal.When it comes to new restaurants, we well understand that they need to be given a leeway. HOWEVER this is the real reason this review had to be written. When we were leaving the “manager” the same one that mentioned the quesadillas needed no sauce asked us how the meal was, we felt like it was important to tell him it was not as good as we expected, and we were being friendly in manner in real hopes that he would be able to improve the place. We explained that we had lived in the US and this really wasn’t what we expected as we understand true American food. He shot us down with a reply “THIS IS CHINA”, in a defensive arrogant manner. Giving the impression that because we are in China it is ok to serve BAD food at HIGH prices. As a foreign man managing this place, we expected much more than this sort of an answer. As a person in the service industry he should know better. You cannot improve a place if you don’t wish to listen to people that are spending their time after paying high prices to tell you how they really feel and hope you can improve. We were extremely disappointed in the food, the prices, the environment and especially the manager.
We would defiantly not return to this place, neither will recommend others to this place, and feel the need to let others know as well. Should the manager have been more courteous and not quite as arrogant as he was and offered an apology we would have felt better.
The overall experience left us with such a bad taste in our mouths and minds that this would be a place we would recommend to someone as an Aprils fools joke.
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Gooooooooooood
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We need books, all kind of foreign language book, especially english language book about South American culture, we love to have it...if you have any spare book, please donate to our bar--Southern Belle. We will treasure you big half liter ice cold Draft Budweiser beer...uhmm...
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New Eats | Lust for Barbecue
An elegant Southern house has sprung up in Shanghai and, of course, we’re bound to notice. While other friends admired the antique style lamps and wrought iron décor on the restaurant’s expansive patio, our eyes were glued to the stainless steel grill, bright orange spice rub and confident grill man.
As soon as we got comfortable on Southern Belle’s plush sofas, we smelled the delicious barbecue (available weekends) and began drooling as our portion of charred, well-seasoned Cajun chicken (¥60) with Bourbon BBQ sauce, arrived at the table with a side of chunky Southern potato salad and luscious grilled vegetables. Next up was our burger–200 grams of fresh, medium- rare beef grilled until juicy then stacked with a cut of sweet onion, tomato, Swiss cheese and lettuce plus sides. It wasn’t the best burger we’ve ever had in Shanghai, but it’s top 10 material. The Louisiana shrimp gumbo (¥50), a plate of rich, tomato-y stew filled with okra and vegetables around an island of soft rice, was tasty enough, but skimpy on the shrimp and the spices. The most confounding dish of the night was our pastrami po’boy (¥60)–literally eight meager slices of spiced pastrami stuck into a cartoonishly big round of rye bread instead of the sourdough baguette listed on the menu. The bread was of a good quality, but we were looking for a sandwich. We’d go back again–for the barbecue.
Alphonse Stahl