2 New Restaurants: Yaya's Pasta and BoCa Latin Flavors

Two new openings! Pasta bar Yaya’s for fresh, handmade pastas paired with creative China-meets-West sauces, and gut-busting comfort food at Colombian-Venezuelan restaurant & bar BoCa Latin Flavors. Plus, both restaurants also do delivery!

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For Pastafarians

Yaya's Pasta Bar

Address: 329 Tongren Lu, near Nanyang Lu

Tel: [phone]
Hours: Daily, 12pm-10pm

A year of pop-ups comes to fruition. New in Jing’an is Yaya’s, a pasta bar churning out fresh strands of bliss, finishing them with sauces peppered with Chinese flavors and ingredients.

Yaya's is in a gem of a location, tucked down an alley on Tongren Lu, right behind Shanghai Centre. There’s even an outdoor space, which they’re currently sprucing up with additional seats. Inside, it’s small and cozy with the bar counter and open kitchen taking center stage.

There are a couple of tables, but it’s not much, which is why you’d need a reservation for more than five people. On busy nights, it’s bustling with diners at the counter, and as the hour grows late, more imbibers join in turning it into a bar-like atmosphere. 

L-R: Andrew, Dan, Mike

It’s brought to you by creative powerhouse team chefs Andrew Moo (Le Daily) and Dan Li (formerly Bird), and designer Mike Liu (Lucky Mart). Yaya's first set up shop inside X Bar on Donghu Lu in July 2021, followed by a spattering of appearances around town. (Yaya's actually opened in March for only but a week before the city went silent.)

The fresh pasta room

The food, as they so boldly put it, is not “like your nonna’s” cooking. Yaya’s marries Chinese ingredients with al dente pasta, borrowing from popular Chinese regional dishes and flavors to mix and match. The mapo tofu lasagna is the ne plus ultra of their concept. 

Burrata (¥88) with a roasted bell pepper base tinted with cured lemon, and topped basil. Can’t go wrong with burrata, and the mildly spicy bell peppers adds a nice twist. Served with sourdough bread.

Anchovy (¥48) – Sharp, pickled anchovies with sweet Guizhou “red sour” and dill. A great, simple starter.

Arancini (¥48) stuffed with cheese and mushroom served with roasted garlic aioli. Bite-sized comfort food. Good for aperitivo. Be sure to get all of that aioli.

Mortadella Spiedini (¥48) skewers of oven-baked mortadella topped with gremolata with guindilla green chilies and house-pickled cauliflower.

Fussiloni Pesto (¥58) with peas and house-made ricotta. They’ve managed to sneak in green peppercorn oil, too, which adds a very pleasant layer of aromatics to the dish. Vegetarian.

Carbonara (¥68) with a hint of green peppercorn, topped with a dusting of salted egg yolk.  

Pappardelle (¥68) with splashed chili and confit egg yolk. This is actually inspired by Shanxi’s famed biang biang mian, made with extra-wide fresh pasta splashed with house chili oil.

Excellently smooth noodle texture and suitably spicy chili oil. It’s also vegetarian. 

Mapo Tofu Lasagna (¥88) – An ingenious twist on lasagna. Chunks of silken tofu with a fine ragu seasoned with the distinct numb and tingly mapo tofu spices between sheets of pasta.

Tagliolini (¥78) with blue mussels, chili oil, and pangritata (herb-laden breadcrumbs). This is my favorite pasta here. Fresh, velvety tagliolini in a very buttery cream sauce brightened with lemon juice, tossed with poached mussels. It’s heavenly. 

There’s also a chicken parm (¥68) on the menu and other dishes to share.

Chill-Out Fruit Tea (¥28)

As for bevvies, there’s drinks on tap and simple cocktails, including beers, negroni, Aperol Spritz, G&Ts, and a nitro espresso martini, ranging from ¥38-68. House wine is ¥58/glass, ¥260/bottle, plus more bottles on display.

Pricing is honest, great value even. The pasta portions aren’t massive, but they’re not small either. You could easily split three pastas between two people, or four pastas if you’re really hungry and skip the appetizers. Great pastas, nice vibes—go eat there.  
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Colombia + Venezuela

BoCa Latin Flavors

Address: 595 Wuding Lu, near Xikang Lu
Tel: [phone]
Hours: Daily, 11:30am-2am

BoCa Latin Flavors is a home-style restaurant and bar in Jing’an that serves heavy-hitting Colombian and Venezuelan comfort food.

It's named after the capital cities Bogotá and Caracas, and is a joint effort between first time restaurant owners David Pastor (Colombia) and sisters Reyna and Diana Vieira (Venezuela).

The space is homey, if not simple. When BoCa isn’t churning out deliciously gut-busting food, the dining room turns into a club of sorts on the weekend with Latin music, a DJ, and plenty of dancing late into the night. There’s also a lofted lounge, mostly for shisha.

Food from Colombia and Venezuela is quite similar; after all, the two were once a single nation. But there are distinctions, which are clearly stated in the menu. It's mostly a cornucopia of heavenly deep-fried bites and meat-filled cornmeal cakes. Vegetarians don’t be dissuaded—more than 50% of the menu is vegetarian-friendly.

Without further ado, sink your teeth into these:

Colombian Empanadas (¥48/four) – Crispy pockets of delight stuffed with feta and mozzarella, chicken, ground beef, or Zrou. These are made with corn flour and yuca flour, making the empanadas crunchy and airy. Recommend the ground beef.

Venezuelan Tequeños (¥45/four) - In short, fried cheese sticks. What’s not to love? Recommend the sweet guava filling, a fruity jam that pairs well with the cheese.

Pastelitos (¥48/four) – This beloved Venezuelan street food is made with a wheat-based dough, which gives the fried pastry a nice crust with a chewy center. Recommend the chicken, mildly spiced and extremely juicy.

Sample it all with the Detodito (¥168), which comes with three each of empanadas and tequeños, two each of pastelitos and mini cachapas with cheese, yucca chips, and sweet plantains.

Mini cachapas

Cachapas, also known as the corn arepa, is a thin gluten-free pancake made with fresh ground corn. It’s pan-fried, then blanketed with cheese, and can be stacked with a multitude of toppings. The traditional cachapas are jumbo-sized when compared to the mini versions. One regular-sized cachapa is a meal in itself. It’s a Venezuelan breakfast staple, but can be eaten for any meal.  

Mini Cachapas Sampler (¥88/three) – Guacamole and shrimp, shredded beef, chicken and avocado.

Chicharron Cachapa (¥98) – Mozzarella cheese, deep-fried pork belly, pico de gallo, and smoked pepper sauce. This is a special kind of dirty-in-a-good-way comfort food.

Crispy Chicken Cachapa (¥88) – Also recommend is the crispy deep-fried chicken thigh with house chipotle sauce and slaw salad. Good lord.

Toppings for the cachapas can also be done with arepas, which range from ¥35 to ¥68.

Bandeja Paisa (¥138) – This dish highlights some of the best of Colombian food on one plate. It's also the country's national dish.

It comes with Latin-style chorizo, deep-fried pork belly, ground beef, red bean stew, green plantains, sweet plantains, fried egg, avocado, and a mini arepa, served with rice.

The next time I need a hangover cure, I’m 100% ordering this.

Asado Negro (¥108) – This on the other hand, is a less aggressive main. Roasted beef served with Venezuelan traditional black sauce served on mashed potatoes with sweet plantains.

For dessert, try the Coconut & Pumpkin Flan (¥45). This quesillo or flan is a traditional Venezuelan dessert that’s sometimes made with pumpkin. It’s rich and thick, much like the other dishes on the menu. 

Personally, I loved the cachapas. It’s filling, made purely from fresh corn, and pretty nutritious if you don’t count the oil and skip the chicharron. Plus, the empanadas are some of the best I’ve had in Shanghai. 

Colombian and Venezuelan cuisine in Shanghai is underrepresented, and regrettably so. It’s not the kind of food for a healthy diet per se, but damn does it scratch that comfort food itch.

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