One of the last restaurants to open in the Mega Center in la Paz was  a Japanese style restaurant called Shangri La. Located above the main food court hall and next to the VIP cinema section  this sleekly decorated place is aimed at the more upmarket crowd.

Upon entering the first thing that strikes you is trendy styled Japanese theme and also the sheer size of the place, often emphasized  by the fact that it can be quite empty. Overall it looks quite nice but the background noise of the food court below can ruin the atmosphere they are trying for.

Service is attentive and apart from the paper placemat menus you are also provided with an ipad with the menu in photo format which is cool (if your impressed with gadgets) if a little gimmicky. The menu itself is reasonably large containing various sushi, rice and noodle dishes , with fish being a staple ingredient in many options. There are some veggie options but it is limited.

One advantage when the restaurant is not so busy is that the food was served quite fast so it is perfectly possible to fit in a meal quickly before going to watch a movie if you don’t have much time. On the other hand the food, whilst not bad, was not going to make you tell your friends it was a place they have to go to. Our starters, a kind of mushroom and cheese crepe, where overly salty and the main course portions where on the small size, especially for the price paid.

Overall Shangri La offers reasonable food but many will consider it to be overpriced .At around 50bs per main course people will expect more and  the fact there is often a lack of customers  may be telling. It will remain to be seen if this place can stay open as rents must be high for the location , although the face that they serve food to the customers inside the VIP cinema lounge might just help they survive.

Would we go again? Yes at a push probably  , but only if with a group of others that suggested it and we where in the megacenter anyway