Triple Five Shanghai
Pho House
Tucked away in the basement of the SML Centre alongside a hundred other quick-eat and snack food outlets, Pho House serves up simple plates of wholesome Vietnamese staples.
Shanghai's best Lobster Bisque
There's nothing that can invigorate the essence of decadence more than an expertly presented Lobster Bisque. Here are three of Shanghai's best offerings
Ride: 100km from Suzhou to Lake Taihu
70 million years ago a meteor hit China 100km west of where the world's largest city would be. It filled with water, got connected to Beijing by the world's longest man-made canal and then pumped almost entirely full of the byproducts of industrial progress.
Rolling Shanghai to Suzhou
100km across some of the world's flattest terrain between some of the world's fastest developing infrastructure.
Shanghai Rides
Shanghai goes further than the French Concession. Much much further. Check out these rides for a few hours in the saddle and a slice of China Antitourism as the destination.
Pistacchio
Shanghai is starving for pockets of varied and reliable dining experiences. With new tenants in the area, Pistacchio finally puts Ferguson Lane on the map as a viable high-level neighborhood option.
Shanghai is starving for pockets of varied and reliable dining experiences. With new tenants in the area, Pistacchio finally puts Ferguson Lane on the map as a viable high-level neighborhood option. Set in an impressively renovated space, their tasteful split-level dining room offers modern Italian cuisine at a price. Following a loosely five-course arrangement (the [...]
Tucked away in the basement of the SML Centre alongside a hundred other quick-eat and snack food outlets, Pho House serves up simple plates of wholesome Vietnamese staples. Their bowls of pho (¥28 small, ¥35 large) are not going to blow anybody’s socks off but at this price they’re an honest offering of silken rice [...]
There’s nothing that can invigorate the essence of decadence more than an expertly presented Lobster Bisque. Let’s be honest, they’re in the realm of the hotel (where else will have 20kg of lobster shells on hand?) and so here are three of Shanghai’s best offerings: CHAR | The Bund Char’s lofty dining room is dark, [...]
For clean and tasty shawarma in a cozy and considered environment, Jojo is a simple answer. It’s a small and tastefully presented café / bar with a gyro machine up front and a focus on the good stuff. Jojo’s good stuff comes in the form of shaved slices of doner chicken tossed in shredded salad, [...]
70 million years ago a meteor hit China 100km west of where the world’s largest city would be. It filled with water, got connected to Beijing by the world’s longest man-made canal and then pumped almost entirely full of the byproducts of industrial progress. Tai Lake is a huge, almost superlatively huge with the promise [...]
Anybody who’s done any kind of time in Shanghai will have been to the water-based peripheral towns of Suzhou and Hangzhou. These quaint second tier cities, gargantuan in their own right (both upwards of 6 million people – the population of London) are a fitting retreat when Shanghai’s streets have become claustrophobic enough to warrant [...]
VUE is the total package. It has Shanghai’s best view, an eloquent dining concept and world-class, wonderfully prepared food. To be honest though, when the first two are put into perspective, VUE could be offering beans on toast. These are the upper floors of the Hyatt on the Bund, perched up around the corner of [...]
Today I rode out the Shanghai International Circuit for F1′s friday practice sessions. It’s no more than 30km away from downtown Shanghai so with the usual tailwind along the Cao’an Highway you could easily get there in 60-90 mins… basically the time it would take to get there on the Metro. Here’s the route on [...]
It looks like the new K11 mall is where the cool kids and young professionals hang out for browsing and nibbles. Azul Urban, up on the fourth floor, is in a strong position to snap up passers-by with light bites and a good drinks menu. Open plan, Azul’s dining area is more lounge than restaurant. [...]
Sometimes when you’ve been frequenting the same restaurant for a while, you get stuck in a rut. You try not to disrupt a winning formula and simply order the same core set of dishes, exploring outward once in a while by ordering a bonus dish or two. Kota’s is a great example: there are pages [...]
If nicely laid out, well-intentioned Western cuisine served in a choice location is enough for success in Shanghai’s gastronomic melee, then La Maison Gourmande has cleared the first hurdle. However, if it must be prodigious to jostle alongside the Anfu Lu heavyweights, then this French bistro needs a far more accomplished offering. It’s difficult not [...]
For damn fine Tex-Mex food in a themed but relaxed environment with great service, Mexico Lindo brings the goods. Situated down the Hongmei Pedestrian Street, they’re serving up a huge menu to the strolling masses, piñata-bashing families and regulars who know their daily specials by heart. On the night we were there it was RMB88 [...]
Here’s a ride through the arm-pit of Shanghai south-west to the Sheshan & Songjiang area and the Shanghai Botanical Gardens. It’s not pretty, not clever and not hard. For a slice of modern-day mainland and an opportunity to soak in all the aromas of light-industry before seeing some flowers (and once awesome garden-feature) then take [...]
Good Turkish food fits anywhere. It goes with grotty back-alleys, lavish dining rooms and now it’s available a few doors down from some of the tallest buildings in the world. Like all self-respecting Turkish restaurants, Efes’ cold starters roll out on a hostess trolley to be formally introduced. You’ll probably end up taking one more [...]
Every so often a build comes around at Factory Five that I love. Actually, this happens quite a lot… we try to steer people away from circus bikes. This is up there in my absolute favorites, assembled around the F5100 frame it packs a heap of top-shelf goodies into an 8kg build. It’s dark, stealthy, [...]
Larder | Australian Now that Shanghai has finally transcended the gargantuan five-star hotel brunch buffet, a bunch of tasteful newcomers to the scene are flourishing. Larder is a perfect example, offering a calm, relaxed way to read the paper and eat a well-composed bite or two on a weekend morning. Their French toast (RMB58) is [...]
A dream I have for when the time comes to depart China is to leave something behind, something I created. I want to feel that my adventure was productive, that I too wore the many hats that people do when they’re away from their families, outside of their comfort zone, forming different rituals and going [...]
Locations for a European restaurant in Shanghai don’t come more idyllic than a converted villa right on the Donghu-Changle triangle. La Faubourg is a pleasant and earnest if not slightly underutilized French restaurant with food that we wish was better than average. It has all the right ingredients: a chic courtyard, elegant dining room and [...]
When someone puts all their heart into a restaurant they’re passionate about, it shows. Paul Hopkins has created Luccio’s, a little Italian restaurant with a worthy menu and plenty of ambition. Here in one of Danshui Lu’s converted terraces a curious if not awkward mixture of Shanghai tradition and burgeoning boutiques and coffee shops. Perhaps [...]
If Hongqiao is destined to be the new former French concession, Geneva has set up shop as the go-to neighborhood bar for an honest pint and a big plate of Western grub. They’re perhaps only a tad early on the not-yet blossoming scene. The sister restaurant of Abbey Road, Geneva has the same solid formula [...]
Everybody has heard of Vegas. We know exactly what’s there. We can see the lights, hear the slot machines, smell the bars and bums and limousines and fireworks. Of all the cities in the world only this one in the middle of the Mojave desert is so comprehensively defined that anybody can tell you exactly [...]
This year I’ve formally penned something in the region of 52 reviews of Shanghai’s new, renewed and most hopeful restaurants striving to make their mark on – or at least make a profit from – the world’s largest city. The latter tells a revealing story. This has been the year I’ve noticed menu prices reaching [...]
Now that the dust has settled from the great Maoming Lu migration, we followed Pane e Vino to its new Sinan Mansions habitat. The result is the same fine Italian cuisine at even loftier prices. Slotting into the new environment adequately, the duplex restaurant, formerly home to Chicha, feels at home in the lane house [...]
The quintessential bierhaus, Brotzeit offers plenty of beer, meat, cheese, potatoes and bread in various pan-German forms. Above all else, here’s a place to take you from ravenous to completely stuffed in 30 seconds flat. Freshly equipped with the Paulaner family of taps, beer proceedings are familiar with light, amber, dark and wheat at a [...]
La Tagliatella is a faithful rendition of an Italian-themed tourist restaurant. It has enough seating to host the mall-walking masses, clichés all over the walls and a wide selection of slightly overpriced, slightly nefarious pizza and pasta. Set in Hongkou’s recently opened Ruifeng Plaza, La Tagliatella’s cavernous dining room is centered by a large pizza [...]
Fifteen kilometres outside the city center in virtually every direction, Shanghai is going strong. No direction is developing as strongly, though, as the east. Pudong is the sprawling, all-consuming younger brother, held back by a swathe of deep water. This is the signature move of China’s population in the 21st century… bolting a few million [...]
When Eduardo Vargas closed Chicha, he told us that Ceviche, a similar concept located just down the street, would step in to fill the void. As its name suggests, Ceviche specializes in plates of citrus-marinated fish. It doesn’t have much else, though its cute lane house and relaxed eating style can be enough of a [...]
Pasha has been serving up Turkish fare over on Nanchang Lu for a while now. With a younger sibling (Garlic) from the same owners now just down the street, we came back for another visit. As a leafy mid-town haven, Nanchang Lu’s lane houses seem a curious fit for a modern Turkish restaurant. Immediately inside [...]
Aside from a cute kitchen, spunky service and an interesting story, a one-dish snack bar must also have good food. It is on this most important point that Potaci falls short. Hailing from the area around Venice, Potaci (“easy snacks” in Italian) serves up thick pizza by the slice. From behind a tiled counter, ovens [...]
Salute | Fuxing / Yonfgu Lu Salute’s idyllic courtyard and bustling deli counter are of a pull of their own. With a plate of mixed cold cuts (RMB98) and a bottle of house white (RMB160 and up), gravity takes on a new form. Supreme cuts of Parma ham, Napoli salami and other high end imports [...]
With a swanky, low-lit interior, simple European menu and extensive wine selection we had high expectations for Julu Lu’s latest restaurant, a transplant from Pudong. Unfortunately it’s let down by so-so dishes coupled with high prices. Antoni offers Spanish cuisine in three courses, preceded by a complementary and pleasing slate of assorted amuse bouche. Starters [...]
T8 is one of those high-end restaurants you’ve heard of but haven’t yet been. As an established, classy, probably expensive restaurant in Xintiandi it’s certainly on the list. ‘One day’ you’ll think. Well the time is now. Behind Shanghai’s firmly bricked aspirations for a modern future, there’s a tender attention to gastronomic detail wrapped in [...]
“Modern, exceptional Turkish cuisine” is not a phrase often used in Shanghai. Now there’s a reason to do so. Garlic is a very welcome addition to an often overlooked part of the dining scene, and everything here works incredibly well. The swanky interior befits a luxury yacht floating down the Bosphoros, but we yearned for [...]
Speaking as a European, European cities are a mixture of awesomeness and awful-tourism. The goodness is there for the finding, whether it’s the Pelle Negro in Barcelona, Broadway Market in London or Batignolles in Paris – it takes hours of prospective research or an inside connect. The first time though, you’ve got to suck it [...]
When I first came to china we met some very unique and fascinating people, forming relationships that would last many years. I’ve the MBA to thank for this. CEIBS is not only a jam-packed cranium (and an expensive phone book) but a chance to understand globally distant people in very accelerated and revealing situations. Earlier [...]
