These are unusual times, and the state of affairs can change quickly. Please check the latest travel guidance before making your journey. Note that our writer visited pre-pandemic.
More insider guides for planning a trip to Shanghai
With its international influences and 20 million trend-loving denizens, Shanghai has no end of fabulous places to eat. Start your day fuelling up alongside locals on fluffy dumplings stuffed with juicy meat and vegetables at a local diner, lunch on aromatic bouillabaisse and crusty-buttery bread at a rustic French bistro, and eat dinner at one of 34 Michelin-starred restaurants. Loosen your waistband and get started with these suggestions from our China expert Lee Cobaj.
The Bund
The Chop Chop Social Club
Chef Paul Pairet’s multi-sensory dining experience offers one of the most exciting meals in the world, but at £465 per head, and with bookings needed months in advance, it’s only going to be for a lucky (minted) few. But Chef Pairet has a new more affordable concept: The Chop Chop Club, one table with a couple of dozen hot seats and a blind shared menu (expect the likes of côte du boeuf, charred turbot, oxtail teriyaki) popping up at Unico nightclub every Friday and Saturday evening. Post-feasting, the lights drop, the music is turned up and the partying begins.
Contact: 00 86 21 5308 5399; unicoshanghai.com/ccc
Nearest metro: East Nanjing Road
Opening times: Seating at 9.30pm
Prices: ££
Reservations: Essential
M on the Bund
Having been around for nearly 20 years, M on the Bund is something of a Shanghai institution, and the kind of place you would bring friends to really show off the city – and perhaps spot a celebrity (M’s guest list includes dozens of big names, everyone from the Danish royal family to Henry Kissinger to Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry and Quincy Jones). M’s menu draws inspiration from around the world, with the crispy suckling pig with poached apples being a favourite, but the biggest draw by far is the restaurant’s beautiful roof terrace and its unbridled views of The Bund.
Contact: 00 86 21 6350 9988; m-restaurantgroup.com
Nearest metro: East Nanjing Road
Opening times: Daily, 6.30am-10.30am, 12pm-2.30pm, 3.30pm-5.30pm, 6pm-10.30pm
Prices: £££
Best table: On the terrace
Reservations: Recommended
• An insider guide to Shanghai
The Nest
The red-brick Art Deco Rock Bund neighbourhood is home to super-hip restaurant, bar and lounge The Nest. The lift opens onto slick mid-century modern interiors; light woods, cappuccino leather chairs, curvilinear lines and what looks like a giant glowing slinky toy suspended above the bar. The menu sways more towards seafood – grilled Canadian lobster, clams with pasta, ink black calamari – but there are enticing options for carnivores and vegetarians too. Or you can just come here to hang out and drink your way through an extensive collection of Grey Goose cocktails. Try the White Night, blending vodka, vermouth, maraschino liqueur and lavender syrup. It’s all very smart, but also welcoming, unlike a lot of establishments on the Bund.
Address:6/F, 130 Beijing Dong Road
Contact: 00 86 21 6308 7669
Nearest metro: East Nanjing Road
Opening hours: Daily, 5.30pm-1am
Price: ££
Mercato
The beautifully restored heritage building Three on the Bund is home to several elegant eateries with high ceilings, arched windows and wonderful Bund and Huangpu River views. Celebrity chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten helms the kitchen at always-buzzy Italian restaurant Mercato on the sixth floor. The menu is simple and perfectly executed; crunchy and gooey wood-fired pizzas, tangy rigatone with chunky meatballs, summery lemon mascarpone layer cake with basil gelato. It pays to book ahead, especially if you want one of the window tables, but for such a slick set-up the prices are surprisingly reasonable.
Contact: 00 86 21 6321 9921; mercato-international.com
Nearest metro: East Nanjing Road
Opening hours: Daily, 5.30pm-1am
Price: ££
Reservations: Recommended
Credit:
Jackson Zhao 2011/Jackson Zhao
Jing An
Fu He Hui
Chef Tony Lu heads up four fabulous restaurants in Shanghai, including Fu 1018, Fu 1039 and Fu 1088, but, for me, Fu He Hui is the most impressive of them all. The tasting menus here are based on Buddhist vegetarian cuisine, which have been taken to nirvana-like levels of perfection: glowing amber mushroom broths served in glass beakers; flower-shaped balls of taro seeded with salted egg yoke; and crispy webs of deep-fried batter inserted with purple taro. The zen interiors – black, white and grey slate floors, artfully lit antiques – add to the sense of ceremony.
Address: 838 Jiangning Road
Contact: 00 86 21 3980 9188
Nearest metro: Jiangsu Road
Opening hours: Daily, 12pm-12am
Price: £££
Reservations: Essential
Credit:
brando!
• An insider guide to Hong Kong
Yang’s Dumplings
I find it difficult to walk past a branch of Yang’s Fried Dumplings without nipping in for a cardboard box of big fat sheng jian bao. These pork-filled pan-fried dumplings are a classic Shanghainese street food dish, similar to Shanghai’s more well-known soup dumpling xia long bao but with a thick puffy bread wrapping, a crispy base and a sprinkle of sesame seeds on top. The broth inside is boiling so the key to eating them is to gently bite off the top and slurp out the soup, cooling the juices before going in for the full munch.
Address: 2/F, 269 Wujiang Road (multiple locations)
Contact: 00 86 21 52797001; xysjg.com
Nearest metro: West Nanjing Road
Opening hours: Daily; 10am-10pm
Price: £
Credit:
(C) 2014 Paul Rushton ((C) 2014 Paul Rushton (Photographer) – [None]/bushton3
• The best hotels in Hong Kong
Sui Tang Li
When travelling in Shanghai, I generally find that Cantonese cuisine is a poor imitation of what’s on offer in Hong Kong but not so at The Middle House Hotel‘s Sui Tang Li – which means happy, free and relaxed – where each and every dish wows with the freshness of ingredients, ingenuity and precise cooking techniques I would expect from Hong Kong’s top chefs. Delicate quail egg siu mai dumplings are crowned with scallop and black vinegar pearls; patties of turnip cake are laced with Iberico ham; and there’s a very luxurious version of ‘beggar’s chicken’, slow cooked with rare mushrooms and abalone. Sichuan and Shanghainese dishes also feature, and there’s a tip-top wine list.
Contact:00 86 21 3216 8068; themiddlehousehotel.com
Nearest metro: West Nanjing Road
Opening times: Daily, 11.30am-2.30pm, 5.30pm-10.30pm
Prices: £££
Reservations: Recommended
• The best things to do in Hong Kong
Former French Concession
Oha Eatery
The foodie buzz in Shanghai is all about izakaya-style kitchens, a kind of Japanese gastro-pub serving small dishes in a cool but casual atmosphere. One of the most popular joints is Oha Eatery, a tiny 22-seater shaded behind a pretty coffee stall in the Former French Concession. Kiwi chef Blake Thornley heads up the kitchen which focuses on food from the mountainous southwestern province of Guizhou, an area known for its yellow mountain cows, unusual fungi, spices, herbs and leaves. Try the off-puttingly named Moldy Tofu salad with honey and pickled radish and the slow-braised lamb with lemon pepper.
Contact: 00 86 136 2164 7680; ohashanghai.com
Nearest metro: Changshu Road
Opening hours: Daily, 11am-2pm, 5pm-10pm
Price: ££
Reservations: No reservations
• The best free things to do in Hong Kong
Cuivre
The French may have withdrawn from the cooperative agreement with China in 1953 but the influence of their century-long settlement still remains, most apparently in the number of Gallic expats that still flock here and amount of bistros that litter the city. My favourite is the always-welcoming Cuivre. The iPad menu puts a modern spin on southern French cuisine –perfect for a winter night – such as cappuccino of black truffle and white bean soup, grilled chicken in tarragon sauce, divine crème brûlée. The design is à la mode, with arty bamboo walls, low lighting and bicycle seats fashioned into bar chair.
Address:1502 Middle Huaihai Road, Xuhui
Contact: 00 86 21 6437 4219
Nearest metro: Shanghai Library
Opening hours: Wed-Mon, 6pm-10.30pm
Price: ££
Reservations: Recommended
• The best restaurants in Hong Kong
Pudong
Yong Yi Ting
Yes, it’s a splurge but the Mandarin Oriental‘s flagship restaurant Yong Yi Ting is the place to find some of the most sophisticated local cuisine in the city. The service is flawless (not always a given at even at the finest restaurants in China) and the interiors are stylish and atmospheric, with white carved wood screens, frosted-glass booths and a cloud of white ceramic lanterns floating across the main entrance. But it’s the food you will remember – light, citrusy mandarin fish, more-ish braised boneless beef rib in soy sauce and hickory, succulent pork and crab meat ‘lion’s head’ dumplings.
Contact: 00 86 21 2082 9978; mandarinoriental.com
Nearest metro: Lujiazui
Opening hours: Daily, 11.30am-2.30pm, 5.30pm-10.30pm
Price: £££
Reservations: Recommended
