Somewhat worthy of our attention in Nanjing this year is ifc. Getting on for 15 years in the making, this is now where the uber rich come to play.
Lokal by Wagas can be thought of as sister to the latter, or perhaps the premium version thereof, as Lexus is to Toyota. And that’s down to Wagas’ becoming ubiquitous in the extreme, stripping it bare of any exclusivity it ever had. Healthy and cheerful be Wagas, Stylish and upper crust be Lokal, at least in their eyes and for the moment anyway.
Cynicism aside, it is truly all the more reason to head over to the still-new ifc Mall in Jianye diagonally opposite One Mall before it’s too late. There, first impressions befit its location, neighboured as it is by other ostensibly-high-end establishments.
We also there find the next piece of good news. Lokal has not fallen excessively victim to the generally-accepted principle in ifc, which is “Put the Prices up”. A lot.
But there are of course drawbacks; Lokal’s attempts at being semi sophisticated do fall flat in some departments. Why, oh why, include pizza and burgers on the menu? That said, we confess to ordering the mini cheese beef sliders (¥68), made a little more avant garde by the grilled beef, cauliflower & sun-dried tomato hummus (¥88), and the roast chicken with roast corn, seasonal salad & slaw (¥78).
We confess too the ice cream and a bottle of white wine, the latter being deliciously dry. Elsewhere on the menu, everything relating to brunch (first time we’ve seen croque madame on a menu in Nanjing) was tempting, even in the early evening.
Then there is the “Power Juice” selection, reminiscent of that from Lokal’s forbearer, albeit somewhat slimmed down, while much the same can be said for the salad offerings.
But as for that chicken, that qualifies as the most succulent west of Shanghai without doubt, while the hummus is indeed similar, and the slaw, yes even the slaw, was standout.
Service though, during The Nanjinger’s visit on 29 August, was abysmally slow, made worse after our early arrival and, to their credit, the resulting later influx of diners, while clearly no instruction had been given to one of our servers as to how to open a bottle of wine.
Lokal is located at L4-12F of Nanjing International Finance Centre at 345 Jiangdong Lu 江东中路345号南京国金中心L4-12室 Tel 19121071395, with another location opening in Deji Plaza in Xinjiekou on National Day.
