Azul's chic Latino style fused with taste of the Med
Azul boasts a fresh, modern vibe both indoor and outdoor.
Shanghai veteran restaurateur Eduardo Vargas celebrated the 17-year anniversary of Azul by launching another eatery in a new location with a brand new team and a fresh menu.
Azul is now inside a new food and beverage development project — Shankang Li — on the corner of Shaanxi and Kangding roads in Jing’an District. The lifestyle complex is also home to venues including Alimentari Grill, Homeslice and Tap House. The complex itself is a refreshing new dining destination and it boasts probably the largest patio of all the current tenants.
A fresh, young and modern vibe both indoor and outdoor makes Azul one of the nattiest spots in the neighborhood for those who come to quaff and scoff when the dinner bell rings.
Corn and crab
Azul’s new menu takes you on a journey of plate sharing with Latino influences and modern touches. This is all made possible thanks to a talented team of chefs: Eduardo Vargas from Peru and executive chef Will Colmenares from Venezuela, who previously worked as culinary director for Char Bar and Grill at Hotel Indigo Shanghai On The Bund.
The team put together a mélange of dishes perfect for sharing and great for taking photos.
“We made an effort to upgrade the presentations to enhance its aesthetic appeal as the experience of food these days start from how it looks, then how it smells and lastly, how it tastes,” Vargas said.
Vargas says he wanted to differentiate Azul from his other popular restaurant Colca — a Peruvian concept.
“I don’t want to offer a similar Latino experience at Azul. The emphasis here is modern cuisine with abundant flavors,” he said. Different elements from Mediterranean to Latino have been integrated in its food and, as Vargas promised, most of the plates feature a lot of flavors.
Beef explosion
Corn and crab, for example, is a delightful starter, with a base of corn cream mixed with a touch of lemongrass, coriander and shiracha, giving off layers of fragrant flavors. Betun de foie” is another thoughtful dish with a fun presentation in a wooden shoeshine box with treasures found inside. Imagine a foie gras mousse inside a shoe wax tin and a shoe polish tube filled with apple chutney. Each shoe caring kit is creatively used to present the dish as a whole.
Though most of the dishes are newly created for Azul, the classic dessert Peruvian flan has been a permanent resident on the menu since 2003 and will remain so.
Azul is only open for dinner at the moment, but from December, it will open from 8am for breakfast till late in the evening.
Info
Opening hours: 5pm-10:30pm (Tuesday to Sunday)
Address: Central courtyard, 810 Shaanxi Rd N.
Tel: 5670-2666
Average price: 270 yuan
