Shanghai Restaurants

Sens & Bund
The owners of this restaurant won three Michelin stars for their restaurant in Montpellier, France. If you sit at the enormous round table near vast windows you’ll get spectacular views of the Huangpu River and skyline. The food was exactly what you’d expect from a Michelin-graced kitchen — skeins of black tagliolini with shaved octopus, crisply seared fish with an artistic smear of mustard sauce — but the price was cheaper than you’d expect.
Address Zhongshan Dong Yi Lu 18, Shanghai
Location 6th floor (south of Nanjing Lu)
Phone 021/6323-9898

A Future Perfect
The dining room of this restaurant displays a whimsical paint job and mod furniture that lives up to the restaurant’s name. The menu, however, did not — the fusion fare, with names like Tuna-ba-lula and Thor’s Thunder, was a decade-old concept. The Mary’s Lamb was a simple braised shank, meaty and juicy, but hardly innovative. Still, it’s hard not to have a good time; this was one of those hyperchic back-alley spots that make you feel as if you’re in on a well-kept secret. Plus, it is perfectly cheap.
Location No. 16, (in a lane just west of Changshu Lu)
Phone 021/6247-8020
Azul
Located in the old French Concession area, Azul is a tapas restaurant that offers one of the best Western breakfasts in town. Try the 119-yuan brunch set menu, which will allow you to choose a fresh baby spinach salad, an omelet with basil, sun-dried tomatoes, goat cheese and asparagus, or blueberry pancakes.

Din Tai Fung
This restaurant makes Shanghai’s best xiao long bao, soupy pork nuggets that are Shanghai’s signature snack. Also on its menu are basics like wonton soup, braised bamboo shoots and sweet-smoky fried fish.

Jean-Georges
At Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s glamorous place on the Bund, the food is a little Eastern, a little Western. A single Kumamoto oyster wreathed in Champagne jelly was followed by raw tuna brightened by Thai chili paste. Then cubed raw kingfish with Taiwanese mangoes and chili-lemon granita was utterly irresistible — peppery, sweet and acidic, yellow and orange and red, all at once. A second trio, equally satisfying, comprised crab dumplings with black pepper oil and tiny local peas; seared sweet scallops from Dalian, nestling with clams in a tomato jus; and superbly fresh Azul
Located in the old French Concession area, Azul is a tapas restaurant that offers one of the best Western breakfasts in town. Try the 119-yuan brunch set menu, which will allow you to choose a fresh baby spinach salad, an omelet with basil, sun-dried tomatoes, goat cheese and asparagus, or blueberry pancakes.

Din Tai Fung
This restaurant makes Shanghai’s best xiao long bao, soupy pork nuggets that are Shanghai’s signature snack. Also on its menu are basics like wonton soup, braised bamboo shoots and sweet-smoky fried fish.

Jean-Georges
At Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s glamorous place on the Bund, the food is a little Eastern, a little Western. A single Kumamoto oyster wreathed in Champagne jelly was followed by raw tuna brightened by Thai chili paste. Then cubed raw kingfish with Taiwanese mangoes and chili-lemon granita was utterly irresistible — peppery, sweet and acidic, yellow and orange and red, all at once. A second trio, equally satisfying, comprised crab dumplings with black pepper oil and tiny local peas; seared sweet scallops from Dalian, nestling with clams in a tomato jus; and superbly fresh snapper with crunchy cucumber strips. Vaut le voyage, as Michelin would have it.