[Shanghai Girl Eats] Rachel’s
Rachel’s | Dianping
Address: 202 Wukang Lu near Hunan Lu / 武康路202号(近湖南路)
Date visited: 2016.01
Will return: No; maybe on BOGO Tuesday nights
Rachel’s is one of Franck Pécol’s places (Franck Bistrot, Farine, Grains/WIYF) that serves burgers and a few desserts from Farine and Grains/WIYF. I like Franck’s other places — I can justify overpaying for a beef tartare at Franck or a chocolate croissant, cheesecake, lemon & passionfruit tart (I could go on) at Farine, but the burgers at Rachel’s are just not up to par with the rest of Franck’s food.
With that said, there is a buy-one-get-one burger deal on Tuesdays so I think that is probably the only time I would come back to try a different burger. Aside from a discounted deal, I don’t really have any reason to choose Rachel’s over Beef & Liberty or CU2+.
Flamingo burger (RMB80) chicken & duck patty, tomato, lettuce, onion, dijon mustard, ketchup, mayonnaise
Recommend: no
I get the sense Rachel’s serves very bare, minimalist burgers, which would have been okay if the patty had enough flavor to shine on its own but it didn’t. So if meat is not the highlight of the burger, then it better be drowned in toppings, which were on the thin side. Granted, we shared a chicken patty but my accompanying friend who had a beef burger before said the beef patty is similarly tasteless.
Burgers are RMB70-110, which is pretty hefty for a burger I cannot rave about. To be fair, I might come back and try a bacon cheese or fried codfish burger on a Tuesday.
Each burger come with fries or slaw. The fries are much tastier than the burger. Deep fried to a golden hue.
Cheesecake (RMB35)
Recommend: Yes but get it directly at Farine
The cheesecake is from Farine down the street but in half the size. We actually decided to come to Rachel’s because Farine had run out of cheesecake that day and we really wanted this cheesecake. This is probably my favorite cheesecake in Shanghai with an incredible crumb crust.
However, I do have to note that the cheesecake at Rachel’s tasted like it had frozen over in storage so when it was served to us, it was noticeably icy at the center. Definitely better to buy directly at Farine — perhaps fresher too since it flies off the shelf at Farine whereas there is significantly much less traffic at Rachel’s.
Craft ice cream (2 scoops for RMB 50)
Recommend: yes but get it directly at WIYF
The ice cream is from Grains/WIYF next door (Grains is the cafe part, WIYF is the ice cream part). We got salted caramel and chocolate — I like the ice cream texture and flavor but I think it is better enjoyed out of the little window next door for two reasons:
- The chocolate flavor was a bit ordinary without the almond slices and whipped cream it normally comes with at WIYF (which the staff explicitly told us was not available at Rachel’s).
- I also like to have the ice cream on their freshly made waffle cone, which is also only at WIYF.
