On a recent Saturday night I spent my first evening at Cotton’s.
It must have something to do with the fact that I’m not single that I’m still pretty much a Shanghai nightlife virgin or maybe I’m just old.
I enjoyed myself so much, thanks to the many Gin Tonics, that we decided to have brunch there the next day. The Sunday weather was sunny so the garden made for an excellent spot.
Cotton’s Food
European Classic Brunch- 65
Basket of croissants, dark bread, French bread, and toast, butter, jam, honey, Gruyère cheese, Ementaler cheese, Meat Platter and yogurt (inc. a coffee)
It’s more than enough to satisfy you for breakfast as well as lunch. A real brunch in that sense. The bread was a little to enthusiastically toasted. The ham, salami and cheese were generous. More butter makes it even better.
Prime beefsteak – 88 Rmb
A big steak that went down well. They forgot to ask us how we wanted it, and well, we forgot to tell them. A bit more medium would have made it even better. Accompanied with French herb butter/ baked potatoes or french fries, salad
Tea – 30 Rmb – refilled with hot water
An apple cinnamon tea. Getting additional hot water is no problem.
Coffee – 20 Rmb
Served with a can of hot milk.
Ice water – Free
Nice and indeed very cold due to an abundance of ice cubes
Cotton’s Service
A mixture of expats and [tag]Chinese[/tag] waiters/waitresses. Very friendly and accommodating.
[tag]Cotton[/tag]’s Toilets
It’s always the toilets. Not much wrong with it as far as cleanliness goes.
The lock on the door was broken but they promised to fix this. (I went there last night and although a week has passed the lock is still broken.
I know this is [tag]China[/tag] but but my concept of privacy goes beyond blocking the door with my shoes. FIX THAT LOCK) The sitting part is not very spacious but has the upswing of a view on banana leaves. Water pressure from the tap is very light
Cotton’s Environment
An old villa, it seems I only go to old villas these days. This old French villa, dating back to the 1930’s, is nicely renovated with a great terrace surrounded by trees and flowers.
Overall impression of Cotton’s
A very nice spot for having your brunch on a sunny autumn day. Non-intruding music, good simple food and service.
Totally Spent
Time : 3 hours
Money : 223 Rmb
Cottons [tag]Shanghai[/tag] Address
132 Anting Lu / Jian Guo Xi Lu, Shanghai
(right on the corner)
Tel: +86–21-64337995
Daily: 10am-late
Other Reviews to average the experiences:
Disclaimer: All opinions are biased, based on non-existent food knowledge and influenced by the mood of the moment.
In [tag]Shanghai [/tag]Outdoor and Indoor lcd and led advertising is Wild West. There don’t seem to be a lot of regulations or maybe nobody is enforcing them. Each possible surface, whether it’s moving or static is seen as a potential target.
Buses, subways (stations) and taxi’s have small lcd screens. Screens in elevators have 20 seconds to grab my attention, at least when it’s not too crowded. Shopping in the supermarket, I’m exposed to more screens in the supermarket, as if I wasn’t there already to buy. 
On the ring road big led screens intend to distract the drivers with flashy ads. It’s one big experiment ( I’m sure I still left out some other forms, like gymnasiums, office buildings, hotels, banks, golf clubs, hospitals, and so on) and causes sound and vision pollution. On the other hand I like it that they dare to experiment no matter if it will proof to be effective or not.
The traditional Greek drained plain yogurt sauce that has to be right in a Greek restaurant. Luckily it was and there were complimentary pita pieces and 3 small rolls. Why 3 when you are with 2 is probably a Greek riddle.
Toilets
Environment