All you need to know about dining out in Shanghai

There’s never been a better time to dig in to Shanghai’s culinary scene, whether you’re partial to a Michelin-starred morsel or a fusion blend zhuzhed up with obscure, even titillating, ingredients. While ‘now’ is definitely Shanghai’s moment, its restaurants have always been humming hot spots interwoven with international influences. And the last few years have seen legions of award-winning chefs race over to put their stamp on its most illustrious dishes.

The city’s geography has certainly played its part, says chef and co-founder of Shanghai’s Michelin-starred Obscura restaurant, Simon Wong. “The food scene stands out partly because Shanghai has always been such an important port. It’s the Chinese city with the largest number of foreigners, and chefs have become accustomed to using international ingredients to develop dishes unique to its residents. This has created a stage that is incredibly open to new things – the boldest and newest concepts are always tested first here.”

Taste buds alight yet? Read on for our carte du jour of the best Shanghai has to offer.

Best for fans of tasting menus

Taian Table
Taian Table, which has three Michelin stars, is helmed by German chef Stefan Stiller, whose legendary eight-course tasting menu changes every six weeks. The menu is a great example of Shanghai’s culinary diversity – Stiller’s speciality is European-Asian fusion cuisine, and the most popular dishes include garam masala with yoghurt gelato and scallops with karashi (Japanese mustard). Arrive in good time: this tiny restaurant is tucked inside a nondescript Changning office block and is easily missed. There are only a handful of tables, although we recommend taking a seat at the counter surrounding the small open kitchen.

Best for Cantonese cuisine

Jin Xuan
Jin Xuan is easy to find – it’s on the 53rd floor of the Ritz-Carlton Shanghai, which is adjacent to Pudong’s sky-scraping Oriental Pearl Tower. Executive chef Daniel Wong is passionate about Chinese ingredients and techniques, and highlights of the tasting menu include deep-fried oysters with broad bean paste and steamed yellow croaker with soy milk and Chinese wine. Various teas – including a delicious Guangdong oolong tea and a dried tangerine white tea – are served between courses. Keen to score some brownie points? When your server pours your tea, thank them with a two-finger tap, using your two middle fingers to tap the table. The gesture, practised throughout China and known as a kowtow, is said to date back to the Qing Dynasty.

Best for street food

Shanghai Old Street/Shanghai Chenghuanmiao
Full disclosure – this isn’t a single restaurant but an entire street. It’s where you’ll find the Shanghai Chenghuanmiao (City God Temple), which dates back to the Ming dynasty and is the city’s finest example of Taoist architecture. But there’s another reason visitors flock here, and that’s the food. The ancient buildings lining this narrow street are home to some of the city’s best restaurants, including many serving up cheap and cheerful street food staples such as steamed buns, walnut cookies and fried rice cakes. Feeling brave? Consider a post-prandial visit to one of the street’s baijiu specialists. This potent spirit is made from fermented grains such as sorghum and flavoured with ingredients including rose and peach.

Best for décor

Bao Li Xuan
You’ll find Bao Li Xuan at the Bulgari Hotel, next to Shanghai’s former Chamber of Commerce, a historic building that dates back to 1916. The menu is all about traditional Cantonese cooking, and executive chef Bill Fu is a huge fan of Shanghai’s sheng jian baos – pan-fried pork buns. “They’re a staple snack here enjoyed by people of all ages from morning to midnight,” says Fu. “They also inspired Bao Li Xuan’s signature dish – the pan-fried beef bun.” The décor here is breathtaking, whether it’s the turquoise silk wallpaper or the hand-drawn sketches of various gemstones handpicked from the Bulgari archives. For a nightcap, head to the oak-panelled whisky bar that adjoins the restaurant. A top etiquette tip? If your host proposes a toast (gānbēi), clink the lip of your glass with the bottom of theirs – it’s a nod to their superiority.

Best for regional Chinese cuisine

Obscura
Obscura’s founders are chefs DeAille Tam and Simon Wong. After stints heading up various Shanghai restaurants, they fine-tuned their knowledge of regional Chinese culinary techniques with a lengthy research trip around the country, before opening Obscura in 2020. A year later, it bagged its first Michelin star. Expect seasonal cuisine from all over the country – recent offerings include Hunan spicy beef and Dongbei sliders with red wine – and a menu that changes regularly (it’s dictated by China’s lunisolar calendar). “Every region has recipes that get lost in the modern age, and our menu constantly evolves as we discover ingredients and flavours,” says Wong. We’re also huge fans of Obscura’s space-age décor – think planet-like chandeliers and a curved, illuminated counter weaving around an open kitchen.

Best for fusion cuisine

Phénix
Phénix is a restaurant tucked inside Jing’an’s PuLi Hotel and Spa. Executive chef Ugo Rinaldo’s offerings are best described as eclectic – he’s heavily influenced by French cuisine, but there are plenty of nods to Asian delicacies, whether it’s the scallops with black truffle and dashi jelly or the frogs’ legs cooked in Jura wine and served with morel mushrooms from Yunnan. Rinaldo is famous for seeking out lesser-known ingredients (a caviar produced in Sichuan is a recent example) and believes his dishes should look as good as they taste, an example of which is sea urchins served in their shells.

Best for xiao long baos

Din Tai Fung
Taiwanese restaurant chain Din Tai Fung specialises in Chinese cuisine – more specifically xiao long baos, the steamed dumplings you’ll see throughout Shanghai. There are now more than 100 branches in 14 countries, but the brand hasn’t let standards slip. We recommend the one at Pudong’s International Financial Centre, which is also a shopping mall, so you can offset your indulgences by exploring four storeys of shops. Make sure you stop by the restaurant’s glass-walled kitchen and watch the chefs churning out Din Tai Fung’s famous baos – each one requires 18 folds and must weigh 21g. The encyclopaedic menu also lists everything from Shanghai-style seafood to various types of wontons, although xiao long baos are the star of the show. If you don’t mind mixing things up, try the ones filled with molten chocolate.

Best for the view

100 Century Avenue Cantonese
You’ll find this restaurant on the Park Hyatt Shanghai’s 91st level, and the menu’s just as stunning as the view. Expect Cantonese staples such as double-boiled fish maw alongside lesser-known delicacies such as pigeon soup, marinated fungus with Sakura shrimp and boiled gorgon (a type of water lily). Executive chef Young Yang recommends the wonton soup. “In the early 20th century, the Shanghainese coined the term ‘chai pan wonton’ to refer to the tiny wonton stalls that relied on wood-fired cooking techniques to produce paper-thin wonton skins,” says Yang. “Our chefs preserve this classic cuisine by making the pork filling fresh every morning, before combining it with a chicken broth that has been simmered for 12 hours.”

Best for meat lovers

1515 West, Chophouse & Bar
Steak aficionados are well catered for at 1515 West, Chophouse & Bar at the Jing An Shangri-La, Shanghai. It’s the only Shanghai restaurant to serve Mayura Wagyu beef M9, which comes from Australian cows whose feed contains chocolate. The result? A steak that is both buttery and nutty, with a silky, juicy texture. Other highlights include the Black Angus Wagyu M5 beef, produced exclusively for the restaurant by a Queensland ranch famous for its grain-fed Angus cattle, and the deliciously simple grilled lamb chops. Diners can choose from an eye-wateringly wide range of seasonings and sauces, including Maldon sea salt, rosemary sea salt, mustard seeds and black pepper sauce.