We liked Backyard Cafe. We like its successor, Kakadu, even more. After proclaiming that we were going to visit the new Australian restaurant during the Spring Festival holiday, we did as we always do and ended up lazing in bed instead. We finally made our first trip down there, and are happy to report that Kakadu is what this particular diner is always pleased to find in Shanghai: quality uniqueness. We profess to be quite the ignoramuses when it comes to Australian food and culture, so we had some help from the affable Aussie co-owner and manager, who described to us the recent revival in his home country of its indigenous cuisine. Dishes that included barramundi, kangaroo, and crocodile meat were once solely the purview of restaurants and chefs catering to the tourist crowd, but now are blended with the country's superlative produce and spices and other international influences, and have properly been reintroduced and welcomed into the mainstream to form a modern and unique culinary renaissance. more ›