If you’re ever feeling a little Asian’d out like we were, Shanghai Centre is definitely a place you’d want to check out. It’s located near the intersection Nanjing Road West and the North South Highway. The complex is a huge building consisting of luxury hotels and apartment units. At the bottom is a mall, a theater, and plenty of food options. The two places we decided to check out were Element Fresh, a small chain specializing in western cuisine, and Paul, a French pastry shop.
Element Fresh
Element Fresh was a welcome sight for us. The staff there is well versed in English and the facilities were all modern and clean. I had been craving a meaty sandwich for a while so I ordered the Warm Italian and Amanda decided to go the healthy route and ordered the Grilled Primevera Salad. The Warm Italian was everything that I expected in an Italian sandiwich: piled high with deli meats and topped with a nice thick layer of melted cheese on top. There were some greens in the sandwich that helped give the sandwich a slightly crispier texture. Amanda’s Grilled Primevera salad on the other hand was pretty much the opposite of what I got. The salad was made of some mixed greens and topped with grilled slices of eggplant and squash, thin slices of parmesan, and drizzled with some balsamic vinaigrette. The prices for each item were slightly higher than what we had typically been paying with each dish coming in around $10 USD. If you’re feeling thirsty, a bottle of soda will cost you about $4 USD. It definitely isn’t cheap eats and I’m not even sure if I would consider it worth the price, but it definitely provides a reprieve from Asian food if that’s what you need 
Paul
Paul is a small pastry shop that’s also located within the Shanghai Centre complex. It’s conveniently located right next to Element Fresh, so I would definitely suggest skipping the dessert menu there and hopping to Paul to satisfy any cravings for sweets that you might have. The place is very fancy looking and offers plenty of seating. It also has a standard cafe offering and even has a sit down menu but we didn’t get a chance to look into those.
Amanda and I were both pretty full so we only tried the chocolate eclair and the gourmandise. Both pastries were freshly baked so they were nice and flaky. The eclair had a healthy amount of chocolate and is an easy recommendation for anyone chocolate lover. Something we had noticed while we were in China was that sweet food, whether it be chocolate or a Frappacino, were more muted in flavor. I was glad to see that these pastries weren’t lacking in the chocolatey-ness.
[...] Shanghai Centre [...]